no shave november OVER for Bayne

well, I made it from Oct. 28-Nov. 21 with no shaving of my beard and today I gave in and trimmed it down. Last night I looked in the mirrior and was joyful that I had made it, I grew my beard out. I have crossed a line, I can grow a full beard out if I want. With Thanksgiving coming I gave up the morning, I quit, I trimmed it up and I must say that it was incredible to see all that hair in my sink. Good times...

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I am thankful for less hair on my face!

just what dads do!

This past weekend we planned the date, we bought the tickets, we made the drive and Chelsea and I took Kozbi our four year old to her first Univeristy of Tennessee football game. We did it all, we parked and walked up the strip, ate the pregame meal at Krystal on the strip, went to the bookstore, marched in with the band, sang rocky top 100 times, bought Kozbi pom poms, dressed in orange head to toe, went down to the field so Kozbi could see the cheerleaders and see the field, we did it all. I have been to games many times but this was different. My entire day was wrapped up in making sure my little girl got to experience everything GOOD about going to a UT game, all the passion, all the energy. After the game we were walking back to the car and her legs were tired she asked to ride on my shoulders and of course yes I said come on! I carried her most of the way to the car so she would not have to walk in the huge crowd leaving and so her legs could rest. I had this thought as i was walking and my back was hurting, and I had just spent a whole day making sure this all went off...THIS IS WHAT BEING A DAD IS ABOUT. This trip was just a DAD kind of thing. Helping your kid have an experience is just a "dad" thing to do. In that moment it felt good to be a Dad. I was just in the middle of helping a little girl make a memory and it was amazing. I know it is hard to believe but in the middle of this DAD moment I felt God impressing on my heart how God feels about us since the bible clearly tells us that we are his children. His desire for us to experience life and life to its fullest has to be so much greater that my desire for my daughter. I can just imagine the pride and joy God feels when he sees us make choices that bring him Glory. I can just imagine how we loves to see us choose His way over a sinful or selfish way. I can only imagine how ready God is to pick us up and put us on his shoulders to carry us to the "car". When I connect this with how I feel about my little girls I remember that verse in the New Testament that reminds us that if God is for us, who can be against us. No one...our Father is right there for us ready to pick us up. Thanks God, for carrying me to the "car". That is just kind of thing you do.

go vols!

What a great week! Well...this was the week we went to a predators game and the UT/Vandy game. Kozbi had a great time, she loved the stadium, the band, the cheerleaders...she loved it all. I have some great pics and will get those up soon. BUT this was a pic I took at the end of the UT game when we went ahead for the win, amazing. YES it was amazing. Great win, great experience. On top of that we got to see the Preds win in overtime on Thursday. Good sports week, maybe the Titans will win Monday night to finish it up!

forgot what I was gonna say...

I have some great thoughts every once in a while and wow, a day later I forget about them. Am I getting old, what is up with me. Just thought I would get on and bang out a few thoughts. Tonight we had some free time so guess what my wife started.....CHRISTMAS DECORATING! WOW, it is here I can not believe it. We always decorate right before Thanksgiving so when we come home from family stuff all is up and we are geared for Christmas. Well, we stared early and it was cool to see Kozbi help out, I just hauled stuff up from the basement and then helped keep Kelyn from breaking stuff. She loves breaking things! We are stoked about Christmas, we are actually doing less of the gift thing and really trying to cut back and just enjoy being the friends and celebrating the gift God gave us in Christ. This is the one time a year we get to celebrate this amazing gift given to us in the form of a baby! Everyone loves baby but there is something wild when you think about the fact that Jesus, God in form of man, was contained in the form of a baby. We are hoping that by cutting back we can give a little more and help our kids not get stuck in making Christmas about getting more stuff. SURE they are gonna get some neat stuff but that is not the focus. Just trying to do more than just talk about putting Christmas in the proper perspective, I have to start somewhere.

This weekend we are gonna have a sweet sports weekend. Thursday night we have tickets for the Nashville Predators (free tickets of course) we are gonna be in the lower bowl and I am stoked. Live NHL is so good...THEN we are taking Kozbi to her first UT game - YEP, we bought the tickets and are headed to Knoxville for the Vandy game. Go Vols!

I have decided not to shave my beard for the month of November...I have made it so far. We will see if I make it. 30 days of letting my beard grow??? well it is just a little challenge for myself! (I am trimming up my neck of course, I can not go around looking all shabby!

halloween then crave - a wild 2 weeks!

Wow, I am thrilled to see Monday...well compared to last Monday I am Stoked this Monday is here. Just made it through our first retreat at relevant that we called CRAVE. It was just a weekend to get teens away and ask how and if they are craving God in their lives. We held the retreat at the Galt House Hotel and Convention and had the Josh Wilson Band and Jeff Miller (great communicator!)lead us. It was an amazing weekend and a great experience for our teens. It was wild to have the event in a major city and have full control of the schedule, we had way too much fun. God really challenged us all to evaluate where we are at in our commitments, our relationships, our bravery, and our passion for HIM - every life group session was filled with kids talking through stuff with their leaders. It was so thrilling to see it come together. It was so different being able to just focus on this retreat for the ENTIRE FALL. This is such a new concept for me. The idea is to do more by doing less. Our ministry revolves around one weekly event for students called remix where we put tons of energy and about 4 major events a year, we took the entire fall to build to this retreat. It was amazing to focus and great for our kids to understand that our weekly gathering is the big deal, the event is just a great chance for us to get away and focus for a few days...the event never becomes the driving force in ministry, just another tool. Here's to leaving event driven youth ministry behind.

Halloween came and went and the kids had a great experience. Koz was Belle and Kelyn a flower and thy both had a blast trick or treating. The highlight for me was to answer the door to a bunch of middle schoolers dressed up, to give them candy, then to have a little kids act like he was chopping my arm off with his plastic chain saw - wow - I LOVE America! I will drop in a picture of the girls, OH they are so great!

Go Vols, Go Titans - Go michael bayne's fantasy teams! yes it matters!