Simple Basics.

It is late and I am still wide awake. Most likely from a combination of coffee and the fact that my brain has been going strong, working on a paper for school. So I have a little bit of time before I crash and I thought I would just share a few things that are just on my mind.

1) Sometimes the Lord reminds you of the basics of our faith. Its not like I don't already know that Christ loves me and died for me, but sometimes in the busyness of life we loose sight of the significance of that. I have had two instances where lately it just "hit" me again... how great and loving a sacrifice he made so that I could not only live forever with him in heaven but also so that I could have a relationship with him while I am here on this earth. The first of these reminder moments was while watching the cross video. Man was that not powerful? (for those of you who watched it) As I get older I find my stubborn, and what used to be an uncompassionate heart, softening and let me tell you it was so powerful when Billy Graham looked at that screen and said "if anyone is in Christ he is a NEW CREATION! the old has gone and behold the new has come!". This might sound silly but to hear that was like such a breath of fresh air... a reminder of how Christ rid of all of my old junk and made me completely new. And let me tell you also that I LOST IT when it occurred to me that possibly MILLIONS of people had just heard that incredible truth. When you ask the Lord to give you a heart for the lost He WILL DO IT. 

2) I have been incredibly blessed this semester with two things. One is a core group of really godly girl friends who have been the BEST encouragers in the faith. The second thing that I have been blessed with is another group of friends who are not believers.. who are from all walks of life that I get to love on and share the love of christ with almost weekly. I have discovered more than anything this semester that dying to self and loving and serving other people is where real life is found. We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus. It takes effort but the effort is always worth it. This picture pretty much sums it up. 

3)  Life is messy sometimes but I don't think I would trade the mess for anything. It makes us stronger, makes us more compassionate, and gives perspective. 

Thats all... nothing really deep. Just the thoughts that are on my heart tonight. I am stopping now because I am sure I am rambling! 

#knowhim #makehimknown 

  With much Love, 

           Kaitlyn Grace

Rear view mirror talk

I was really tired about thirty minutes ago because it has been an incredibly long and hard week but I got a second wind suddenly so here we are…

I thought I would share this because for many of my Albany peeps, it is hard to keep you all updated on life with Kels and myself so this is an update as well as a testimony (again) to the faithfulness of the Lord. 

You know sometimes (actually most of the time) the Lord doesn’t reveal to us why he takes us through certain things or why he allows things to happen the way that they do but looking back, his reasoning is usually crystal clear. Mike Fortenberry ( a guy my dad was good friends with in high school that now teaches sometimes at the new church Kelsey and I became a part of) said something I won’t ever forget regarding this. He said, “Your rearview mirror is for perspective not direction.” You see, we look back on the past not to live in the guilt of sin, but to see the faithfulness of the Lord. It gives us perspective.

Kelsey and I were talking about this very thing this morning. Just to share a little bit about our journey here in Columbus… Kelsey and I moved here for two reasons. 1) to go to school because our grandfather offered to let us live with him and 2) to live with him so that he would not be alone since our grandmother passed away from cancer three years ago. Coming here was very hard. There are many reasons that it was hard. Some hardships were to be expected, such as missing family and etc but other hardships were not expected. We both felt like the Lord walked us through a season of life that was almost like a spiritual desert. We both grew personally with the Lord because suddenly we were not in any type of Christian community anymore like we came from at Sherwood and so we just had a lot of one on one time with the Lord. And this was really good, but doing life with out any close fellow believers walking beside you is HARD. THANK GOODNESS Kelsey and I had each other. We had found a church that had pretty solid teaching, but we had a really hard time connecting there. Kelsey described it as “feeling like an outsider” when we went. To clarify, this church is a great church and we are not downing it. For some reason there was just not a lot for us to get involved in there and we had a hard time connecting with people there, but it was a good church none the less.

Those of you who have been through this same scenario know that it can be frustrating to not have solid Christian friends to be accountable to and study Gods word with and do life together with. So we describe that season of life as our spiritual desert simply because it was just us and the Lord. We felt very alone many days.

