The Names of Jesus

During this season of Advent as we prepare and anticipate the celebration of Christ coming into the world, our family has started a new dinner time tradition this year by reading a scripture verse with a unique name for Jesus each night as we countdown the days until Christmas.  This has been a great way to focus on Jesus and for us to discuss His many wonderful attributes.

After finding this list below of 25 different names for Jesus, I ran across another blog that had 100 Names of Jesus listed in alphabetical order.  As I read these names of Jesus, I've challenged myself to reflect daily on how His character is described throughout the Bible and how I may reflect His light in the world.

The Names of Jesus

1. Jesus: Read Matthew 1:21

2. Immanuel: Read Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23

3. Messiah: Read Mark 8:29

4. Light of the World: Read John 8:12

5. Savior: Read John 4:42

6. The Word: Read John 1:1 and Revelation 19:13

7. Lamb of God: Read John 1:29

8. First Born of Every Creature: Read Colossians 1:15

9. Good Shepherd: Read John 10:11

10. Alpha and Omega: Read Revelation 22:13

11. Wonderful Counselor: Read Isaiah 9:6

12. The Christ: Read Matthew 16:16

13. Holy One: Read Mark 1:24

14. God with Us: Read Luke 2:1-20

15. Friend: Read Matthew 11:19

16. Son of Man: Read Daniel 7:13, Matthew 9:6, 12:40

17. Ancient of Days: Read Daniel 7:9

18. Servant: Read Matthew 12:18

19. King: Read Zechariah 9:9

20. Prince of Peace: Read Isaiah 9:6

21. Bright and Morning Star: Read Revelation 22:16

22. Bread of Life: Read John 6:35

23. The Mighty God: Read Isaiah 9:6

24. Son of David: Read Jeremiah 33:17 and Matthew 20:30

25. Unspeakable Gift: Read 2 Corinthians 9:15

Time Traveling

One of my favorite apps that I use everyday is my timehop app.  I enjoy reliving the photos, memories, and the random thoughts, quotes or retweets I've shared on social media on this date in years past, some going back in time to 6 years ago to the day.  It's always fun to see pictures of how my girls have aged through the years, or recall a Bible verse that spoke to me, or an inspirational quote that encouraged me on that specific date in my past.  I've come to realize this is one of the reasons I remain active and engaged on social media so that I'll have an opportunity to see these posts from my timeline in the future.

Today's timehop was full of activity from the past 6 years on November 15th.  One post in particular prompted me to write this blog post.  Back in the fall of 2013 the latest buzz on facebook was to share 10 personal and interesting facts about yourself on your page.  I enjoyed reading these posts from my friends, and after giving it some days of thought I decided to jump in with my own list:







































      8.  I love spicy food!   Must be the Louisiana-born 
           Texas-raised in me.
      9.  I share a birthday with Elvis (Jan 8), must be why 
           God led me to Memphis, that, or to meet Cindy.
    10.  I'm discovering more and more that Nicole, is just 
           like me, while Taylor is more like Cindy.

A few weeks ago I ran across another timehop post I enjoyed in which I remembered blogging about 2 years ago, Astrodome Memories.  Reading past blog entries such as this reminded me of why I began journaling and was one of the reasons why I started this blog 4 years ago.     

And on the subject of time traveling, last weekend VH1 aired a "Back to the Future" movie marathon.  Our girls had barely even heard of these movies until last month's buzz surrounding "Back to the Future Day" on 10/21/15, so I set the DVR and Cindy and I enjoyed watching the movie with the girls...hard to believe it was 30 years ago when the first Back to the Future movie came out!  

Family fun in Florida

Some of our greatest family memories are made each summer during our much anticipated beach trips to Perdido Key.  Each summer since 2007, we've been blessed with the opportunity to enjoy a week away from home at my brother in-law's condo on the Florida coast.  We usually plan our vacation around the 4th of July, so with this year's holiday falling on a Saturday we spread our vacation over 2 weeks with a Wed-Wed trip 7/1 - 7/8/15.

This year we planned to do a couple of new activities in addition to visits to some of our favorite traditional restaurants such as The Hangout, Lulu's, and Cobalt.  Also, I was looking forward to making a return visit to one of my favorite ballparks - Pensacola Bayfront Stadium, home of the Blue Wahoos, the Reds (AA) minor league team.

The ballpark is situated facing the Pensacola Bay and offers a view of the ocean beyond the outfield which rivals the Giants AT&T Park in SF as the best view in all of baseball.  On our first night there, the girls were more anxious to hang out at the pool than take in a ballgame so I made the short 25 minute drive over to Pensacola solo and arrived just in time for the 630p game.

The next 3 days we enjoyed full days of sun and fun in the pool and the beach, including a visit from Cindy's friend Cissy and her twin 6-yr old boys, Colin and Connor.  Taylor, Nicole and I also enjoyed our daily walk across the street over to Dave's snow cones!  On Sat July 4th, we continued our tradition of having dinner at the Sunset Grille followed by watching the fireworks from our balcony at the Indigo condo.  With rain in the forecast for Sunday, we began our day with Worship on the Water at the Flora-Bama, then to Lulu's in Gulf Shores for lunch and a movie ("Inside Out") and shopping at The Wharf in Orange Beach.

One of the new activities we planned this year was visit Waterville Water and Amusement park.  The girls enjoyed riding the go-carts and the wave pool, but the highlight was the huge water slides.  Taylor and I enjoyed going down the Dune Racer slides (face first on mats); the Great White and Gold Rush slides (in single inner-tubes or 2 and 3 person-tubes); and the really big, high-speed slides: Screamin' Demon, Triple Dog Dare and Jet Stream slides.  Unfortunately, the park wouldn't allow Nicole to wear the swim mask she prefers to wear when swimming so she refused to ride the slides this year - hopefully next year she'll outgrow the need for these goggles!  We saved the other new activity - a sunset cruise on a catamaran for our last night, and we all enjoyed this relaxing 2 hour cruise in the gulf and around the bay.  We'll definitely look forward to including both of these fun activities again next year...now if I could just get the girls interested in doing the zip line tours with me!

Another fun tradition I've enjoyed each year is making a slideshow to capture the memories of our trip.  Here's a link to my youtube page with all the videos from prior years.

And, here's a link to the video from this past year:

Florida 2015 beach trip