Mary Had A Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb,
His fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
The Lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school each day,
T’wasn’t even in the rule.
It made the children laugh and play,
To have a Lamb at school.

And then the rules all changed one day,
illegal it became;
To bring the Lamb of God to school,
Or even speak His Name.

Every day got worse and worse,
And days turned into years.
Instead of hearing children laugh,
We heard gun shots and tears.

What must we do to stop the crime,
That’s in our schools today?
Let’s let the Lamb come back to school,
And teach our kids to pray!

Where’s Heaven?

So I’ve started praying with Mallory at night before she goes to bed. Usually our bedtime ritual is bath, pj’s, a book and then she crawls in bed and I sing “You Are My Sunshine” to her a couple times. Sometimes she sings with me, some times she just listens. The other night though I started praying with her… mainly with me praying and her just repeating. Last night though, when I asked her if she wanted me to sing “Sunshine” she said, “no”, that she wanted to “pray to Jesus”. Talk about grabbing at a dad’s heart.

So we prayed, and when she’s praying I normally just close with “I love you Jesus, Amen”. Well last night became a question and answer…

Her: Where is Jesus?
Me: Jesus is in heaven with God
Her: In heaven with God?
Me: Yes
Her: Where is heaven?
Me: hmmm… heaven is way up in the sky (best I could do on short notice)
Her: I want to go to heaven and see Jesus
Me: (thinking…) Do you love Jesus?
Her: Yes
Me: Then one day you will get to go to heaven and see Jesus
Her: Ok. Do you love Jesus Daddy?
Me: Yes, I love Jesus
Her: You get to go to heaven and see Jesus?
Me: Yes, I do, we both get to go
Her: Do you love God?
Me: Yes, I love God too.
Her: Do you love heaven?
Me: Yes, I love heaven too.
Her: Does Mommy love Jesus
Me: Yes, Mommy loves Jesus
Her: Does Mommy love God?
Me: Yes, Mommy loves God
Her: Does Mommy love Heaven?
Me: Yes, Mommy loves Heaven
Her: Does Calen love Jesus?
Me: Yes, Calen loves Jesus too
Her: Ok. Sing “sunshine” daddy
Me: Ok baby, You are my sunshine . . .

2009 Franklin Classic – Benefitting Mercy Childrens Clinic

As many of you know, I have the privilege of serving on the board of directors for a local non-profit called Mercy Children’s Clinic. Mercy truly is a fantastic organization centered on providing “Healthcare for all children” regardless of insurance or their ability to pay. What sets Mercy apart is that beyond just fantastic pediatric care and amazing doctors, we also provide family services in the form of counseling and psychiatric care and have recently added Mercy Chronic Care Home, which provides a home and a “quarterback” for children with multiple illnesses and multiple doctors/specialists. We now serve close to 10,000 children from 31 counties in middle Tennessee and surrounding states. You can read more about Mercy specifically here: http://www.mercytn.org/case-for-mercy/

The reason I tell you this is because on September 7th, we will be putting on the 31st annual Franklin Classic, which includes a 5K/10K run, a 4K walk, and a kids run, in downtown Franklin. All of the proceeds for this race go to Mercy and it is by far our largest event and a large part of our funding each year.

I’d like to ask you to join me in helping to raise money for Mercy through this event. You can do so in a few ways:

1. You can sponsor me in my run, by visiting http://franklinclassic.kintera.org/jb (my personal site)
2. You can send this to others and ask them to sponsor me by visiting http://franklinclassic.kintera.org/jb
3. You can “Join My Team” either as a participant in the race, or just as a fundraiser and ask your friends and family to sponsor you. To join the “Mercy Miracle Makers” team, please go to http://franklinclassic.kintera.org/mmm/ (my team’s site)
4. You can start your own team, set a fund raising goal, and ask others to join your team or sponsor you. You can start a team by going to register at http://franklinclassic.kintera.org.
5. Pray for Mercy Children’s Clinic and the children that we serve.

Again, all proceeds benefit Mercy Children’s Clinic, and every little bit truly does count. You can donate as little as $10 online, or you can send me a check made out to Mercy Children’s Clinic for whatever you feel led to give and I can make sure your donation is recorded. Please also feel free to forward this message or webpage to others.

Thank you in advance for your help.