Camp Devotions, Part 4

Overcoming this World
Jarod Anderson


“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)


Our world can be really frustrating sometimes. How can we live in a world that gives us both nature’s beauty and natural disasters, joy and heartbreak, love and hatred? It seems that just when this world seems good, we see even more of the bad.

In C.S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Aslan has just destroyed Narnia, and taken his people to a new world, one that looks and feels like Narnia, only better:

It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right forehoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried:
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia so much is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”

That’s it! The key to overcoming this world is to live for heaven! Do you long for heaven? Do you think you’ll feel at home when you get there?

Read Psalm 84:1-4, and verse 10.

What does the writer of this song want? What is his deepest desire?

Read Matthew 6:19-21
Take some time to think about your life. What do you really treasure? What do spend most of your time, energy, and money doing?

How would your life be different if your soul yearned to be with God?

Camp Devotions, Part 3

Overcoming Temptation
Jared Altic


Eagles in the wild catch fish in an interesting way. They soar high above and with their excellent eyesight spot the fish far below. Then they fold their wings back and dive, aiming directly at the water, reaching speeds of over 100mph. Then at the last second they spread their wings, extend their talons, and grab the fish. The eagle then takes its catch back to shore.

But Wayne Rice tells the story of an eagle being filmed by National Geographic. This eagle underestimated the size of the fish. When the bird tried to lift its catch out of the water, it found the fish to be too heavy. It strained and struggled but couldn’t fly the huge fish to shore… but it couldn’t let go of it either! The eagle’s talons were too deeply embedded into the fish, trapping the poor bird.

The eagle hit the water, sank below the surface, and drowned. It just couldn’t let go.

Several places in the Bible tell us “no.” Not because God doesn’t want us to have fun, but because He doesn’t want us to become trapped.

Read Proverbs 6:27, Romans 12:21, 2Timothy 2:22

Think of some common temptations this world offers. Which traps are you especially drawn to?

Read James 1:13-16. Where does temptation usually come from and to where does it lead?

An Inconvenient Bias

You have two different positions. One position says that "top experts" claim Al Gore's the-sky-is-falling environment movie is spot-on accurate. The other position quotes scientists who say Gore is barking up the wrong tree and his movie is ridiculous. What is interesting is that the AP stories that support Gore's movie are reluctant to name all of the scientists that lend their support. Meanwhile, the opposition generously lists names and credentials.

An excellent summary of this discrepancy is noted in this Senate Press release. It's short, well written, and to the point.

All Church Cookout

We're having a cookout from 6-8pm Wednesday at the church.

Please remind everyone you know to be there; people easily forget these things. Hamburgers, buns, and drinks are all provided. Please bring a side dish or a desert.

If you want to bring a frisbee or a football to something to throw around, that would be great too!

Provocative Quotes

I've been seeing a lot of quotes and lists of quotes lately, so here are a few that caught my eye. With most of them you're either going to agree or go cross-eyed with anger; no middle ground here!

• "A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel." Robert Frost
• "Republicans believe every day is 4th of July. Democrats believe every day is April 15." Ronald Reagan
• "We can stand here like the French or we can do something about it!" Marge Simpson
• "The nine most terrifying words in the English langauge are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Ronald Reagan
• "Feminism encourages woman to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." Pat Robertson
• "Every immigrant that comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country." Teddy Roosevelt

Camp Devotions, Part 2

Here's the devotion for day two:

Overcoming Fear
Jared Altic


What frightens you?

It may be scary movies or big empty houses. You might be frightened by spiders, heights, water, closed spaces, or even your own shadow. You could even have triskaidekaphobia! What’s that you ask? The fear of the number 13.

But phobias, by definition, are irrational fears. We don’t need to be afraid of bugs, or public speaking, or clowns with big red noses. Our emotions tell us we are paralyzed by these things but they shouldn’t have any effect on us at all!

But there is a real fear that drives both children and adults. It both motivates us and paralyzes us. It’s the fear of rejection and being alone. We are scared to death that people will abandon us and turn away. We don’t want people to think we are weird of different in any way, unless of course we can be weird and different together!

But God has chosen you to belong!

Read Deuteronomy 14:2; John 1:12; Romans 8:15; 2Corinthians 6:18

How does God include you?