Recently I’m sure some of you saw my post about the new church called “My Church” (the name is taken from Matthew 16:18 where Jesus says “ I will build my church” in case any of you wondered about the oddish name.) that Kelsey and I have become a part of. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I have been a little emotional about becoming a part of that church (a good emotional) because, to use a word picture, it has almost been like the Lord has opened the door to a dam and the dry river we had been walking in was suddenly engulfed with water. And It has been a little overwhelming….in a really awesome way. The Lord has just provided so many people in a VERY short amount of time who have helped us plug in quickly and who made us feel like we were never not a part of My Church. He has provided women (one in particular… who also has a heart for adoption..eek!) for us to be able to be mentored by and look up to and observe to try and figure out this whole “growing  up and being and adult” thing. I. MEAN…. I get emotional just talking about all of the things that the Lord has orchestrated in the past few weeks that have ended that spiritual desert that we went through. HE. IS. AWESOME.

But going back to that statement about the rear view mirror…even though the desert we went through was hard on some days, Kelsey and I both agreed that we would not trade it for the world. We grew closer to each other, we grew closer to our family, and we grew closer to the Lord. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad it is over for now, but I look back and am in AWE at the faithfulness of the Lord even when I was not faithful.  Now I appreciate even more the gift of Christian community… I have more of a passion to serve… I have more of a love for Gods word… all because of the desert. Our faith is not tested in times of prosperity and ease. It is tested in the darkness of those really hard days when you won't make it except to rely fully on him and trust that his word is true when it says that he is GOOD and SOVEREIGN and WISE and COMPLETELY in control. 

Looking back… I can tell you. He IS good. He IS sovereign. He IS wise. He IS COMPLETELY in control. He LOVES us. He is FAITHFUL and he NEVER fails. 

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of faith- which is more precious than gold- may be found to result in praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

James 5:11 You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

Is 26:3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

#knowhim #makehimknown #gratefulforthedesert #heisfaithful

until next time...

But If He Doesn't

        The Lords timing is impeccable. I have seen over and over the perfection of not only his timing, but also the sequence of his timing when teaching me things. I have had something on my heart that I wanted to share in hopes that maybe it will speak to someone else. But even if it doesn’t… it is still a testimony to his awesomeness so I am going to share it anyway.

        So sometimes there are things that the Lord teaches through other people that you never forget. For example, I will never forget the sermon when I was in high school that was taught by Stephen Kendrick about how we DON’T follow our hearts but we lead them (Proverbs 4:23) because the bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). So recently I have had two of those moments in time where the Lord spoke very clearly to me about something and I will just never forget it. In fact, I can’t get it out of my head. It has me checking my every motive.

      The first one was a Sunday when I was actually in Albany sitting in Sunday school. Steph (our Sunday school teacher) said something that wasn’t even really part of the lesson. She recalled the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego (sp??) when they were about to be thrown into the furnace. This is what they said…

      Daniel 3: 17 “If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us our of your hand, O king. BUT IF NOT, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

      Now I have read that passage a million times. Trust me… but some how I missed that three-word phrase, “BUT IF HE DOESN’T”. Steph said it perfectly when she asked the question what is that “thing” for you that you are asking God for or asking God to deliver you from? What is that BUT IF HE DOESN’T thing for you? For some girls it may be “if he never provides a husband for me”, for some it might be “if he doesn’t heal my family member from X disease”… etc you get the point. What is that thing for you? Once you answer that part of the question you have to then ask yourself if you will be faithful to him and serve him regardless. BUT IF HE DOESN’T, I WILL still serve him because he is worthy. Man that just wrecked me and I let it sit for several weeks…

        So the second thing that really drove that first point home (remember I said the Lord always has a perfect sequence to things so that we really get it) was a few weeks later when we were studying the book of Job. Very similar setting to the first…in Albany…in Sunday school… Steph is teaching… and she read this quote out of the biography of Ron Dunn. This is what it said….

