There's a first time for everything

I was excited when my mom informed me last night that our Friday trip to Six Flags was being moved to today.  I haven't been to the park in about a year (Due to a then 4 year old who wouldn't find following me around all day, roller coaster after roller coaster, appealing). So this was great!  There is something about roller coasters.  I love them!  What can I say?  My soon to be 12 year old sister, on the other hand, does not.  Until today, she had been fine with the "little coasters".  Much to my dismay, this choice often left me riding alone.  But today, my friends, was the day, she had dared herself to ride at least one scary roller coaster.  She even posted it on Skype with hopes that her buddies would keep her accountable.  After about the first 30 minutes of being there we located the roller coaster of choice, the Boomerang!  We got in line (A long line at that, no thanks to spring break) and waited until it was our turn.  After about 25 minutes in that dreadful line, we crossed a certain point and I took it upon myself to inform my sister that now.. there was no turning back.  She was getting on the roller coaster if I had to drag her kicking and screaming.  She gave me an amused smile and the wait continued.  Finally! It was our turn.  While most people prefer the front of the ride, I raced to the back.  (If you've ever seen the Boomerang, you'll understand)  The back gets the highest drop, and you know what this means.. more drop- more butterflies!

Well,  human emotions can change in an instant!  We were buckled in and the sloped ascension began!  On the way up I made sure to remind the happy go lucky 11 year old next to me that the drop was steep.  (Just to make sure she was prepared) And she just smiled in bliss. "Oh boy" I thought, "She has no idea".  We soon reached the top and without warning.. It dropped!  Well, her smile vanished and was instead replaced with continuous screams of "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" throughout the entire minute long ride. While she continued to scream I just smiled, but not with a look of  I told you so!  Because frankly, I didn't really tell her so. I rode with a look of contentment.  After a few turns, being dangled upside down and riding backwards, the ride came to an abrupt halt.  All three of us exited and headed out, occaisonally stealing glances at the poor people still waiting in line and deciding whether or not the ride was actually worth the wait.  We concluded that yes, it was.  Sydney turns to me, hugs me and says "Thank you Conner, I love you!".  Remember what I said about human emotions and their capacity to change quickly?  All in about five minutes, Sydney goes from hating me to loving me.  Awhhh! Well I guess that's what amusement parks are for! Right?  And like I said, There's a first time for everything.

When Two Different Worlds Collide: A look at Love

love  |ləv| (n)-  An Intense feeling of deep affection.

The other day I had the pleasure of going to the Daily Grind for some coffee and blogging (The Daily Grind is a small coffee shop in Boerne, for those of you who do not dwell here.)  And as I was sitting there I was confronted with two different scenarios.  At one table in the small coffee shop sat a family of three; a mom, a dad and a teenage boy about 15 or 16.  they talked together and they prayed together.  From what I could see, they seemed very close knit.  My writing was interrupted by another table in which a girl sat with her father.  She yelled at him while he tried desperately to settle things without too much disruption.  She wouldn't give him any chances to talk, and when she did, she quickly interrupted him.  After about 10 minutes of this she got up and stormed out, towards her car I figured.

I sat there, overcome with thought and realized that this would be a great blog entry.  But what would be the moral of this story?  I couldn't figure it out.  So I pulled out my trusty Macbook and quickly typed some things.  I decided I'd put the blog on hold (Or saved it as a draft, whichever you prefer to say.)  And pray about it.  Well, today is the day of valentines and as I was heading over to the Daily Grind.. Again..  It hit me!

Looking back at those two instances, I noticed that one of the lacked what the other one possessed; love.  Of course, I don't know how that girl actually felt about her father, but at that moment, all I saw was bitterness and feelings of betrayal.   While, in the other family, I could see the Love.   And since today is valentines day, or the day of Love I thought I'd write a few lines on it.  Real Love is a very powerful bond, that is a huge helper in the preservation of families.  But I'm not talking about that kind of Love that only, well, loves for selfish reasons.  I'm talking about selfless Love that allows for sacrificing between people or in families.  That girl wasn't sacrificing a whole lot for her father.  She was overcome with selfish ambition.  Selfish love will eventually bring destruction while selfless love preserves unity.

So with that thought for the day, Hope everyone has a fantastic Valentines Day!

Everything Happens for a Reason.

      A little longer than a year ago I was on vacation, and my father and I were swimming.  'I'll race you' He says. Oh dad, you and your competitiveness.  But of course, I agree, and off we swim. Well, The edge of that pool came a little quicker than I had intentionally planned and *BAM* I crash mouth first into the concrete side of the swimming area. Well this is when  I felt my mouth and realized that half of my front tooth was missing,  and we hurriedly went up to the room. For the remainder of the evening I found it hard to even look at myself in mirror and I repeatedly told myself 'I can't believe this happened' 'This has to be a dream'. Well now a year later my tooth has been fixed and we can go living our happy lives. Well, at least until Jordan smashes her finger in the door. Our lives are of course still happy but at that moment we were only thinking about Jordan. Unfortunately, this was not just another 'smashed finger' that all kids get at sometime or another, this was just a little more serious. Her nail and little of her finger came off.  Don't worry, i'll spare you the rest of the gruesome details. She's fine now, and we are livin life again.


I suppose the point of these two short stories was that everything does happen for a reason, God engineers it that way. The other day my mom read me something from her one of many books. It says that God allows these things to happen in hopes of 'breaking' us, so we will become more dependent on him. These shouldn't be time's to forsake God, but come closer to him.