In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble, and honor others more than yourselves. Don’t be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too. In your life together, think the way Christ Jesus thought… Philippians 2:3-4

Well the birthday happened. And our grandson David is now a happy fourteen year old. But Rebekah and I are tired!

David and Beks are wonderful and a huge help in every way , and we love Geoffrey so much – but Mr. Four-year-old is relentlessly willful and easily melts down when he doesn’t get his own way. And the last thing either one of us are going to do is give in to preschool tantrums.

Plus I don’t believe I posses anywhere near the patience I had when I was young (and my own children will tell you they didn’t think I had that much back then!).

But we made it through the day, including a really good birthday dinner at the Olive Garden for David.

Anyway, I am literally too rattled in the brain to write with much clarity this morning so I will offer this cool gallery of photographs instead.

The collection begins with the early morning sky, goes to pre-school with Geoffrey, and to the park, then winds up at the Olive Garden for dinner.

One thought:

I will offer this one reflection. We human beings are complex and impossible to fathom. We have everything that we need – especially here in the U.S.A. – yet we are seldom satisfied, we make self-destructive choices, we demand things for ourselves at the expense of others and we constantly hurt people we say that we love.

This is what four-year-olds do… but what of the rest of us?

This is what four-year-olds do and we work tirelessly with the expectation they will learn and grow out of it. But what of the rest of us?

What if we were simply grateful and selfless? What if we recognized how blessed we are? Paul said it in Philippians – in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but to the interests of the others. When we live like that the mistakes we have made and the challenges we face are always infinitely more manageable.

Above all, and regardless of how anyone else treats us, for goodness sake be kind – DEREK