Legacy

We are in the middle of a series at church entitled "Legacy". With our new service we now have a creative team that dreams and prepares with our preacher and they are coming up with appropriate themes for the times and make some neat videos to drive home the point. Mom, Dad, and Grandma Stracke got to see a neat lesson and video last week that was special for Memorial Day Weekend.

Our preacher, Buddy Bell, recently asked me if I knew of a good story of someone who passed down a legacy of faith. I told him I had a neat personal story of my Grandma Miller and he wanted to hear all about it. I told him of having to write a Family History paper in my graduate work 12 years ago and how I got to interview Grandma Miller for 4 hours and learned a lot of neat stories from this woman who had survived and shined in many ways from a hard life. I told him of her sneaking out into the cotton fields to read her Bible and praying for God to give her understanding; of her basically running away from her stepmother and coming to a church of Christ; of her raising 4 boys on her own...etc.

I then told Buddy of feeling moved to write her a letter to thank her of the Legacy she left behind by anchoring herself in Christ. Marcie was pregnant at the time with Easton and I had just read "Anchor Man" by Steve Farrar. Buddy asked if I had the letter and I assured him I did not as I hadn't made a copy of the one I had sent to her 11 years ago. He asked me to look, just in case, as he would love to use the story in the Legacy series. I looked in my old files in my office and saw a "Family History" tab and found the letter! I couldn't believe it. I took it into his office and read it out loud and started crying and hugging on Buddy for support.

The creative team took me to a place that looked like southern Louisiana and they took different shots of me and told me to look "contemplative". They then recorded me reading part of the letter I had sent to Grandma. In Buddy's lesson he's going to set up the video that you can see if you "click on the link below". This is the rough draft they put on You Tube as they are going to show it this Sunday. I thought you guys would like to see it as we are all a part of a legacy of faith handed down from both sides of the family...this just happens to highlight the Miller's side. When you think of the life she went through spiritually, physically, emotionally, and socioeconomically...it puts things into perspective very quickly and directs me to thanking my Lord for the many blessings I receive today due to those before me. Blessings to all! Todd


Click here to watch Video

More of May

We saved Andrew's last gift for Red Robin. Nana, this is what you bought for Andrew...he loves it!
The free sundae is the reason he picked out Red Robin...seriously. I love the cheeseburgers and bottomless fries myself.

The Dugger family visited us this past weekend on their way to the beach for a couple of days. We started off the day at the zoo...

After touring the zoo for a couple of hours, with the turtles and frogs being the Dugger boys favorite part instead of the animals (Ha), we headed to Bass Pro. Thanks Uncle Joe for getting a 4 wheeler for all of the kids for your land! Just kidding.

We went to Shakespeare park after Bass Pro so they could hunt for turtles and frogs for several hours and then went to Jim n' Nick's Bar-B-Q. After that we went to watch Isaac's baseball team play...it was a full and fun day together.

Here is Marcie and her crew on Mother's Day morning. The boys made her cards and we spread 3 gifts to her throughout the day. The boy's really love their Mom!

Last but not least, after Mother's Day, Monday began Potty Training Boot Camp. Owen is doing pretty well so far, but we are waiting for the deuce to go in the toilet. He is so modest here!

Salvation: A Relationship

I thought I would share a devotional I read yesterday that touched me personally...and in my ministry with others.

(John 14:8-10, John 17:2-4)

The word "know" can mean many things from as little as "to perceive with the senses or the mind" to a much deeper meaning of "a thorough experience with."

This knowing, then, is not just intellectual, but a personal, intimate understanding. Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ (John 17:3). Eternal life is having an intimate, personal relationship with God the Father and Jesus the Son. This intimacy with God is what salvation is all about. Forgiveness of our sins is not the point of salvation. This intimacy with the Father is. Of course, Jesus did die to purchase forgiveness for our sins because unforgiven sins block us from intimacy with God. Sin was an obstacle that stood between God and us. It had to be dealt with, and it was. But anyone who views salvation as only forgiveness of sins and stops there is missing out on eternal life.

Salvation was intended to be presented as the way to come back into harmony with God. Instead, it has often been presented as the way to escape the problems of this life and later the judgment of hell. It is possible to get born again with that kind of thinking, but more often than not, people who get saved through that type of ministry view the Lord as someone to help them through times of crisis and not someone to know in an intimate way. Jesus died for us out of love (John 3:16) - a love that longed to have intimate communion with man.

Most non-believers are so occupied with their "hell on earth" that they don't really think or care about their eternal future. They are fed up with religion. They are looking for something that will fill the emptiness inside. Only an intimate relationship (eternal life) with our Father can do that. We need to tell them.

May these words challenge and bless you today!
Todd

Andrew is 6!!

We wanted to give you guys a few shots of our day so far, as most of you know, we like to celebrate and spread the wealth throughout the day. (The pictures at breakfast with Easton and Isaac are special because they spent their own money on those gifts for Andrew) It's been a fun day so far as we got everything done outside before the storms came and we even found a turtle close to the playground. Andrew's little friend is Reese from the Roger's family. We are about to head out to Red Robin and then church. I always take the day off on their birthday, but I still get to teach tonight as that's more fun than work. Andrew's friend is spending the night and I think I hear the animated Star Wars Clone Wars in the background...may the force be with you.