If you belong to God and His people, how might other people view you? Does that matter anymore?

Camp Devotions, Part 1

I'll post here the devotions that Jay-rod and I wrote for my week of Church Camp. This is the first one:

Overcoming Brokenness
Jarod Anderson


“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Being a farm kid from the Middle of Nowhere, Kansas, I’ve heard this phrase hundreds of times. It’s what farmers say when they’d rather keep their old, rusty, worn-down tractor instead of buying a new one.

The principle does have some value. For instance, too many times in my life, I’ve tried to “fix” my computer (usually because it wasn’t fast enough, or because I wanted to make it run more smoothly. I usually end up misplacing something important, losing information, and the stupid thing runs worse than it did before I decided to tinker. If I would just leave it alone, I’d probably be better off.

In this life, however, that idea doesn’t work, because we’re all broken.
All of us have either experienced, or know someone who has experienced divorce. We all know what it’s like to lose someone we loved, either to death or separation. An amazing number of people your age have lived through physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. And all of these horrible things leave us broken, with a feeling of emptiness, wondering how we’ll ever be normal, how we’ll ever get through the next day, let alone the rest of our lives. How can we overcome the brokenness that this life brings?

Read Isaiah 61: 1-3.
These words that Isaiah wrote are messianic, that is, they refer to what would happen when Messiah (Jesus) came to earth.
What is the good news that Isaiah is preaching?
What will happen to those who grieve and mourn?

God wants you to know that He cares. He cared enough for you, even in your broken state, that he sent his son to die…for you. And he wants your grief to turn to gladness, and your mourning to joy.

As you pray this morning, ask God to heal your brokenness, whatever that may look like in your life. Ask him to replace your spirit of sadness with joy that is unlimited.

Only God can fix what really is broken.

Random Thoughts 6/26/06

• We took a garden tour at the home of one of our church members yesterday. Some people are entirely too talented when it comes to growing things – most of my success comes in weeds and thistles.
• For years, Macintosh users have had slow startups. You hit the power button and it might be a full minute or more before your computer is actually ready for work. But my new dual core Intel Mac laptop is fast. It immediately loads up the desktop and is ready in seconds. It's kind of nice.
• I've been on tilt this last week about the flippant attitude the main stream media shows toward the war on terror (have you noticed I've been a little obsessed?). But with the peacetime way of life that we maintain (and it's good that we can live this way), treasonous and subversive activity is seen as mere dissent, which anti-establishment types value as the highest virtue. But choosing to undermine the efforts to defeat an agressive and uncompromising enemy is an unconscionable position. I just don't think some people get it.
• US Soccer took a hit. The American team in the World Cup only scored one goal in three games and didn't make it to the next round. That's not how you earn new fans and make a big splash for the attention of the country. I think they missed out on a huge opportunity and soccer continues to lag far behind the other major sports.
• One of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffett, is donating $37 billion of his $44 billion to Bill Gates' charitable foundation. When asked why he didn't just leave the money for his own family, Buffett said that he wanted to leave enough for children to do anything, but not so much they could nothing. Hmmm… wise.
• John (everything-is-Vietnam-all-over-again) Murtha may have finally gone off the deep end. This weekend he said, "American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran." Way to go, John. You are now officially in la-la land.
• I mussed Brennan's hair yesterday and he responded irritably, "Da-aaaad, that's for decoration." For those of you scoring at home, Brennan and Tanner are still strawberry-blond, Elijah has brown hair, and Graham appears to be a redhead.
  

Loose Lips

It's kind of hard to understand why the New York Times (and LA Times) would think it's a good idea to reveal all of our secrets in the war against terrorism. That sort of thing used to be frowned on.

Here's some re-worked World War 2 posters from some people that are fairly disgusted with these newspapers giving away our secrets.

