The Forty Day Project: Day 1 of #40Days

• After Noah got all the animals on the boat, it rained forty days.
• Moses was on the mountain forty days and got the Ten Commandments.
• The Israelites spied out Canaan Land forty days.
• Goliath verbally abused Israel's soldiers forty days.
• Jesus fasted forty days.
• After the resurrection, Jesus remained with his disciples forty days.  Then he ascended.

I don't expect rain, stone tablets, the promised land, a dead giant,  to be offered the whole world.  But I could handle some time with Jesus.

Let me explain The Forty Day Project.

Sometimes, when God speaks, he makes himself clear.  No question.  Other times, he drops hints; makes suggestions, like a sign over a business you pass every day on the way to work.  You learn the name of the business, but if the name doesn't include what they do, you really don't have a full understanding.  You don't have much info.

I've been passing a sign.  It's a neon sign that flashes "Forty Days".  I think God put the sign there.  I've slowed down to get a better view of the sign and its surroundings.  The building beneath it looks like a blog.  My blog.  But the timeline is out of order.  I see my children and grandchildren reading my blog.  Studying the pictures and videos to see where they got their own physical characteristics.  Drake got his smile from his dad, Daniel.  Kk's little girl has long curly hair and plays the piano, just like her mom did at that age.

Then the time line skips back to 2011.  There's another dad, someone I've never met, looking at my blog posts.  He has a lot in common with me.  And he finds it re-assuring that he's not alone.  There's a young Christian believer there, too.  She wants to know what it was like for Jilly and me to go through the same junk she's going through.  She wants to know if she's gonna come out the other side and be ok.

This is how The Forty Day Project was born.  I may abbreviate it "40 Days".  At this point I still don't know what the end result will look like.  I think God is urging me to trust Him for it.

Let me speak about my fears and objections for a minute.  I'm afraid that I might blog for self gratification, or for recognition.  I still don't know if I'll even go public with this idea.  Just like anybody else, I only have so many hours in a day.  So I don't know if 40 Days will be worth the time it may take away from my family or my business.  I don't know for sure if I have created this vision in my own mind or if God really did give it to me.

But faith may overcome my fears and objections. 

I want to simply do two things:

1. To love God.
2. To love my fellow man as I love myself.

Will "40 Days" help me do these two things?  I think it could.  If I am able to keep the focus away from me and on God and my readers.  Again, my readers may include my family, my descendants, my friends, fellow believers and non-believers. You are already one of my readers.

Who are you?  Please comment on this post, regardless of when you found "40 Days".  Let me know something about you.  Do you need anything? Encouragement? Prayer? Hope?  Anything that I have the ability and time to give?

That's Day One.  Thirty nine more to go.  Who's with me?

God bless,
Dadofmykids

Something new is coming soon to my blog. #40Days

Happy Birthday Jilly!!!

The whole family is excited about your birthday.  Dinner and treats, followed by Shakespeare on  Market Square.  Fun for all!

I wanted to wish you the very best and happiest birthday of all. 

I love you, Jilly.

Andy

"I would to God you'd just BE Apostolic."

It was Super Sunday, the one time each quarter that all the Sunday school classes came together for a youth service. I led worship at the piano. Bro. Gino preached.

This day would become a turning point for me. Jilly, my wife, was already praying for a change. I was unsure.

Bro. Gino called out a young man who had taken a "stand for the faith". The young man had refused to wear basketball shorts on his college team. He wore warm up pants as a statement of his commitment to the Apostolic faith.  Gino pointed to him as a good example. For those who compromised by wearing shorts or in any other way falling short of the standards of the faith, he exclaimed, "I would to God you'd just BE Apostolic."

I felt as if I was squirming in my seat because I'd been wearing swimming trunks the day before.  At that time, The Brasfield Nation had a boat and a camper on the lake. Naturally, we were outfitted in appropriate attire when swimming, boating and camping.  We did that most weekends, weather permitting.  I thought about my children who were listening to this sermon.

Pride played a part in my nervousness, too.  I had finally reached a level of respect and position at First Apostolic Church.  It seemed like it had taken many years to obtain the titles of Children's Pastor, Substitute Choir Director and other musical opportunities.  Was I ready to give up the prestige for the freedom to wear shorts at the lake?

But it was way more than shorts. There was the exclusive doctrine. Apostolics preach that only those who believe and live by the Apostolic doctrine are true Christian believers. That doctrine was wearing thin with me, too. Each time he said "BE Apostolic", I wanted say, "BE Christian!" Shouldn't the focus be on Christ?  Jilly says it very well: "Be passionate, free-thinking disciples of Christ."

