jeff gibson

My Father of the Bride cup

This one's a keeper...

27 Moments in 27 Years (plus one)

Happy Anniversary, lauriegibson!

 

1.  Taking Sara around the lake at the Parmeley’s.  You had on the blue striped swimsuit. 

2.  Coming down to breakfast at Embassy Suites the morning after our wedding.

3.  Hiking the Palo Duro canyon in west Texas.

4.  The apartment in Bloomington.  Cheese and apple slices.

5.  The tomato in the window in the townhouse in Bloomington.

6.  Our first house in Decatur.  You handling the movers by yourself, with me going to work in the morning from the townhouse in Bloomington and going home from work that day to the house in Decatur.

7.  Our many trips to Shriner's Hospital in St. Louis with Justin. 

8.  Our family trip with your parents to North Carolina. Crab cakes, hush puppies, and Ronnie's underwear hanging out the car window.

9.  Courtney, Rachel and Emily running around in the field and falling down.

10.  My birthday gift of the Remington 870. Every guy likes to shoot stuff.

11.  Your endless labor with Meagan.  She had stubbornness even then.

12.  Summer vacations at the lake house.

13.  Being in the New Young Messiah together. Singing backup to Clay Crosse, within spittin' distance.

14.  Our trip to Mackinac Island.  You not knowing where we were going!

15.  Putting in our pool in Peotone and finishing the basement.

16.  The family trip to the cheerleading thing in Minneapolis.

17.  Going to the Paul McCartney concert with me.

18.  The trip to Las Vegas for the New Church convention. 

19.  Watching Kelsey do handsprings at the Peotone High School basketball games.

20.  Endless painting in the house in Surprise.

21.  Our anniversary dinner at Maggianos in Scottsdale.

22.  You giving me my Martin guitar for my birthday gift.

23.  Our trip to Seattle and eating at that seafood place that was out over the water.

24.  The trips to Rock Harbor and Catalyst. 

25.  Going to Huntington Beach and Sea World with the kiddos.

26.  Cindy’s wedding, playing golf with Ronnie with crappy rented clubs.

27.  Standing on the Golden Gate Bridge, looking out over the bay.

 

And one cold, snowy winter night when you said yes.

RT @lauriegibson "In a week's time..."

In a week's time our upstairs AC went out, our pool vacuum died, our van almost didn't start and one of our girls came down with gastro-intestinitis. In that same week's time the sun rose and set each day in a beautiful array of color in the great expanse, babies were born, people discovered Jesus and I was able to kiss my kids goodnight-even if it was by blowing a kiss to Courtney in Fort Collins. Yahwah, Yahweh, we love to shout your name, oh Lord!!! (Thanks Phil Wickham!)

Hear the song:

Phil Wickham - At Your Name

So this is why my pool had an inch of mud last night

 

Proud to be an American.

Here was the scene outside the Gibson home on Sunday night:

(captured by Meagan Gibson)

The most disturbing Prom invitation ever.

Found this hanging from our basketball hoop tonight.  The signs say, "Will you hang out with me @ prom?"

This guy definitely will get the "pull the shotgun out from behind the couch - 'so you want to date my daughter, huh?' treatment."

Kelsey, we're going to have to talk about this one.

"The Greatest!" A Guest Post by @lauriegibson

 

“I am the Greatest” - Mohammad Ali…Well I don’t want to be disrespectful, Mr. Ali, but God has a different version of what “the Greatest” might be.

We have all heard it or read it and it is known as “the LOVE chapter.” And I know all of us MOMs are very familiar with this chapter as it contains the key verses for this year. That’s right; I am referring to 1 Corinthians 13.  And it’s a great one!

This chapter begins by telling us that our spirituality, faith, wisdom or generosity needs to be founded and motivated in love or it is pretty much pointless, even worthless. That is so true; it feels so fulfilling when I have taken part in a great deed because I really want to make a difference and share love with others as opposed to when I have done something out of obligation or begrudgingly.  It’s the difference between “get to” and “have to”.

