A little behind schedule

Well, as it turns out, I'm behind. No big surprize, but this time I started that way. Laura sent me to a sight yesterday with a checklist of things that we needed to have done by certain points prior to the wedding. Since we're getting married in a little less than 5 months, we're 7 months behind schedule! Of course, this assumes a year long engagement, which I don't know how anyone could survive through, but I guess it's done more often than not. 5 months is just fine for me. We'll be super busy this spring with planning for youth group, school, spring and summer (camp, trips, fellowships, VBS, etc.), getting myself and her moved, honeymoon, and all that is on top of the actual wedding plans!!! *Whew*! I'm excited about it. I don't feel overwhelmed (yet), however, she might be. I just have to work hard to get myself realistically caught up, stay ahead of school and church planning, and then be a good, supportive fiance' to my future wife. It's do-able. I'll keep you posted on how things go.

Proverbs 29:6 says, "And evil man is snared by his own sin, but a righteous one can sing and be glad". Have you ever tried setting a mouse trap and gotten your finger caught in it? In all my times setting those silly things, I am happy (but with great reserve and humility) to say that I have not. I have come close several times, though. I know the thing won't kill me or cut off my finger or anything, but it's unnerving to think about it. While setting the device, my heart races, I'm nervous, extra careful, and borderline impatient. I don't even like setting them off (unless, of course, there is a mouse in it)! I think if we viewed sin in the way I view mouse traps, we would all be a lot better off. Sin is like a trap that we set for ourselves. We know it's dangerous because we've seen what it can do to others. While doing it, if we're not already too hard hearted and jaded, we are nervous, careful not to get "caught", and certainly in some senses impatient. It's not that we simply ought to be careful around sin, but we should avoid it altogether! It's a trap! Satan tries to lure us in with things that seem attractive, like cheese to a mouse, only to have us give our lives in pursuit of something that will kill us in the end. But to be free of that is something to rejoice about! I just remembered the song the mice in An American Tail sang on the way to the US that went: "There are no cats in America". They were filled with hope that they could be free from that threat of death. Even though there obviously are cats in America (remember Fergus, Molly, Tracy's Mr. Spanky), we can still have hope of a righteous life without the traps of sin. We just have to get into our heads that we no longer desire to set traps for ourselves and seek out the Lord and his promises. Until we do, we will live in fear of that next thing that will snap shut with us in it. And our finger prints are on the trap.

Big Deal tonight @ 7.
Sr. High Retreat registration deadline Sunday Jan. 2.
CIY Discipleship Conf. registration deadline Sunday Jan. 9.

Later...