That was sad.

We talked about words sticking to you today and I had the kids tell me one name that they had been called. I wrote the words all over my arms. Just seeing all of it and knowing that these are the words that will stick to them forever...it is just really sad. Some parents surprisingly thought the words written all over my arms was funny. However, if you take what was written on my arms and wrote it on your child's arms I think that all you would see is the pain that these children are feeling. These words are words that will stick to them forever.

I challenge you to look at the picture above and feel the pain your child is feeling. All of these words that you see are most likely written all over your child's heart. Please look at the image and see how serious and how heart breaking this really is.

Peace and mercy,
Brantley

Shhh

One of the things that stands behind me camouflaged in the dark, is a collaboration of words; that over the years have been collected and collectively determine the way I feel about who I am when I get ready every morning. I have been called stupid more times than I can count in French and as such my daily struggle is more against myself and those words than the people I am attempting to prove wrong.

Loser. Fat. Ugly...Words.

These are the things in life that matter. The things you cannot see, smell, taste or touch, but feel. You feel these every day and though it was not intended to last a lifetime - a word can.

The way it lives, the way a word thrives is off of our sticky skin. God created us with sticky skin. (One thing to keep in mind is that Satan creates nothing, only perverts what God has created.) It allows us to say positive things to one another, have those words stick and help build us up every day. However, the opposite also sticks and often times lays over the positive words, so that all we can see is the negative.

James 3:5 talks about how the tongue, such a small part of the body, makes such a big impact. We need to control that and control our words so that we do not continue sticking negatives on people constantly. Instead, this week your kids will practice saying nice things (not just I like you or your cool but real thought out nice things.). We have got to learn to start sticking positives on each other and stop leaving people with more negative words than when they started talking to you.

Peaceful words and Love,
Brantley

wow

We had 6 new kids in Kidz Live this morning! That was awesome. I think they may have come on a bad Sunday because unlike my blog I did not talk about my best friend, I talked about my sister. I have three and one of them cut off all contact with us and I have not seen or heard from her in over 10 years. (I ended up crying in front of the kids) However, I think it was pretty impactful on the kids.

August 3 is the start of our new program that is going to rock! Encourage your kids to bring friends.

Love and Peace,
Brantley

Forgiveness

I had a best friend once.

I knew everything about him and he likewise knew everything about me. He lived about three minutes from me and we would spend almost every afternoon together. Our favorite things to do were play on the trampoline and write music. We went to the same church, we talked the same way and we made the same facial expressions.

It was weird.

I never had a brother, but he was the closest thing I ever had to one. I loved him like a brother and he loved me the same. Our moms were each other's moms.

It was nice.

It was nice knowing that no matter what I was going through; who I was dating or who I was breaking up with - he was there for me.

Best friends forever...

I am hoping that you have had a friend like that in your life at some point and you can relate to what I am saying. Once you have that kind of bond, that kind of brotherhood or sisterhood - you don't want to lose it. But I lost mine.

Day after day of seeing your best friend and it just ends. It dies. It died.

No "goodbye." No "see you later." Just end.

He wanted to do everything I was going to do. He lacked imagination. He lacked ambition for his life. So, when he suddenly said he wanted to be a pastor just because he thought it was the "right thing to do" - I called him on it. I totally did not do it the right way, so I apologized and apologized. I wrote him an apology letter. But no matter how much I admitted fault, he could not bring himself to forgive me. The best friendship I had ever had came to an abrupt end because he refused to forgive.

In Mark 11:25 Jesus commands us to forgive one another. I am to forgive him just as much as he is supposed to forgive me. I could be way off with this, but I think God wants us to forgive because He does not want to see good things come to an end. Pride severs the thickest of bonds and forgiveness can strengthen the weakest of them. We are told to forgive one another and as such, your children will learn that tomorrow morning.

Blessings and Forgiveness,
Brantley

Holy Crap My Wife Is Hot

Hannah just went last night to some kind of hair studio because she had a gift certificate. She got her hair cut and colored dark brown. They straightened her hair and she looks ridiculously hot!

Peace and Fun,
Brantley

But God Theology

As some of you know, my beautiful wife and I have been in the process of buying a house. (Internet shout out to her because while I am busy trying to get school work, work and church done she has been cleaning and packing....she's awesome.)We had finally gotten through the loan process; all of our I's were dotted and T's were crossed. We had one final phase to wait on before we could close and that was the appraisal. Well, it happened yesterday and the house appraised for a considerable amount less and as a result, right now we are unable to buy the house. The sellers would either have to come down on their price or the appraiser would have to change his mind. Neither of which look to promising. However, nothing is beyond God's control.

This was supposed to be a great move for us. This was supposed to be our blessing that we had been waiting for. This was supposed be done within this week and us move in next week.

This sucks!

But God is sovereign.

The whole But God Theology is this: Not faking the reality of pain, but in the same breath realizing that God is sovereign. God has perfect timing. He knows the future. Yahweh is in control.

Hear this. But God is made up of two parts, both of which are reality. The first reality is pain. God is omniscient, he knows everything about us. So, why, in a painful situation would people try to lie and say, "Everything is just so wonderful and praise the Lord?" God is big enough to handle your non-understanding - that is why He is God. It is okay to say "life sucks," or "this sucks." Those statements just have to be followed with "But God."

