Rockin' in the Free World

Dear friends, my apologies for the lack of posts recently, I've been busy. That's funny, seeing as how I have a part time job that doesn't really give me hours, but my mind has been occupied with thoughts of the future and what it really means to be a husband. And wow, how great a luxury it is to have this time to spend on my wife and our marriage! Please allow me to share with you those things in my life that have started to weigh on my mind.

The two books to our left have been helping me see what kind of strengths I have as a person, and looking forward with those things in mind. "What Color is Your Parachute" was a suggestion from Ray Rivera, a career counselor at UW Stout; "Now, Discover Your Strengths" was lent to me by Kevin Hendricks a local freelance writer and friend. Both books have been great to read, though I've felt that the things I'm discovering are well known to the people that know me best. I've gotten some "I told you so's! " When I was at Stout I took two tests, a Myers Briggs personality test and an occupational interest test, which I took in about forty minutes and got the results back in about twenty minutes. I didn't really expect it to be that accurate, but it was, I'm a serial killer... just kidding. Basically it put on paper what I couldn't really express about what I like in a job or how I interact with people. I'm not taking the results from these tests as concrete, rock solid truth, more like a grain of salt but it is interesting, very interesting.

I've also been working on a couple other books, focusing on my marriage. They happen to all be written by the same person, Gary Chapman. I'm happy that the first book here, "The Five Love Languages, Men's Edition" is in an audio book format. I got it from the library. The original book on the five love languages has been a great help, Angela and I definitely speak different languages. It's been a great challenge but so rewarding, I'm really able to see her when I do things or say things in "her language". If I were spoken to in her language it wouldn't mean nearly as much as it does to her.

All of this research into myself and into Angela, has been a wonderful time of taking wisdom and holding it up to God and saying, wha'dya think? Ultimately God is the author of love and life choices, I'm getting excited to see where life could go, I'm getting excited to see where God could take Angela and I. It's all a little exciting, but scary, I suppose that's the risk and adventure when walking with God.