              "I believe the theme of this book [Job] is not "Why do the righteous suffer?" but "Why do people serve God?" Will a person serve God for nothing if there are no blessings attached or no payoff? . . . What if, after you have said, "I'm going to start tithing," you go bankrupt and lose everything. What about that? Will a person serve God for nothing? Is there such a thing as "disinterested piety"? In other words, is there such a thing as a person worshipping God without any interest in the blessings that might come? Or is it true that we serve God knowing that, if we do, He's going to bless us? It's easy to be good when the good have the goods. IT's easy to serve God when everything is going your way. But here's the question: Is God alone worthy of our service without any of His blessings?"

          The obvious answer to that question is a resounding yes! Like I said earlier I came to a point where I got it. We don’t serve the Lord because of the things we can give us. We teach our kids that about relationships don’t we? We teach girls that you don’t marry a man for what he can give you or how rich he is. You love and marry a man for who he is… for his character. Well, it is the same with God. We love him because of WHO HE IS because that ALONE is enough of a reason to love and serve him. God’s word says that he is I AM.

             Think about Job. Satan basically told God that Job only served God because of the things that the Lord had blessed him with. So God was like “Fine. Lets take all that away and you will see that he will not turn his back on me.” Can the Lord say that of us? Can he say, “Kaitlyn serves and loves me because of who I am not for what I give her.”?

              These two things I can’t get out of my head. They keep running over and over and I keep finding situations where they apply. The lord is worthy of our praise and love and worship because of who he is. That is how we can say BUT IF HE DOESN’T I will serve him.

           This was one of those Ah Hah moments for me. I mean I knew this but you know what I mean when I say I finally “got it”…Deep down. If you really asked yourself why you serve the Lord, what would your answer be?

               The incredible things is that even though the Lord doesn’t OWE us anything, and even though he is worthy of love and praise and affection just because of who he is, he DOES still bless us. He still answers our prayers. He has made promises to us that he will never break. HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON so that we can be FREE. Yes people… we are beyond blessed.

#knowhim #makehimknown #heisworthy #butifhedoesn’t #iwillalwaysservehimalone

until next time.... 

Getting the Point and Sharing the Gospel

   So I have discovered the meaning of "I AM". God is the I AM. God says he is many things in scripture, like the bread of life...the living water. I came to the realization that many of the times he names himself, he is referring to himself as the answer to a persons need...he points out their physical need and uses that to explain their spiritual need. Why because people can often understand the intangible if you can show them using the tangible. I AM isn't just a general way to say that God is everything to us. I mean he is everything to us but I believe he means also that he literally is the answer to your need. Whatever your need is, fill in the blank...HE IS the answer to your need. This statement is broad but also very personal and specific. Tonight a man named David Nasser shared his testimony about how he got saved despite having a muslim background, and ironically he got saved because a group of christians met many physical needs that he had. Because they cared enough to meet his physical needs, they then had the validation to share with him that they had the answer to his spiritual need as well. In the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, they were hungry and so he fed them. He met their physical need. The next day all of those people came back hoping to get their physical need for food met, and he then used the opportunity to share with them that he could also meet their spiritual need. He said, "I am the bread of life". That IS the gospel. Interesting that he used a description for himself as the answer to their spiritual need that was aligned with their physical need. Why? Because they could relate and understand what he was saying. Jesus is the "I AM...". They needed physical food to sustain their lives, but they also needed spiritual food to sustain them. Jesus said "I AM the bread of life". HE IS the answer to our spiritual need.
   One of the things that I love about currently working in the medical field is that you are constantly making your best effort to meet someone's medical need. Some people aren't grateful for it but most are. This makes it very easy to share the gospel with people BECAUSE they know that I have the knowledge to meet their physical need, therefore maybe I also have the knowledge to meet their spiritual need and they often open up very easily. I know that they need Jesus and that he is the only thing that really satisfies, but they don't. I can't tell you how many opportunities I have had to share the love of Jesus and the gospel (what they spiritually need) WHILE we are sitting in therapy meeting their physical need. This is the key. This is what I have personally missed all this time.... People are much more likely to listen to the gospel, if they see that your life reflects love and in love, meeting their needs. Isn't that what people want the most anyway? For their needs to be met? What do men fear the most? The inability to meet the needs of their family. When are women most upset? When their emotional needs go unmet by their husband or family. Needs are a large part of peoples lives and to meet someone's need is to automatically connect with the heart of that person. This is crucial in sharing the gospel. The two go together. I get it now...and I'm not really sure how I missed that concept all this time.
Until next time....