Vets for Freedom

Vets for Freedom is an organization of veterans with a very specific view of the War on Terror. Anyone who ventures forth to debate this issue really ought to hear what these men have to say – they've earned the right to voice their opinions. Their website articulates it this way:

What are Vets for Freedom’s primary stances on the Iraq War?
-Vets for Freedom unequivocally believes that premature withdrawal (failure) in Iraq will damage American national security for decades to come. Period.
-Vets for Freedom believes that the War in Iraq is much bigger than party politics and petty, partisan one-upsmanship. Vets for Freedom seeks to reshape the debate in terms of long-term success in Iraq, acting in the best interests of our nation security.
-Vets for Freedom believes that United States decision-makers have a moral obligation to its troops, to the democracy of Iraq (and its people), to the world to fight terror wherever it may be and to fight for freedom in Iraq. Vets for Freedom believes that the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan are worth fighting.
-Vets for Freedom believes that there are achievable, clear objectives that will allow for a gradual drawdown of troop levels as these objectives are met. Vets for Freedom rejects the idea of timelines for troop withdrawal.
-Vets for Freedom understands that supporting the troops and supporting the mission are one and the same. It has become fashionable for some to say they support the troops but not the mission. Vets for Freedom rejects the premise of this statement.
-Vets for Freedom recognizes that Operation Iraq Freedom has suffered significant setbacks due to inadequate planning and management of the Iraq War. While Vets for Freedom demands accountability and corrective action for all mistakes, it does not look to these setbacks as reasons to quit! Vets for Freedom is a forward-looking organization focused on overcoming obstacles and winning the endgame and not harping on past mistakes.

I couldn't have said it any better. The website is well done, explains how you can contribute, and profiles some heroes that the mainstream media has mostly ignored.

You're Not Helping

Temperance

Temperance Altic may be a relative of mine, at least by marriage. This note from a court in Franklin County, Virginia, shows that Temperance Altic was awarded a monthly pension because she is the widow of one Abram Altic, a wounded Confederate soldier from the Civil War.


The archives have a similar court document regarding Temperance and her pension status, but this one tells the most information about Abram Altic, which isn't much. But considering how few Altics show up in history, we'll take what we can get.

Eureka

I wonder if all the people who have been saying "Bush lied" will politely apologize now that reports of WMDs in Iraq are getting declassified? I won't hold my breath.

It was a foolish position for them to take anyway: Saddam got rid of a weapon he wanted, needed and had already used, just because he wanted to play by the rules? No, he had them, he used them, he could make more at any time and he could give them away to be used by others. Saddam Hussein was a threat to regional and world security and had been for years. Any other take on the issue is just naive.

So why did it take over two years to declassify this information? Most likely because it will inciminate nations with whom we're trying to get along and play nice. Russia, France, and other nations probably helped Saddam make the stuff, store it, and possibly even hide it or remove it from the country. Some WMD's are like fine wine, you can identify the vintage right down to the year and laboratory. It might be in our best interests to not be so ham-fisted as to announce shocking and damning international news just to get some senator to shut up.

Rooting for the Wrong Side?

Random Thoughts 6/21/06

• We were teasing one of my High School camp counselors named Katelyn one night after the campers went to bed. Some people call her Kat and we found a bevy of puns and word plays to torture her with. What do you call it if Katelyn drops trash outside? Kat litter! If she sleeps? Kat nap. If she sees the bet in a poker game? Kat calls. What if Katelyn wants to pay for a ride on the space shuttle? Even if it doesn't explode, isn't that a Kat-astro-fee?
• Everyone seems to agree that the neatest feature on my new laptop is the built-in micro camera. I had to drag Dustin away from it the other night, as it had really caught his eye. Some people are easily entertained.
  


• One thing I like about the little camera is that the default image is reversed and thus shows a mirror image video to the user. I've already brushed my hair and teeth in front of my computer and I could imagine women applying makeup via laptop. Who needs an actual glass mirror to be a hopeless narcissist?
  
• 15,000 hits! Thank you for reading so regularly; God bless you. I'll have one more week of camp in July when I won't be able to blog as much. Other than that, it's back to the usual routine, with a possible website makeover later this summer.
  
• Isn't it an amazing coincidence that the "amateur Iraqi reporter," who broke the supposed Haditha massacre story, just so happens to have the same last name as the top level terrorist who was killed today? Both guys were named al-Mashhadani. Maybe that's the Arabic equivalent to the name Smith, but what a coincidence! I wonder how the critics and naysayers would react if that reporter turns out to be an Al Qaeda plant? There are a number of holes in that story and the more these inconsistencies come to light, the less airplay the "massacre" gets on the news. They'll probably print the acquittal of these Marines on page 15 and you and I will never hear about it.
  
