Pete Bishop

Falling off the wagon

I should just turn my blog into a blog about complaining. So yesterday I fell off the wagon HARD and just puked complaining and criticism all over everything in my path for about 4 hours....., and then blew it again this am. This is way more difficult than I thought which means in the past I was complaining way more than I thought I was. So.. I have made it a total of one full day...Here we go again.....

One Day

I made it one day so far (yesterday).. so far so good today.

Kids in the Studio

So Barb and I have never really been "stage" or "sports" parents. Meaning we've never really pushed our kids in one direction or another vocationally or socially. We've always just kind of let our kids figure out who God made them to be and then encouraged and supported them in that. Our daughter Amanda is a sophomore in college and has started a band with some friends of hers.  That being said....As a musician and studio rat let me just say I was giddy last night hanging out with her and her friends and tracking a song at local studio Red Letter. It was really cool watching her  drum and produce and the band interact. For their first time in a studio they did a good job and the song was actually really cool. That will be one for the memory books....

Just in case...

You were wondering.I have yet to make it a full day without complaining.But today is a new day.

We started early

Hey Barb and I went shopping for sunglasses tonight.. what do you think?

So I suck...

I made it 15 minutes into my first conversation this morning without complaining...argh. This is going to be harder than I thought. Press Rewind.Start over.21 days. Luckily I didn't get slapped in the face.

Here is something you may not have known.

com·plain  (km-pln)
intr.v. com·plained, com·plain·ing, com·plains
1. To express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment.
2. To make a formal accusation or bring a formal charge.

I am critical. As a matter of fact I may be the most critical person you have ever met .....or maybe not met. I guarantee you I can walk into any situation and tell you what is wrong with it and how to do it better.  Which is weird because I'm also an optimist. I tend to err on the side that people are doing the best they can and things will turn out ok. Most people that know me may say I'm not critical and thats because I have them fooled... In my life most of the time criticism rears its ugly head as complaining.  I just talk about what's wrong in a negative fashion or with resentment because I'm frustrated. (I try not to gossip though.. I'll tell you to your face most of the time)

the bible says...
    •    For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly (Mark 7:21-22).

Basically it starts in our hearts develops in our heads and out it comes... scientists say that it takes about 21 days to break a habit... so I'm going on some 21 day journeys over the next year to see if I can break some destructive heart/mental habits. The first one is complaining.

Again the bible says   
    •    Do everything without complaining or arguing (Ph. 2:14)

So for the next 21 days instead of complaining I'm going to try to offer positive solutions to things. If I can't do that I'm not adding value so I'm just going to pray about it because maybe after all it isn't really an issue for anyone but me . If I screw it up and complain then I have to start over. The plan would be that after 21 days it will take hold as a habit and off I go to the next thing.

Feel free to slap me in the face if you hear me complain! Ready.Set.Go.

The Bee Movie Guys

The backbone of any media team in the context of a church community are the volunteers. If I fell off the earth tomorrow (or taken up in a chariot,(which would be sweet)) not a whole lot would change longterm. BUT if the dudes and dudeettes that are in the trenches day in and day out didn't live out their passions then nothing would happen media wise. These are 4 of the guys on  our amazing tech team at Crossroads. Week in and Week out they put in about 90 + hours combined creating media and doing the physical stuff of technology for the folks in our community. Friday we had an odd day and actually got done  2 hours early with everything we needed to for the current week...this has NEVER happened before. So we took advantage of it and took a field trip to see The Bee movie (which was very cool). It was way cool just getting to hang out and chat about what was going on in the world of animation and talk about what was good with the story etc.... of course we couldn't get to the car without Zach and Kyle and Travis fighting in the front yard.. but you know.....

The Opposites

One of the reasons I love my wife so much is the fact that she is so polar opposite of me...its funny when I first starting hanging out with her that was something I found cool.. and then  when we got married ....for a little while it drove me nuts... and now I'm so grateful that she is who she is and follows how God made her. Anyway here is a picture (albeit a little blurry) that perfectly illustrates the differences between Barb and I... we were sitting on the couch eating ice cream and it caught my eye....me...brownies...chocolate syrup m&m's and nuts...Barb....Ice Cream..Vanilla Ice Cream... In all its God given glory!

Tis The Season..

Just when I think the apex of  the commercialization of Christmas has been reached I read this story.