1. Repeat after me: “Dear God, Please give Matt another job. Amen.”
2. Nine years ago, we were in the children’s hospital in Jackson, MS with Knox. Our joy at his birth turned into pure fear and confusion when he would stop breathing while sleeping. I’m not sure we got any sleep that first week or over the months following.
3. Some guys wrecked #diet2015 this week, I don’t know their names but I do know for certain there were five of them.
4. The mistake is to assume the primary way you live out the Christian life is through the events of the 501c3 organization that is a church. It is part of it. And an important part. But your home and place of work are more important.
5. Think about how wonderful the invention of recorded music is. We are used to the stuff and it’s all so disposable now, it’s hard to catch the weight of what we hear. But then you hear some music, an album that has a physical quality about it and you realize this was not always the case. People were not always able to just listen to music whenever they wanted. Music was an event. Music had weight. And the music sat between the silence and more silence.
6. Time is a luxury when money is scarce.
7. When I was much younger, I could not understand why my dad loved the warm weather so much. I now understand. My bones ache a lot less during the warm weather months. I begin to miss the yard work and the sweat more. I’ll complain in August, sure. But I look forward to the heat now.
8. We are part of a Supper Club with 2 other couples and we eat together at least once a month. We also have a group text we’ve kept going for about 3 years. My wife said, “I need them like air.” I agree.
9. I started doing some pre-marital counseling this week for a soon-to-be married couple. My wife and I have gotten a lot of advice over the years. But none so good as what we received in our own pre-marital counseling. So that’s what I’ll be relaying to these two.
10. My wife’s cheese grits topped with slow-cooked roast beef and au jus is only surpassed by herself.
Echoes and Stars 
If you ever get discouraged about your writing, don’t give up. I enjoy your blog, I enjoyed your first book. I’m sure your next book will be good. I can’t be the only one who feels that way. May the Good Lord Bless you with a job you like, and keep blessing you with your lovely wife and kids!
Reader via The Wartburg Watch, basically a lurker that seldom comments. 🙂
Regarding #5, I was surprised, saddened when I learned that Brahms last heard his music when he went to a concert a month before his death. I can’t imagine what that must be like.
3. I am sitting about 75 lbs lighter than I was at this time last year, and I have definitely cheated on a good number of occasions, but you have just reminded me that I haven’t been cheating properly because it has been a long time since I have had 5 guys.
5. That is actually really hard to conceptualize… a world with no recorded music. I mean so much of the music that we hear anymore is there to half ignore, I would definitely imagine that it was once taken way more seriously than most take it today.