That was the last Sunday for me in the Apostolic church.

Gino, if you're reading this post, I want to thank you for boldly and plainly preaching the Apostolic message that day. You showed me just how far it is from the Gospel preached by Christ and his disciples in the Bible. You gave Jill and me the final push we needed to leave the Apostolic church and further develop our relationships with Christ. We have been set free. I sincerely thank you.

God bless,
Dadofmykids

PS.  To my friends who still live the Apostolic way, I love you all.  I know the doctrine, even taught it to some of you and your children.  The doctrine is flawed.  However, this doesn't mean that we can't be friends.  This post is not an invitation to debate.

Gulf Shores Vacation 2011

Blood, sweat and gears. Yep, we've had it all this week. It's been a wonderful week, too.  I want to recap the week for future reviews and give you some ideas if you need them.

Blood:

Playing Crazy Eights

One of the best parts about this week is that our friend, Milissa, and her two boys were with us from Saturday to Thursday. This is idea number one; have someone go on vacation with you. We've done it many times. Having extra friends or family along makes it more interesting, shares kid-watching duties, gives you more time together.

Levi found a "wife beater" (aka, A-shirt) on the beach. It washed up in the tide.  We rinsed it off in the surf and hung it up to dry so we could ask Jilly to wash it for him. Then Bentley, one of Milissa's boys, came up from a wave bleeding. It was a bad nose bleed. Levi's "new" shirt was the only thing handy to put on it. I don't know where the beach towels were.  Ben was ok after a few minutes.

Btw, nose bleeds can be stopped by pinching the nose shut and leaning forward. I've seen a lot of people say to hold your head back.  That just lets the blood run down your throat.

Our Canopy

Sweat:

We tried something new this year by bringing a canopy for shade. In previous vacations, we've rented the chair/umbrella setup. I like the canopy better. It's less expensive and provides more shade. I recommend you don't leave your canopy set up on the beach overnight. We saw some get destroyed by wind.  I weighed it down with sand-filled milk jugs and the bags for our camping chairs. 

Gears:

Levi picked a little battery operated car at a junk store. It quit working so I opened it up and found most of the teeth stripped off one of the drive gears.  I like tinkering with junk like that.  I realized as I sat at the table working on the car, kids were gathered round looking for tools to fix any little thing.

$2.99 Champion

Here's another idea for you, when the kids get board from being entertained on the beach or at the pool, go out for an adventure.  See if you can find any pawn shops, thrift stores or flea markets.  You'll find some interesting junk, and maybe even a few surprises, like this WWE United States Champion belt for $2.99.

Food:

The best food of the week may have been what we cooked on the grill at the condo. You can't beat fresh charcoal. It may sound like work, but sitting around the grill in the evening shade while meat cooks is better than waiting for a table at a busy restaurant.  And you just can't beat the flavor.

Speaking of busy restaurants, the surprise of the week goes to Doc's Seafood Shack. Their food was delicious.  Servers were great.  And the place was clean. I had fried oysters which were light and crispy.  Five stars also goes out to Lillian's Pizza, just over the Florida line. We've been there almost every time we've come to Gulf Shores. Never a disappointment. But this year we got the lunch buffet. What a treat!

We tried beach fishing for the first time.  The key there was to have enough weight on the line to carry your bait past the surf.  It helps to wade out there too. Just don't wade too deep.  Shrimp worked best for us.  Early morning and evening/dusk are the best times for beach fishing.

Mal Mal and KK

On Thursday, my mom and dad arrived with two of my nieces and a nephew.  It was great to see them all.  The last time we were together, I think, was at Rhonda's funeral. 

One of our favorite things about beach vacation is the relaxation. No schedule. No hurry up and wait. Just good memories with family and friends.

What a great week.

God bless,
Dadofmykids

Father's Day

When my mom's boss showed up with my older brother to pick me up at the "baby sitter's", I was a little confused. At five years old, there was no way that I could have known why my mom wasn't the one.

That was the day my dad died.

The next seven years, my older brothers were the "men of the house". Don't pity me though. As much as I missed my dad, his death and absence from my life helped shape me. I am not happy in the least about his death. But I am ok with it now.

I also see how it lead to many good things in my life. If my dad hadn't died, I would have never met Jill, my wife. If I had never met Jill, I would not have my wonderful family. There would be no Tilley, our biological daughter. We would not have adopted our other kids. Where would they be today, if my dad hadn't died?