Catching up on photos and events...

We wanted to catch you up on a couple of photos of late as it's been a while since our last posting. We sent several of you pictures via email, but still wanted to post a few. The most recent trip involved Marcie and the boys making the trek to Arkansas to see Grandma Threlkeld and the cousins. The lady looks good to be in her 80's! I had a guys retreat and was unable to make the trip, but that didn't stop Marcie from taking all four on the 8 hour trip. This picture alone shows why it was worth it for her.

Big Daddy had a Go-kart given to him that he had to fix up and the boys had a great time driving it. They had their helmet on Mom, aren't you proud of us!

Don't let the intense focus of Andrew below fool you...after driving around successfully for a while, he ended up nailing a tree and bending the front of the Go-kart. Big Daddy will have to fix it again to make it driveable. Maybe we can change the name Zeus to Jesus on the helmet so He can be a better co-pilot for Andrew next time...ha! (Andrew was fine by the way.)

Thanks for the Easter clothes Mom! Isaac is still perfecting the "no teeth" smile...got a little ways to go there.

Mark and Cole had to stay in Nashville as the rest of the Meador gang came down to visit us for a couple of days. We had a great time with them as the boys have always looked up to and enjoyed the Meador kids. We took them to "Firehouse" subs and got to show them a little bit of Montgomery. They have great kids and Chase was really sweet to little Owen. Owen isn't showing it here, but he loved Chase.

Marcie went upstairs and found Isaac and Madison reading different Bibles together. Nothing really to say here, but to keep it up.

While Chase, Isaac, and I were at the ballpark, the rest of the cousins made colorful Easter eggs...and ate ice cream as you can tell from Madison's mouth!

We have made some new friends in Montgomery who do youth ministry at another c of C. They have 3 kids and we have enjoyed getting to know the Rogers. This is their oldest, Reese. The Rogers brought back these Mexico soccer jersey's from their spring break mission trip.

Lee and Becky left tonight after a 4 day visit. Lee was our handyman doing odd jobs around the house. I invite the emasculation as he loves to help. We enjoyed our time with them and look forward to Nana and Papaw coming soon. May God bless all of you abundantly! The Miller's

Spring Break

Needless to say we had a lot of fun with the cousins in Arkansas as you see in the picture above. Uncle Dane made one wall in the upstairs playroom into a rock-climbing wall. When you build your own house, with the help of Big Daddy, you can do what you want and our boys loved it.

Before we move on to more pictures in Arkansas, we wanted to give props to our friends the Lansdells who visited us right before we made the trek to Arkansas on their way to Gulf Shores. Notice Andrew has the Carson smile going. By the way, we transported our 3 chicks we hatched to Searcy to give to Lee and Becky...they did make it chirping all the way.

Before you see the goat picture below, I wanted you to see the dog Jackson which guards the goats. They have 6 adult goats and 9 kids...I think. The main breeder goat is Abraham (father of many...ha). Jackson is huge as coyotes and mountain lions draw an interest to these goats, but Jackson keeps them at bay. Remember, Big Daddy is 6 foot 3 inches tall. Below are our boys with some of the goats Grandma and Big Daddy take care of.

Dane and Hannah recently got Big Daddy a new dog named Dutchess. She is a border collie and was a lot of feisty fun for the boys. Here she is below warming up Easton after they had been playing in the water for several hours with their cousins. Hey, it was 75 degrees...I didn't get in!

The Fouts kids play well with our kids and had a great time together. It's always fun for Easton to have someone his age to play with and their girls are so sweet. Always a blessing to be together with them.

This is Isaac and his sweet little cousin Allie Kate. Dane and Hannah have chickens at their house that lay eggs for them. As you can tell, our kids get exposed to life in the country on these 180 acres and it's a lot of fun. Thanks for buying the land Uncle Joe!

Yep, that's Big Daddy helping Andrew shoot a real pistol. Don't worry, it was very safe and the boys thought it was very cool. Marcie and I shot it too and got to do some skeet shooting with shotguns later that day on the bluff. For some reason I'm feeling the hankering to go buy some camo about right now.

Our spring break trip came to a close with Nana, Papaw, and Grandma Stracke coming down to see us after we got back from Arkansas. This is the only picture we got when they came down (sorry mom and dad) as we really enjoyed our visit with them. So glad my 85 year old Grandma accepted my parents invitation to see us. She is still spunky giving a good sermon on Exodus 20 and how it still applys to today! See, I'm listening Grandma. We love our family and the different experiences we have with both sides. We look forward to having the Meador and Miller families coming down to L.A. to see us. We'll leave the light on for you!

Spring Awakenings

I enjoy the fact God gives us different seasons in life and in nature to keep us on our toes. Spring comes early in Alabama and I thought you might enjoy the new bloomings of life springing up around here. May God continue to awaken new things to us for His Glory! As with anything beautiful, you have some nasty things that try to sprout up overnight that you have to get rid of...fire ants. Love you guys.