Once the need for love is presented, God goes on in verses 4-7 to let us know exactly what love is NOT and what love IS. It seems as though we are so familiar with this section that we thoughtlessly read off the words as if they were a part of our grocery list. We make them words on a page instead of really experiencing the impact of what it would look like if we really lived out our “love” this way.

In the following 5 verses, God tells us how there are some things that will come and go but there are a few things that will stand the test of time. How currently we only see in part God’s amazing plan, but someday we will know Him and His plan fully-can’t wait!

While I love the teachings in the first 12 verses of 1 Corinthians 13, it is the final verse that intrigues me: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Did you ever wonder why these three remain or why faith is not greater than love or why hope doesn’t trump them both?  Why exactly is love “the Greatest?”

Look at faith: without it there would be no Christianity, no Christ following, no believing even though we can’t see. That is crucial to our walk with Jesus. Faith is so valuable. Without faith we cannot come into a relationship with Jesus, we couldn’t be obedient in our walk, even scripture tells us we cannot please Him without faith (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is what keeps us true to our relationship with Jesus. It motivates us to be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1).

Speaking of hope, it is closely tied to faith but takes it a bit farther. Hope is what keeps us going when life seems overwhelming; even impossible. Hope is that expectation that we all have that somehow, someday, we will…… Can you imagine a life without hope?  Hope is there for the single mom who wonders how she will make it through another day; wondering how the bills will get paid, how will she have enough energy to meet the needs of her children and herself.  Hope is what we cling to when we are in the hospital waiting for the surgeon to bring a report. Hope is what encourages us for the future of our lives and the lives of our children. Hope is a gift from God that brings us joy right in the middle of very difficult circumstances. Hope is what reminds us that Victory is on its way. God wins!

I would not want to attempt to live without faith and hope and yet in spite of how incredibly important, amazing and life-changing these two are, they pale in comparison to love. The Bible confirms this. And I think I have discovered why.

Without love there would be no need for faith, and hope would not exist. We were a bunch of ungrateful sinners running around on this planet. God could have just left us to suffer our own consequences, but He couldn’t. Do you know why? Because He LOVED us too much! He LOVED us so much that He couldn’t stand that thought of us wandering around aimlessly with nothing to believe in, nothing to cling to. So what did He do? He sent His son Jesus to die for us. “For God so LOVED the world, that He sent His one and only son. That whoever believes in Him (faith) will not perish but have eternal life (hope).” John 3:16

This is why “the greatest of these is love”, because without love, nothing else matters. It is the foundation on which every good thing in life rests.  The Message Bible calls this love extravagant love.  Extravagant: exceeding the limits of reason; lacking in balance or restraint, extreme or elaborate. This is how our God loves us. He wants us to experience His extravagant love.  Isn’t that the greatest?!  Sorry Mr. Ali!

Reminder to Live Life

In our hundred mile an hour world, we need the constant reminders to slow down and appreciate what's important.

I just spent a week with my wife's family, as we all gathered together in Omaha to say goodbye to her brother, Ron Dudley, who died unexpected at the age of 50.  Ron left a wife, Jenna, and two sons, Graham and Ben.

It was said more than once that Ronnie had lived more life with his boys in their few short years than most people do in a lifetime.  A slide show at his funeral showed many pictures of Ron in action with his boys. In the few short days around the funeral, as cousins and aunts and uncles showed up, we all commented that it was too bad that it took this to get family together.

I was additionally blessed to have a small group that rallied around us.  When Laurie called me with the news, I was three hours from home in a car with my small group guys.  They turn right around and instead of having a full weekend at Central's Men's Challenge, they drove me back home, then got up early the next morning and drove back up.

Family and friends.  Thanks, guys.

On this hot and sticky Midwest day in Arizona...

...this is alI the grass I ever want to cut.

 

Apparently I'm older than I think I am...

My youngest, Kelsey, goes to her first prom: