“You don’t bring X rated movies into your house and watch them as a family.
You don’t bring an idol into your living room and bow down before it.
You don’t have a witch come into your house and hold a séance.
And you don’t get angry in your house.” – S.M. Davis

Wow!  Have you ever thought of anger in the same way you think of pornography, idolatry, and witchcraft?  God is showing me that all sin is the same to Him and none of it is welcome in our home (even if we cannot see it).

Our eyes locked as the target was acquired. I released a loud battle cry, lunging across the open space that separated us. In mid air, contact with the target was established. All smiles vanished as it quickly became apparent that this was not a game. The last thing we heard as we walked from the room was, “Honey, please let me help.” My response this time, “That’s ok, I got this one!”

Spirit of Anger

We do not allow DUI’s (Discipline Under the Influence) in our home. It is an unbreakable rule that protects the hearts of our household. In that moment I felt I was within the limits of our law, being in control of my emotions. I prayed before engaging in a disciplinary action and finished with hugs in love. It was not until we were back at the table, ending our family worship in prayer, that I became painfully aware of my blindside. As I prayed over our family, my wife could no longer contain herself. One of God’s amazing gifts to her (and through her to our family) is that she has an acute sensitivity to the Spirit. She stood crying out that I see the hypocrisy that was so glaringly obvious to her. “You reek of the spirit of anger, as you disciplined our child in anger. Now you have the audacity to pray to God and believe that He will hear your words! REPENT!!!” After saying these words, she flew from the room to sob elsewhere. The kids all got up to go console their mother, as this was the first raw emotional exchange they had ever witnessed between us. Feelings are information, and I had a lot of information to process. As the leader in my home the responsibility rests on my shoulders. I was wrong and needed to repent asking God and my family to forgive me. The whole family gathered in the kitchen to cry together as I humbled myself before them. To each one I cried, “I’m sorry, please forgive me. I was wrong and sinned in my anger. I love you.” My family got to see my failure and forgive me. God is so good and His restoration so sweet.

God is using this event as a catalyst in my life to help me be aware of a blindside in my life, the spirit of anger. I have always associated harsh words and threatening gestures with the word anger. I am learning that I do not have to move a muscle or say a word to be filled with the spirit of anger. It is such a blind spot for me that I have asked my family to help me see it, so through God’s help we can eliminate this sin from our camp.

Be warned, once you declare war on the spirit of anger in your life, God will give you ample opportunity to test your heart in this area. For me these tests come through defiance/disobedience in my kids and dealing with mounting kid stuff – first a full blender of fruit smoothie being dumped all over the cabinets, second the breaking of a water filter, third the breaking of a closet door, and lastly to fill out a full day, using the water sprayer in the kitchen to spray water all over the cabinets twice in a row. In these specific scenarios, my dear friend Bob Stewart echos in my head. “People are more important than stuff, so use stuff and love people.”

If you are ever filled with the spirit of anger (or your family senses the spirit of anger in you), the “Freedom From the Spirit of Anger” by S.M. Davis is a must read article.

Here are ten steps he suggests to conquer the spirit of anger:

1. Recognize the problem and its seriousness.
2. Desire victory enough to cry out to God.
3. Repent of the sin.
4. Confess the sins of the forefathers and ask God in the Name and through the power of the blood of Jesus to break any curse coming down the generations. In Neh 1:6, Nehemiah prayed, “both I and my father’s house have sinned.”
5. Ask God to take back the ground Satan has taken because of anger.
6. See the connection between anger and lust in Matt 5:21-32. Jesus is dealing with the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Lust and anger are twin sisters. When you see one, the other is around. When lust prevails, so does anger. Lust creates an insensitivity in the spirit that causes a person to be more likely to respond wrongly to God and to others.
7. Watch for people and things that are going to come your way to make you angry.
8. Purpose to enter the presence of family members and business associates with praise. Praise is a motivator. Praise is a magnet that draws hearts to you. Praise is a defense for you against wrong words and attitudes.
9. Ask God daily to fill you with His Spirit and to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life.
10. Make yourself fully accountable. Be humble to ask for and accept correction from your mate, your children, and perhaps others.

“You don’t bring X rated movies into your house and watch them as a family.
You don’t bring an idol into your living room and bow down before it.
You don’t have a witch come into your house and hold a séance.
And you don’t get angry in your house.” – S.M. Davis

I got the wonderful opportunity to join a father/son team, Rick and Jacob, on their journey through the bowels of Salome Jug yesterday. What a great reminder that God is the creator of all things good!  Check out this video of our high water fun!!!

“There they go — I must hurry and catch up with them for I am their leader. – Unknown

How good are you at living, “Follow the Leader”? We all have a leader, regardless of our choice to follow or not. God is the creator of order and leadership. He is the one who gave us roles. God is the head of man, as man is the head of his wife, as the parents are the head of their children (the family). The more authority God gives through our role, the more responsibility we have to use that authority in a God honoring way. Jesus is our example. He is a leader who knows not only how to lead, but also how to follow His leader! Enjoy this clip of Jodi as she struggles with following the leader and what she discovers through the process.

“He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” – Malachi 4:6

The Johnsons

How do you live your life? Do you live your life in such a way that inspires others? Do you strive to live a life worthy to be followed? Jesus did. He lived His life as the example of love in action. I want to be like Jesus, inspiring others the way He inspires me!

Our heart is all about inspiring other families (Malachi 4:6) to make “family the adventure, and relationship the journey“. That is why we were so excited to hear from the Johnson family. The Johnsons let us know that they were inspired to do a family project based on our Swing Set Fun post from last January. What made it even more special was the fact that three generations of men (Grandpa, Dad, & Sons) were building this memory together. The pictures they have shared with us speak volumes to the investment these parents are making in their family.

As we get to know the Johnson family we are the ones being inspired. They made a great swing, improving on our original design! The dad is the most passionate public educator I have ever met and his public education ministry through the film Indoctrination is quite the eye opener. I am sure he would love to start a discussion with anyone on the subject, just leave him a comment here to connect.  The mom is an amazing photographer, just look at those pictures again! The kids are always up for adventure (funhogs in training), even if they have to create it for themselves.

Thanks for the inspiration Johnson family!

Multigenerational Faithfulness

New & Improved

How do you dig your holes?

Hole in One

Growing A Man

Building Relationship

God's Underdog

I always want to be God’s Underdog. You know, the one that is the long shot, like David with Goliath. What I love about being the underdog is it is all God, and He gets the all the glory. “…For my strength is made perfect in weakness…”(2 Corinthians 12:9).

I got the opportunity today to teach God’s word to a group of men in a Shepherding Study at our church. My topic was on family shepherding, a topic which I have been getting pretty humble about. We have had two children recently be very defiant in their rebellion saying “NO” and then walking away. Great opportunities for instruction if my own temper did not flare up showing my pride issues. So, we keep getting lessons in repentance and restoration. I am reminded to be thankful in all things (Philippians 4:6) as I would always choose open rebellion over that which is done in secret.

Well, I got up to speak feeling pretty uncomfortable, which is awesome as it immediately drew me closer to the good shepherd. I have a lot of growing to do when speaking in public. As I practiced the night before my wife used words like “dry”, “not emotion provoking”, etc… I told her that was great as it would be very apparent when God showed up. The cool thing is He did show up. I’m not sure that my speaking skills improved much by the next day, but God moved in the men’s hearts so that they were able to hear His message to them. God can use any of us for His good pleasure, and the weaker we are the better!

Here is the message God laid on my heart on being a family shepherd. Give it a listen and let me know how He speaks to you.

Building A Family Shepherd

In The Beginning

End Of A Chapter

Stage 3: States 49:Alaska & 50:Hawaii are complete. Join us as we look at the facts and count the costs of our 50 state challenge.

The Cost of Alaska & Hawaii (Financially Speaking)
Airfare (Alaska – $3574.97, Hawaii – $2594.20, Total – $6169.17)
Airport Travel (Alaska – $177.97, Hawaii – $168.00, Total – $345.97)
Car Rental (Alaska – $209.43, Hawaii – $426.67, Total – $636.10)
Gas (Alaska – $78.54, Hawaii – $200.00, Total – $278.54)
Lodging (Alaska – $617.84, Hawaii – $1274.00, Total – $1891.84)
Food (Alaska – $422.05, Hawaii – $500.00, Total – $922.05)
Gifts (Alaska – $79.80, Hawaii – $100.00, Total – $179.80)

Funhog Family 50 State Challenge Stats
Stage 1 – States East of Arizona (July 1, 2011 – September 23, 2011)
Stage 2 – States West of Arizona (April 1, 2012 – May 6, 2012)
Stage 3 – Alaska & Hawaii (October 1-7, 16-23, 2012)

States Visited (Stage 1 – 39, Stage 2 – 8, Stage 3 – 2, Total – 50)
Miles Driven (Stage 1 – 11,777, Stage 2 – 5,069, Stage 3 – 500, Total – 17,346)
Camp Nights (Stage 1 – 69, Stage 2 – 26, Stage 3 – 0, Total – 95)
Hotel Nights (Stage 1 – 18, Stage 2 – 10, Stage 3 – 13, Total – 41)
Restaurant Meals (Stage 1 – 20, Stage 2 – 7, Stage 3 – 9, Total – 36)
Total Cost (Stage 1 – $10,562.51, Stage 2 – $4196.65, Stage 3 – $10,43.47, Total – $25,181.63)

We did it! A family of eight with kids (9,7,5,3,2,<1) traveled to all fifty states having a fun family adventure in each state. We had so much fun that we even had a baby during the trip. It took us a little longer than a year to complete, thirteen months to be exact with only four and half months actually being on the road traveling from state to state. Adding up all the numbers show that it cost us $23 per person per day. When you are talking about eight people and one hundred and thirty-six days that number is big. We saved our pennies, though, in order to enjoy a trip of this magnitude and not have it follow us home in the form of debt. We traveled for a solid four and half months on what some people may spend on pizza and pop during the time we were saving money.

So, what did we learn from the experience? We found out that we absolutely love hanging out in extremely close proximity, as we live life as a family. We love having countless adventures planned and unplanned on the horizon, being part of nature spending most of our time in God's creation, watching God move over and over again, and meeting the most incredible people who opened their homes and hearts to us. We were honored to write an article, published in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, which does a great job capturing the heart of our trip. You can read it here, The Funhog Family – Making Family the Adventure and Relationship the Journey.

The night we came home at finishing our trip, Elijah came up to me pleading to know if we would be leaving the next day on our next big adventure. As a family we have discussed what that might be and so far the favorite idea is hiking the entire Appalachian Trail together as a family. Sounds pretty crazy, right, or how about just impossible? A three thousand plus mile hiking trail with six kids under the age of ten. To us it has adventure written all over it. We are very open to other options though! What do you think the Funhog Family should do as their next intentional quest to make family the adventure and relationship the journey?

It is finished!!!

Funhogs in Hawaii

We have met some amazing people on this 50 State Challenge, and our last state was no less amazing. After our lighthouse hike earlier this week, we stopped for lunch at Subway. Right next door was an ice cream shop, and in true Jodi fashion, my wife insisted we “needed” ice cream before heading back to our little “home away from home.” There we met JoJo, her daughter, Mary, and her granddaughter. They graciously advised us on how to get the most “bang for our buck” at the ice cream shop, and JoJo then invited us to have dinner with her family. That dinner took place our last night in Hawaii, and it was a wonderful ending to our entire trip. We learned about the history of Hawaii from native Hawaiians and fell in love with the music of the ukelele. JoJo’s gift of hospitality was such a blessing and we all felt her infectious spirit of love. Thank you JoJo for showing us the heart of Hawaii!!!

JoJo

Hawaiin Buffett

Ukelele Fun

We Will Not Forget

We did not really know what to expect in regards to our children’s reactions to Pearl Harbor and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. The kids have heard a bit about World War II through the literature we love. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Corrie Ten Boom are part of the family, as their stories inspire us in walking out our faith. And as we all walked through history, touring the Pearl Harbor exhibits and experiencing the short documentary of the attack, it had an impact. Chloe, our tender-spirit child, feels things quickly and her face reflected her emotion the whole time we were visiting the memorial. To know that people had been killed was almost incomprehensible for her, and she was a little fearful it might happen again while we were there. Kendall wanted to know what we could do with what we were experiencing. I was able to explain that a memorial is something to help us remember. God had the Israelites pile twelve stones on the bank of the Jordan to help them to remember what he did for them when He parted the waters for them to cross on dry land. The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial was created to help us remember all of the brave men and women who died in WWII and the attack on Pearl Harbor. By remembering and learning from the past, we will all be better prepared for the future.

U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

It was a very sobering and reverent atmosphere, providing a great opportunity to remind our children that none of us know the day or the hour that we will set out on our own journey home, so we need to prepare now by knowing and loving Jesus.
In our tour group was a man who had actually served on the U.S.S. Missouri during the Pearl Harbor attack. He enlisted in the navy when he was sixteen years old and he was coming back to remember his comrades. What was super cool was all the people walking up to him thanking him for his sacrifice and service for our great nation.
I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 7:2-3 – “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.”

U.S.S. Missouri

USS Mullinnix 1972 - Thanks for serving our country Grandpa!!!

The Clan

Our activity for the day was a two mile round trip hike to the Makapu’u Point Lighthouse. The trail was rated easy and great for kids, so we thought it would be a good fit for us. What we did not plan on is the sun. The previous days we had plenty of cloud cover, but today there was not a cloud in the sky. Add to that the fact that we made a wrong turn driving to the hike and wound up in a Honolulu traffic jam which delayed our start time. Regardless of the heat we all had a very enjoyable time, and the wind off the ocean kept our spirits up as we made our way to the top. I carried Tirzah the majority of the way, but Elijah basically did the entire hike at the pace of his grandfather, which is about triple his normal speed! The views at the top were beautiful and well worth the effort to get there.

Beach Beauty

Another fun thing we did enroute to our hike was stop at one of the beaches for pictures. While we were there someone pointed out the Hawaiian Monk Seal sunning itself on the beach. The seal had a name, Irma, and had been a local resident of the beach for the last two months. The kids got a kick out of watching the seal and wished to get much closer than twenty-five feet. The surf was incredible there, as the boogie boarders were tearing up the ten foot waves, sometime getting pounded where the surf meets the sand. Elijah also enjoyed the spear fishing snorkelers who emerged from the surf with the string of fish and camo-patterned wetsuits.
After all the fun we headed home for naps and then an afternoon of swimming at the beach one block from our house. It has become a much looked forward theme of each day, as the kids beg to go play in the ocean at least once a day. I love the water and play as much as they do so we go have a great time, always coming home with smiles.

I am Hiker

Monk-ey business

Lunch - Yummy!!!

Our big event for the day was a visit to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. This plantation is 28,000 acres and produces over 220,000 tons of pineapple yearly, which are all planted and harvested by hand. The kids were excited to go ride the Pineapple Express Train, which would give us a short tour of the plantation along with lots of fun facts on this yummy fruit. Hosanna was the only one who discovered she did not like the train, as all of its noises scared her. We learned that it takes about twenty months for a pineapple plant to produce its first fruit and within five years you can hopefully get three harvests off the plant before digging up the plant to start over. For lunch we splurged by getting two huge pineapple splits, which are three huge mounds of pineapple ice cream on large chunks of pineapple.
The best part of the whole day was, as our family feasted on ice cream, a precious older lady in a wheel chair sat watching us with tears of joy in her eyes. We started a conversation with her and learned that she was a mother to eight children, so our family had brought such sweet memories to her that she just sat their crying while saying, “the Lord bless you and your precious family. I know how much work it is but this time is priceless, and you will remember it always.”

Pineappley Goodness

After our lunch we needed some down time, so it was back to the house for naps (we love naps). Once the little ones were sleeping the older kids asked if we would finish “True to the Last,” the latest Lamplighter book our family is reading and crying through together. It was such an amazing character building story that as we all cried, we discussed the characters and the attributes we would like to work on in our own lives. We cannot say enough great things about Lamplighter’s redeeming literature and “True to the Last” is our new family favorite.
Once we all got some rest, it was back to the beach for a refreshing afternoon swim. Our island schedule is so laid back and relaxing that we could definitely see doing this again! By keeping things simple the whole family gets to have fun, enjoying this beautiful place together.

Chuga Chuga

Choo Choo

Time for a recharge

Beach Please