The "But God" is the second reality. It is the reality that we do not know what is best for us or for God. In life, God is going to get glory. He will see things point back to Himself. If that means not giving you what you wanted because you can point to Him better from over here - He is going to stand you up over here. If that means that someone has to get sick or even potentially die for Him to get glory, that is what will happen.

We have such selfish natures that we cannot see beyond the "things" in our lives. We have no panoramic lens, only our zoom. We need to anticipate movement from God in every situation and not just leave it at a rhetorical "God why would you do this?"

Sometimes you can look for the good in things, but always look for the God in things.

This sucks right now thinking that we may not get this house, but God is sovereign and He knows what is waiting for us three months from now.

Grace and Peace
Brantley

Directions

Coming from the church, take a right on Towne Lake Pkwy. Go down the big hill and at the traffic light, turn left (you will see a wachovia on the left if you are sitting at the traffic light.). Turn left at the next light into the Terraces. You may have to use the call box. our last name is Johnson. take the first left when you are in the complex. We are in building 400 appt 103. you have to go down stairs to get to our appt.

Another Late Night

Well it is 11:30 and I just got done with some school work. Hannah is sound asleep and I wish I was too. However, if I laid down right now, my mind would still be racing with ideas for Kidz Live, thoughts of work, thoughts about school, what needs to get done for Sunday morning, sermon ideas and so forth. I feel like I have to trick myself to stop thinking. If you are ever talking to me and I seem like I am not paying attention 100%, it is probably because I just got an idea for something or I am thinking about my next step/task. Sometimes that is an awesome attribute to have and other times it is awful. It can be draining on Hannah when I am going a hundred miles an hour and she wants to tell me about some roses she stopped to smell. I have to figure out a way to turn my mind off because I am always thinking. "I can make this better," " I could do this in that order," "this would be a cool idea," "I wonder if I could do that" and "what is God doing or is He going to do next?"

That is something you can pray for me on, God help me harness my mind.

Peace and Joy
Brantley

Put On Love: Serve Them

Colossians 3:12-14 is our focus scripture for this series.

The first week we learned how love was kind of like an old comfy t-shirt that we are supposed to put on everyday. The first aspect of that love was what we called common courtesy. We opened doors for each other, picked up stuff that people dropped and practiced saying "please, thank you, yes sir, no sir, yes mam, no mam, hello and have a good day." Simple stuff, I know. These are fundamentals that are getting missed and simply not used.

This week we are looking at the second aspect of what it looks like to put on love. We are talking about serving. (Parents if you liked what your kids were doing for you this past week, you are going to love this.) Luke 12:37 says that we should gird ourselves to serve and wait on the people at our table. As I looked deeper into what it really meant to "gird himself to serve," it actually gives a picture of someone putting on a belt.

In other words, we as Christ-Followers are commanded to serve people. The Jewish culture viewed hospitality and service as one of the highest codes of moral conduct. Some Rabbis taught that hospitality/service was more critical than your service to God.

Putting someone's needs before our own is so ridiculously important for Christ-Followers and yet it is so hard to accomplish. From birth, we learn that if we cry because we are hungry, we will be fed. If we cry when we need to be changed, we will have our diaper changed. We are taught to let others have a turn playing after we have already had enough time playing first. Am I the only one who heard, "You have played with it long enough, now let him play with it"? We are, in a way, taught to be selfish from the get-go.

That's why this week at dinner your kids will be serving you and whoever you have over first and then they can get their own food or drink after they have completely served everyone else. These kids need to learn how to not be selfish and how to put the needs of others first. They need to learn how to buckle the belt of service on a daily basis.

Love and Service,
Brantley

Waste a night?

What happens if you waste a night? If you forget to say I love you before your family goes to bed? If you get wrapped up in what your doing and not who your loving? If you don't do the little things because they are - little?

What we do changes history. Every word that comes out of our mouth is frozen in that moment in history. We can never get a single word or a single moment back. We could apologize for that one time we said that one thing that hurt that one girl's feelings. We could apologize for the time that we did not spend time doing what the people in our lives wanted us to do with them. We can apologize, but we cannot get that moment back.

That second is gone.

That minute no longer exists, except as another memory of a time we could have spent making a difference in a life or in a relationship and chose something insignificant over something little. We need to spend our time wisely on this earth because you will never get -

a minute back.

What you do matters. Every second matters. Every word matters. Every night matters. Don't waste a night.

Love and Little Things,
Brantley

School

If I could get everybody's prayer for me, that would be great. I have about seven more months of college left, as long as I don't mess anything up, and I am so burned out. I just want to be done and to be quite honest, sometimes it is really hard to motivate myself to just buckle down and get it done. My problem is that I love to study. However, I only love to study what I want to study at the time. These classes don't always fit in with what I want to study at the time. It is all great information, but I long for the day when I don't worry about what needs to be turned in.

If you would like to e-mail me a prayer, that would be great or even stop me at church. Thanks for all of your prayers.

Peace and contentment,
Brantley