This is an area that I've struggled with for a long time. I want to be a good person. I want to be a good example for my children so they grow up to make good choices an be good people too.

And like my signature says..."If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning." Learning from your own mistakes is good. Learning from others is so much better! Let them learn from mine.

But how do you know what is a good choice? When is enough, too much? And at what cost?

Today is a prime example. It's Columbus Day and I'm here at the office. Our company does not have this day off, but I could've taken a personal day to spend it with my family. Truthfully, I won't miss much work for very few are in today. To compound things, I have a Habitat meeting tonight. I feel good about the work I do with Habitat, but today that good comes at the expense of not seeing my children but for five minutes this morning. What kind of example is that? Will they remember that I do what I can for those with so much less...or that I wasn't home with them?

But we'll get together then, son. You know we'll have a good time then.

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Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.