Return to Extremeness!

This month, I finish up a series on prayer with what should be the area of smallest significance, but somehow it always ends up taking up the most time of our prayer lives. I have already covered the areas of Praise, Thanksgiving, and Intercession. Now I will finish up with a thought on Personal Needs. We all have them and we all need God's help in our lives. But is this typically the only reason we come to Him? He does like to hear other things from us besides "Please give me" and "I need." It's fine to ask God for things, but is this what we focus on? I have heard it said "Don't ask God for THINGS - ask for wisdom and guidance and His will and His kingdom and then THINGS will be added to you." I guess I agree with this, but I think its OK to vocalize your desires and needs too. Sure He knows what you need, but still ask Him. I don't see him answering a lot of specifics that are of your own will, but He will answer according to His ultimate plan for your life. In short, ask God for your daily bread and wisdom of how to make it through, but don't let this be your entire communication with God. 

August is here and SM has been on the internet for a year - where does the time go. I had an awesome time at CBA last month by seeing lots of old friends and meeting some new ones as well. I saw a lot of music artists and authors that helped to refresh me and renew my drive for promoting Christian products. A big hello to all of you that hung out in my hotel room and a thank you for those that held front row seats. I think that Stephanie Parrish even got a little bit of the CBA bug in the one day that she visited us there. I must say again that CBA week has to be my favorite week of the year. After getting home and even up until now, I am up to my head in stacked up work. I guess that's what happens when you go away. 

I had to defend my straight ways recently. A couple of days ago, I was with Ben at the grocery store in the ice cream aisle. We were browsing the flavors and trying to decide what to get. Two young couples came up beside us and one of the guys pointed to one of the brands remarking "That's so gay." For whatever reason, Ben immediately replied "No, that's very good actually." I had to back Ben up because I agreed with him, but then I got to thinking - here we are two males reacting to someone calling this ice cream gay. So I had to act quickly and add that we were also getting ice cream for the girls at home.

On that note, here are a couple more jokes that I have gotten recently via email that I thought you would enjoy:

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A man called the phone company to complain about his listing in the
directory. "I told you that my last name is Sweady," he said, "but you
have it listed as Cyirwu."

"I'm sorry, sir," the phone-company rep said, "I'll fix it so it'll be
correct the next time we publish the directory. Now, how do you spell
your name?"

"Just like I told you before," the customer said, "It's S as in sea, W
as in why, E as in eye, A as in are, D as in double-u and Y as in you."

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Three blondes had just bought a can of Pepsi One and were anxious to try
it for the first time.

So the first blonde opens the can, the second blonde pours it into three
glasses.

The third blonde eyes the three glasses suspiciously and says "I wonder
which one has the calorie?"