Win/Loss Stats

The weather finally cooperated this morning and we at long last, got to welcome the fall season to Oklahoma!  When I took Fiver out at seven this morning the thermometer was set in the mid-sixties with a cool breeze flowing through the air.  Sure, it wasn’t that cold but it was definitely a break from the warm summer temperatures we have out here. 

I don’t know about you, but I am excited about enjoying some fall activities!  Tomorrow I am set to spend some time with my older daughter as she babysits her sister’s little girl so that JoAnna can help her husband on a prewiring job for his customer’s home entertainment system.  The plan after Sarah’s ballet class and a trip to the pumpkin farm is for me to join them for some pumpkin carving!

I am kinda getting into this Grandpa stuff!  Sarah got to spend a few hours with me yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed reading to her, helping her to put together puzzles and in making a beaded necklace and bracelet!  I am slowly building up my collection of Grandkid’s toys, activity supplies and books at the apartment.  Once I get into the new house and am able to unload my storage bin, I’ll have even more toys and children’s activities to choose from with all the boxes of stuff from our kid’s childhood that are packed away there!

After passing the one-year mark without Piper, I decided on the balcony this morning that it is time to start having some fun!  It is not that I haven’t had many enjoyable times with family since Piper moved on, but I realized today that I am still experiencing my daily life with the mindset of being part of a couple.  Does that make sense to you?  After spending 48 of my 66 years as part of a twosome, it is difficult to switch gears, change glasses and begin to see life through the eyes of an individual.

Let’s face it, as a husband and father, just about every decision you make affects your wife and children.  In the last nine years of Piper’s life, I can’t think of any decisions that I made that did not consider her needs first.  I’m pretty sure that is why some of the rumors that a few people put out about me during that time were so foreign to me.  Their way of thinking was nowhere near mine!

Today I began to have the revelation that I need to see myself not as a loser, but as a winner.  Not as someone who has lost something… or someone, but as someone who has everything to gain!  And with that thought, I was reminded of the last few months as I kept up the routine of checking the San Francisco Giants win/loss record in lieu of their chances of making one of the Wild Card spots in the playoffs.  They never caught up to the teams with the best records, but it was fun to keep an ever-watchful eye on the statistics.

In my current predicament, I’m seeing that it is important for me to view the number in my win column as far surpassing those in my loss column.  To know that my team… albeit me… is on the way to the championship game!  And I even have scripture to back up my claim!  The Lord encourages us through Jeremiah 29:11 saying that: “I will bless you with a future filled with hope (or better said, ‘of what you are expecting’)—a future of success, not of suffering.” (CEV) 

I have a page out of one of Piper’s hand written notes with that scripture penned on it, taped to the mirror on the bathroom mirror.  When I looked at it today, it was almost like she was speaking those words to me as she stood next to me while getting ready for the day like we did together for so many years.  I know that she wants me to succeed just as much as the Lord does!

I also know that the Lord wants you to win in this life and have a future filled with good expectations of success and not failure.  It really doesn’t matter if your single… like me… or part of a couple.  He really does care for you and want HIS best for everyday of your life!

Do you remember what Ephesians 1:12 says?   God tells us in this verse that He plans for our best, so that those of us “who had already focused our hope (or expectations) on Christ would praise him and give him glory.” (God’s Word ©)  As far as I am concerned, it all begins and ends with where we have ALREADY focused our expectations!  I’m choosing to see that the number in my win column is far exceeding those in my loss column because I continue to keep my expectations on Him and His Word… HOW ABOUT YOU?  

Have a enjoyable and fun fall season, and as you do, say with me… “I am expecting my wins to far exceed my losses today!”