• What will Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, say now that the Miami Heat have won? He's already being fined for saying that the NBA is rigged (his language was more colorful). I quit watching the NBA regularly a long time ago, but this was the first season where I did not watch five minutes of a single game.
  
• I'm teaching my class tomorrow at Vacation Bible School. Our teachers only teach one day, dressed in a costume and in an elaborately staged classroom. I'll be at the foot of Mt. Sinai cleaning up the mess of those Israelites who worshipped the golden calf instead of following God's commandments. I won't make the kids drink gold though.
  

Broods of Vipers

So I met this guy named Jason and asked, "What do you do?"

He says, "I import, breed, and sell reptiles to zoos."

"Oh… ok."

Jason plays softball with the guys from our church and came over to play cards at my house a couple of weeks ago. He's a funny guy with some horrific stories full of venomous snakes, lizards, and other assorted fauna.

Kansas City Reptile Distributors has a website and some expensive (up to $3500) merchandise.

Camp Report

We had a really good week at Junior High church camp last week. It was a small week, with just less than 40 campers but it was good.

To start with, the kids were incredible. At the first meal, the staff looked around and asked, "Where are the kids?" They were outside, waiting quietly in line! And no one even asked them to do that; they just did! It only got better after that. For junior high, they were mature and polite and fairly well behaved. And yet somehow, we still had some standouts – some of those kids were dynamite! I'm especially proud of the kids from my church: Britney, Paige, and Matthew. What great kids!

I was dean for the first time (at a Junior High camp anyway) and it wasn't that bad. I don't think it is as much fun being the "responsible one" at camp but if you delegate enough tasks to your staff, they get to play "authority figure" for a few moments and you get to chill out for a minute. That helps a lot.

We went bowling in Hiawatha, where I bowled a 122 (I try not to make the kids feel bad, you know). We also went swimming, played a ton of games and sports, and generally had a blast. The kids seemed to really enjoy themselves and I think the staff did as well. Of course, we had classes, memory work, campfires, and chapel (I did the preaching too), and several kids made decisions this week, including four baptisms and several rededications.

Overall, I'm eager to go back in July and eager for next year as well.

The Other Pirates Movie

Another VeggieTales movie will be coming to the big screen. Universal Pictures bought the distribution rights to The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything – A VeggieTales Movie, due out in 2008.

It turns out that Big Idea's first movie, Jonah, made $25 million in theaters and Hollywood decision makers are eager these days to cash in on the Christian/family audience.

Speaking of computer animated movies, we took the boys to see Cars today. Of all of the Pixar movies, it may the one I liked the most after the first viewing. The others – especially Nemo – had to grow on me, but I was willing to sit down and watch Cars again before I'd even left the theater.

Get a Mac

Apple released some more of those great commercials comparing a Mac to a PC. These are some of my favorite commericals Apple has ever done.

Click here to see them.

We're Back!

I'm back from church camp and I'm exhausted! Shannon ended up coming to camp Wednesday afternoon and I was able to spend a little bit of time with my family that I wasn't expecting.

I have a million stories about camp to tell and some items to post… assuming I can keep my eyes open to blog about it. Fatigue and exhaustion have been the watchwords this week so there may be a slight delay before I can get these things on the website.

Now it's nap time.

I Hate to Go

I'm leaving Sunday for Church Camp, so there will be few if any posts next week. Sorry. I'm taking the new laptop, but I doubt I'll have internet access up there.

The worst part will be missing Shannon and the boys. I hate to be gone from my family for five days because look what I'll be missing…


But I'll be back Friday, so see you then!

Held in Contempt

Here's a thought that occurred to me:

Saints seldom sneer.

Forgive the alliteration, but what I mean is that of all the expressions Christians wear, a sneer is not usually one of them. Christians smile and frown. They laugh and weep. They even get angry. But a Christ-follower would almost never glare with contempt and disdain. Anything that ought to make a regular person sneer ought to make a Christian sigh with pity.

If a Christian sneers they are not loving their neighbor or loving their enemy. They are hypocrites who forget that they have been forgiven of grievious things and stand only by grace.

My New MacBook

I'm blogging for the first time from my new Macbook. It's very cool and runs like a dream.