Seven years later, my mom remarried. It took me a while to really understand what a great man my new "dad" was. At the age of thirteen, I was not comfortable calling him dad. So I started calling him "Pop", like Lamont called his dad on "Sanford and Son".



Over time, "Pop" set a great example for me in many ways. I owe him a lot for where I am today. 

I have a wonderful and beautiful family.  Today is a good day to be the father of The Brasfield Nation.

God bless,
Dadofmykids.

PS.  I just got an Amazon Link.  Use it to support The Brasfield Nation.  Thanks.

The Easter eggs are on the stove to boil.

There is a lot of tradition in the Easter holiday, both pagan and Christian. I understand that Christians kind of took this holiday over, replacing the original celebration of fertility or something with the celebration of Christ's resurrection.

But we still do the whole bunny thing.

It's easy for the kids to be more excited about candy and fun than about Jesus. But that's normal for kids. I wonder how excited they would be about His resurrection if we took away the fun stuff that has nothing to do with Him. I think kids would have no more enthusiasm over The Resurrection than they do Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is cool for kids because they get two days off from school. But that's about all they get out of it. Everything else associated with thanksgiving is of interest to adults. The main reason kids know what thanksgiving is about is that it's name says it all: Thanksgiving.
Easter doesn't say anything without some explanation.

So thank God for the Easter bunny which makes the holiday fun and exciting for kids. But thank Him even more for Eternal Life.

Six kids on four teams.

I just finished adding the season's baseball schedules into my calendar.  Four schedules in all. We have six kids playing baseball this season, on four teams.

Typical week during baseball.

That's four games on a Thursday evening.  We'll buy lots of Happy Happy Hot dogs.

I use Google Calendar which syncs with any computer I use, plus my iPhone.  By adding Jill to each event, she gets to add them to her calendar too.

Next, I plan to print a simplified schedule with all games listed for easy reference.  I will post that one on the refrigerator.

The new season begins next week.  We have two games on opening day.

I love baseball.

God bless,
Andy

Free Continental Breakfast

Ten or fifteen years ago, I took Jill and the kids with me on a business trip to Atlanta.  We stayed at a nice hotel where they served a free continental breakfast on the third floor.

"Perfect", I thought.  "We will save some money by eating the free continental breakfast."

Our room was not on the third floor.  It seemed kind of odd that they didn't have the food in the lobby.  But, oh well.  It was free.  Right?

At the time, I think we had four kids.  Jill, correct me if I'm wrong.  So you can see why breakfast was a big deal.  Little kids get very hungry in the mornings.

I figured it out near the end of our stay.  The third floor was the "Executive" floor.  The free continental breakfast was supposed to be for those executives who'd paid extra to be there.

When we got home, Jill told her uncle Greg about my success with what became known as "The Free Continental Breakfast".  I don't know how many times Greg teased about it.  I would have thought he was mad at me if a family get together had gone by with some mention of The Free Continental Breakfast.  (BTW, today, Greg is having surgery to remove some tumors from his brain.  Please pray for him and the family.)

Today is Riley's birthday.  This story reminds me of when he was little.  He was such a good baby.  We called him 'Wonder Boy".  I am very proud of Riley.  He is still such a good person.  He is pictured above with Tilley, when they were younger, obviously.

Days like this make me thankful to be a dad.

The day's line up included three baseball practices, starting at 9 am. That's early for a Saturday.

We made the first one just in time. We had to push a little though. Levi had to change out of his pj's after we got here.

We went to Goodwill between practices one and two, to find a baseball glove for Asher. Success!! In addition to a glove, we bought Kk some cleats, a bat and a helmet for the three Yankees, and a pair of sandals for Levi. All for less that twenty bucks.

A quick pit stop at home for some lunch.

While the Yankees were practicing, the other kids asked me to play ball with them. By the time we were bumped off a previously vacant field, we had quite a pick-up game. The whole gang moved to another empty field where I snapped this photo.

I now am sitting in the grass with Kk, watching the Yankees and typing up this post with the breeze cooling me off.

There are plenty of chores that I could be doing at home right now. In fact, I feel a little neglectful of the house. But spending the day like this will pay off. The payoff is kinda mysterious yet simple. Simple: memories, closer relationships, exercise. Mysterious: unknown future events, unforeseen influence, no regrets in case of tragedy.

If I was not a dad, maybe this day would be much less fulfilling. I don't know. I can't say for sure.

Practice number two is almost over. We'll be back later for practice number three.

God bless,
Dadofmykids