"DH"

My last post was about my father who watched me grow up and graduate. He was there when i gave my life to the Lord and we shared such great memories. I am who i am because of what he was to me and i'm FOREVER grateful. Now that he has gone to be with the Lord there has been someone else who has stepped into that role.

In baseball, the letters "DH" stand for Designated Hitter. It's a player called upon to hit in replacement of another player. In this case, at least for me anyway, they stand for Daryl Holmes. In 2003 i married into a great family and Lauren's dad has somewhat become mine too. He was there to see me marry his daughter. He was there to experience the births of his two grandsons and i'm pretty sure he'll be around to see many more defining moments happen in my life.

So as a Post Father's Day tribute, this is to you Dad. Thanks for loving the Faiai's like you do. Thanks for loving Mom the way you do and for being an example of what an unselfish husband looks like. You are one of the hardest working people i know and yet you still make time to give my boys your undivided attention and they love it. Thanks for thinking of your family before yourself. These are just a few examples of why i'm so blessed to have you as my father in law. I praise God for you and as i continue to watch and learn, i pray that i will someday be able to pass my learnings to my sons.

Way to step up to the plate!

Thanks Jean...

I had such a cool father's day. I woke up this morning to the smell of Spam, Scrambled eggs and Rice. I honestly thought that i was dreaming, but i wasn't, because there stood in the kitchen my lovely wife. She made me an awesome breakfast. After that we went to church and had a great time there too. But i think that my favorite part of the day was at Greenwood Mortuary where my father is laid to rest. I've been going there every Father's Day for the last 10 years now and i've always been impacted by the many people who go to pay some sort of homage to their loved ones. Some people even go to the extent of having picnics there, it's a pretty cool site.

This time was extra special to me. After about an hour or so sitting at the foot of my father's stone, I was just about getting ready to leave when i noticed that there was an Elderly woman sitting on a bench nearby and she was whispering things to herself. I felt this prompting to ask her about her story, so i did.

For the next 20 minutes I found out that her name was Jean and that the bench that she was sitting on was her and her husband's stone. I found out that the whispering was to her love of 61 years who passed away this past January. She has 4 sons, One however died and is laid to rest very close to their bench. We exchanged stories about what we remembered about our love ones and talked about how much we missed them.

I sat at the foot of that bench and was so honored to have met a new friend. She told me about how blessed she was to have such a great husband and that he lived a great life. She also told me that her name one day would be etched on the other side of their bench.

I may never see Jean again in this lifetime, but what I learned 2 valuable take aways from our conversation.

* I learned that no matter how tough things get in life it can be worked out, they made it work for 61 years.
* She also reminded me that life is to be lived out and embraced and that i should count my blessings every day.

All this i know already, but the reminder was great and refreshing and something that i needed.

The Deadliest Catch

I've been loving this show called "The Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel. If you've never seen it, let me give you quick synopsis of what it's like.

The show consists of 4 to 5 fishing boats all sort of competing to see who catches and brings back to the docks the most Crab. On the show you get an inside look from the Captains quarters and he gives a play by play of what's happening out at sea. The Captain has an underwater GPS system to guide him and give him direction of where the best place is to go looking for crab.

Outside the captains quarters on the boat deck is group of 5 to 6 guys working their tails off to set the traps to capture the Crab. Now let me mention the most intense part of this, they are fishing in the midst of REALLY stormy weather under the worst possible conditions you could ever imagine. It takes a special group of guys to do a job like this. A lot of people have lost their lives in this line of work and a lot of them know how to do nothing else.

Anyhow i tell you about this amazing show because it's served as a spiritual reminder to me of my relationship with GOD. Here you have a team of 5 people who are totally trusting in their captain to lead them to a place where they score on tons of Crab, if the captain get's the location right then they win and get paid mucho bucks, if he gets it wrong they don't get paid at all. I feel like i'm like one of these guys sometimes, i put my trust in man and where and how he's going to lead me, and i buy into it and trust him to take me to places where i can experience success and riches, only to find out that where i'm lead is empty and unfulfilling.

From falling down so many times trusting in other things, i'm realizing that the one i need to trust is GOD in EVERYTHING. I'm learning that in trusting in man, i worry and stress out wondering if things are going to work out. I get caught up in wondering if all that i'm doing is in vain. What's soo great about God is that he's forgiving and loves us no matter where we've been or what we've done. With God, i know that i can trade in my worry for FAITH IN HIM, and i can instead of stress, TRUST, and i can rest to sure that whatever his plans are for my life they're the absolute BEST for me and my family.

Watching the Deadliest Catch is reminding me that I have a captain who needs no GPS to guide me to the best spot, it's reminding that i have a leader who knows and wants what's best for me and my family. It's reminding that no matter how crappy life may get sometimes that there are always better days ahead. This show may run it's course someday and come to an end, but the learnings from it will always stay with me.

If I had three wishes.....

Lately the Faiai household has been going through some changes. Some of them good and some of them a bit tough. All of them however are growing us in many ways. It's been soo hard as a Father and a Husband to lead my family through this process. I wish it were easier and that we didn't have to go through all of this anymore. So anyways If i had three wishes these are the things that i would wish for:

One - I would wish for "Clarity" of what i'm suppose to do. I love to lead worship and really believe that i'm called to lead. The dream of a full time position leading worship seems soo slim nowadays and honestly the waiting has become draining. So a simple "Hang on" or "Move on" would be helpful.

Two - I would wish for my Wife to be worry free and how that happens all starts is with wish #1. I know that she is the kind of person who likes to see things laid out and I feel that i cheat her of that sometimes because of the situation that we're in. I don't want her to worry about ANYTHING but to feel the freedom that all is o.k. So that would be my second wish.

Lastly - This one I'd let the boys (Cameron and Riley) have it and let them wish for whatever the heck they wanted. I know i'm a sucker. Oh well they're my three wishes i could do whatever i want with them.