And I love the little built in camera; here's what I look like blogging:


It seems that I may have gotten out from underneath that old laptop just in time. I've had quiet a few problems the last two days (many were self-inflicted, I admit) but the machine finally went kaput today. It won't accept new software and it won't run with what's installed. So all of the documents I've worked on since my last backup are trapped in there somewhere. Eric and I may try to take it apart tomorrow and run the hard drive with a USB connection externally. That should be fun!

Most Hole-ly Place, Part 3

I was misquoted!

Channel 5 was at the church this afternoon and I talked at length with the reporter about the damage done to the church and how we were fixing it. There wasn't much of a story here… except that a wedding this weekend was threatened by the damage. I gave her all of the details but the one part that I said "don't quote me on that" is the one piece of information she actually used on air and attributed to "the Pastor." I told her, "I heard the flowers had been washed away or something, but don't quote me on that." She reported, "…But that's not all, the Pastor tells us that the flower shop supplying the flowers has been flooded in the same storm!" Flower shop? Flooded? What? I said don't quote me!

Just watch, I'll get a nasty call from the flower shop/nursery/whatever in question claiming that I'm making up nasty rumors.

On the positive side, the church got a lot of free publicity and Joe S. gave a great interview on TV. The damage to the building is not all that bad, considering that we had a 30 foot hole ripped in our roof. The water is being removed, the valuables are safe, the wall that is damaged is not load-bearing, and we're going to continue our services.

Wednesday Family Night will continue as planned with the meal in the Old Building. The wedding and Sunday services will be at the same time, same place, with no schedule changes that we know of.

Random Thoughts 6/6/06

• This is the 62 anniversary of Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, France. My grandfather came ashore among the follow up forces in the weeks after D-Day. He was a Staff Sergeant in the 28th Cavalry Squadron, in Patton's Third Army.
• The date today is 6/6/6. I'm trembling with fear as I write this (not really). But as a public service announcement, if the Anti-Christ comes to your door today wanting to tattoo a bar code on your forward, politely decline.
• I'd always heard of my grandparents having card parties with their friends. Well, I guess we're doing that now too. We played a twelve seat, two table tournament Sunday night at our house with friends from church. Dustin and I made the top six but eventually lost to Cordell H., the young cadet from West Point. Cordell was on leave for nine days and returned to duty this morning, so we "let" him win. ;-)
• The Big 12 announced that they are going to hold the 2008 Big 12 Men's basketball tournament in Kansas City at the new Sprint Center. The Sprint Center is currently under construction but is supposed to open next year. Kansas City wants to become the permanent home to this event, but that's yet to be seen.
• Tony Gonzalez wants a contract extension and he wants it now. "I don't want to get to free-agency," Gonzalez said. "I don't even want to be faced with that decision. Because right now I don't want to leave Kansas City. I want to stay here, I want to finish my career here. This is where it started. I don't want to wait till I'm 31 to get a new deal." It's just nice to hear a professional athlete say that about our town.
• I got my new laptop today. More on that later.
  

Most Hole-ly Place, Part 2

Here's some pictures of the damage to the church after a little bit of cleanup.


Fox 4 News brought out a helicopter to view the damage outside. We have sections of the roof in our yard and the insulation probably goes for miles.


Several places in the church lost ceiling tiles. The airpressure combined with the structure moving a bit caused several tiles to fall along the wall separating the two halves of the building.


Right there's your problem! This is our new skylight.


It adds a nice ambience, don't you think? It's a good that the musical instruments were already moved off stage due to the wedding Saturday.

More information will be forthcoming as everything is still up in the air.

Most Hole-ly Place

We had a brief windstorm early Monday evening and that knocked down several trees where we live. It also tore off a section of roof from our new Church building. A thirty foot section of roof was ripped from our sanctuary, doing quite a bit of damage inside and out. The sanctuary was soaked by the gully-washer that accompanied the wind, causing lots of water damage. We had some damaged trees and our trash was scattered for a hundred yards.

The Bass-Miller wedding this Saturday will be relocated.

More information about Church services, VBS, and Wednesday Family Night will be forthcoming.

