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An Open letter to Kathy

This is an open letter to my wife on our 15th wedding anniversay. She means more to me than words can say…

Dear Kathy,

On our 15th wedding anniversary, I find that today is an example like so many days in the last 15 years that show an inexplicable love and devotion that I neither deserve nor understand. But, nonetheless, it’s this relationship with you that I treasure more than almost anything in my world.100_2777
For the last 15 years I have been a youth pastor and/or camp speaker with a July wedding anniversary. So, only once or twice in our years together have we actually spent these precious camp dates together. When we did, they were days shared with others, like today.
Today, for our 15th wedding anniversary you drove yourself and our boys all the way to central Texas to spend 3 days with me and about 700 third through sixth graders. Then on this big day you celebrated by:

• getting up early
• packing for two boys, a husband and yourself
• doing most of the heavy lifting because my head was hurting again
• listening to me preach for the 1 billionth time
• working the product table and making change out of campers wet lake water money
• driving a second car 8.5 hours home
• making your anniversary dinner a burger, fries and peanut buster parfait from Dairy Queen at a truck stop in nowhere Oklahoma
• finally, making the late night unload at the church of all the tech equipment and junk we’d been hauling

Most impressive of all Mrs. Addis was the fact that everytime I saw you today you smiled and hugged and looked for a kiss. Even though many others would whine and complain about their lot in life, you showed joy and love.
It was a day you could rightfully claim as your own, even if you had given up so many others. Surely, the 15th should be special. But, you put your God, your husband and the cause before yourself.
You’ve never looked more beautiful to me. Continue reading “An Open letter to Kathy”

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10, 9, 8, 7, 6….

Ten years.

It’s a long time, or is it?

When you’re in grade school, 10 years may as well be a life sentence. In that context we can’t even fathom how far away recess is. To a third grader, in 10 years they will all be millionaires, cars will fly, and all known adults will be dead and gone (or at least put away in a home somewhere).

To those young adults out there scraping by, raising a family and working your rears off; you see 10 years a little more realistically. In ten years will have the house one-third paid off, all the kids will be in school (oops, here comes another one… surprise, surprise) and we’ll finally be getting somewhere at work… God willing. It’s still in the distance, but 10 years from now is a light at the end of the tunnel.

To older adults (which, by the way, is anyone older than me) they see 10 years in a completely different light. Listen to them talk: “It’s a blink, a flash, a moment, gone before you know it!” They look down the road and say that in the next ten years yours kids will be grown and gone, your money will be grown and gone, and your hair will be grown and gone… hang on to them all while you can.

Continue reading “10, 9, 8, 7, 6….”