The Name Game

The nickname for the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be announced July 7. There are several official suggstions, including the Lightning II, Spitfire II, Cyclone, Reaper, Black Mamba, and Piasa. The Lightning II is the most likely to be chosen since the original Lockheed P-38 Lightning was the plane of America's greatest Ace in World War II. Likewise, the Spitfire was a famed British plane in WW2. The Cyclone, Reaper, and Black Mamba are also good finalists but our Dutch allies suggested the Piasa (a mythical man-eating bird). Ummm… no.

Other suggestions already dismissed include the Fury (suggested by the British), Phantom (Australia), Scorpion (Canada), Mustang (US Marines), and Skyruler (Turkey). Also popular were Ghost, Storm, Razorback, Phoenix, Raven, and Rapier.

Fury was actually the frontrunner at one point, with variations including the Sky Fury (Airforce), Sea Fury (Navy), and Storm Fury (Marines). But trademark conflicts prevented Lockheed from going any further (that's right – the old Plymouth Fury!).

I really don't care for repeat, honorific names, it seems too unorginal. The F-22A was originally going to be the Lightning II, and then the Superstar, and finally the Raptor. I think any name with a II or III is just asking to get ignored.

I personally would like to see it called the F-35 Reaper, complementing the F-22A Raptor, knowing full well that the pilots may just ignore whatever the official designation is and make up their own name:

• The A-10 Thunderbolt II is always called a Warthog.
• The B-52 Stratofortress is usually referred to as a Buff.
• The F-16 Fighting Falcon is often called the Viper (unless it crashes, then it's called a lawn dart).
• The F/A-18 Hornet is sometimes called the Bug.
  

The Willies

I was sitting here in my office (my chair is kind of in the far corner of the room) and suddenly, up the wall beside me, runs this huge cockroach! I mean Florida-swamp sized, big as your pinky finger BIG! Blech!

I shot out of my chair with a sudden rush of both adrenaline and complete disgust. It's funny really, house flies are by far more unclean, spreading disease and filfth, while other roach-like insects like box elder bugs or fireflies are not very goosebump inducing at all. But when you see a cockroach, it's all you can do to get both angry and mildly nauseated at the same time.

This was the first roach I've ever seen in our new building (the old building had roaches, mice, wasps, snakes, and every variety of spider), so I hunted him down with a fly swatter and beat him into oblivion.

I'm still a little gunshy and I keep imagining that I see movement out of the corner of my eye. I may not be at ease for awhile.

Da Vinci Redux

I'm speaking on the Da Vinci Code tomorrow at our Church. I'll use the sermon time to talk about the impact the book and movie have had, pro and con, and how best to deal with challenges like this. In Sunday School, I'll be answering questions about the book and the history it misrepresents.

After Church we have a fellowship dinner to welcome back our friends who spent six months in Indonesia.

Then the high school kids and Jay-rod leave for camp while I need to mow the jungle growing in my front yard. After that, we'll clean house in anticipation of having some friends from church over to play cards Sunday evening.

It'll be a busy day.

A Wonderfully Quiet Day

Our 10th anniversary was yesterday. The three older boys were at Grandma and Grandpa's house overnight, so we went to play cards at a friend's house and then slept in the next morning. We went out for lunch and spent the afternoon strolling around the Plaza and the Legends in no particular hurry at all. Then we went to pick up the boys and spent part of the evening with my folks.

It was quiet, refreshing, and relaxing. And best of all, we were together all day.

But it's funny how much pressure you feel to do something spectacular and expensive for major anniversaries. I certainly felt the need to go on a cruise or take a trip somewhere but honestly it's just not doable. Even if we had the funds, we have a brand new baby now and I'm at the front end of a very busy summer. This probably isn't the time or place to give into peer pressure.

It also helps that we have such a well-rounded relationship. When you already are the focus of each other's lives, there's less real need to go "spend time on your relationship." That's already a part of our lifestyle – spending time on our relationship on a daily basis! I'm guessing that we have spent more hours talking about it than most people; like a mechanic fine tuning the engine that is his pride and joy, our relationship is constantly before us.

I suppose that a special lover's getaway would be more romantic – and I'm not against romance and sentiment – but there's a quiet security, stable and confident, that underpins our marriage. It's healthy and robust which, though not exciting, is more remarkable and valuable than a thousand honeymoons.