Romans 2:1-4

sooo...we continue the march through romans and we are entering chapter two. Just to give a short rewind........> in chapter one it talked about how God turned the people over to their sin because they would not accept Gods truth and so their sin became their punishment. Then we listed all the sins that were listed in chapter two and defined them and I personally found that i was guilty of many of those sins myself...OFTEN. Ex: arrogance, insolence. Interestingly enough the next chapter begins talking about...you guessed it....judging other people for the same sins you commit. *Sigh.... at this point we are only in chapter two and my toes are about to be stepped on. Here we go....

¹ You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ² Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Notice that verse one DOES NOT say that we are never to judge anyone (we may talk about this in a later chapter)...it just says that to what ever measure we judge we will also be judged. In fact it is even implying that if you judge some one for a sin that you are committing yourself, not only will they judge you for that same sin at the same measure but you are literally condemning yourself by judging them before you have yourself right!! At first this seems scary, but I would say this could be a good thing. If people know you are going to judge them (a better word to me here is "hold them accountable") then they in turn will also hold you accountable to the same measure. By holding someone else accountable you are setting the standard high for yourself. This is not necessarily a bad thing! 

Verse 2 goes on to say that Gods judgment is based on truth. At first this confused me because i was like well...if you are holding some one accountable with God's word then your judgment is based on truth too...huh??? see my confusion. BUT if you are judging someone but yet living in the same sin, then you are living a lie by holding them to a standard that you may try to MAKE it look like you are following...but you really aren't. So your judgement is ultimately based on a lie and I believe this is what God is saying. His judgment is ALWAYS based on truth and like verse 3 says...we would be foolish to think that we (the liars) will escape Gods judgment (based on truth). These last two questions in verse 3 and 4 are very simple so I wont go on... you can re read them if you need to. Rest of the chapter comes later..

Romans 1:18-32

So continues Romans. It takes me a while to get each post up and at times it makes me feel discouraged/behind...BUT I have found that God has used my "behindness" to teach me more that i can apply to earlier chapters...AND later chapters that we are in right now can relate back to the beginning chapters. So here goes the rest of Romans 1. It is a lot... In fact....ALL of Romans is a lot but it is so eye opening if you can stick in there and TRY to wrap your mind around it. YES...it takes more effort than other books but it is SO worth it.
So these next few verses are heavy words. It is thought that Paul is addressing/talking about non christians because of his heavy wording such as "they supress the truth with their wickedness" and "their hearts were darkened". I am not really sure of who he is talking to, but it is safe to say that that it is a detail that could make us miss the message of what he is trying to say in the end if we let ourselves obsess over it. (just keep that in mind as you read, because christian or non christian, the message still eventually leads to the fact that there is hope.) 
¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
It is interesting to note that it says that Gods wrath is being revealed. As if he has hidden it or kept it under restraint, giving people multiple opportunities to receive his grace. So at a certain point he just says fine, you are gonna have to deal with my wrath, which COMES from HEAVEN! And then he goes on in the next few verses to explain how they purposely rejected God although they had knowledge of him. Therefore...God's wrath was inevitable. 

 ²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

 ²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

 ²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

 ²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Well....that paragraph is slightly shocking at first glace. Gods wrath was simply to give them over to what they wanted. He gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts and their shameful lusts and over to a depraved mind. It is interesting that each of these things listed kind of deals with different parts of a persons being. After he talks about giving them over to sinful desires of their hearts he lists examples such as sexual impurity and idolatry. Both of these things refer to physical or materialisic struggles/sins. When talking about giving them over to shameful lusts he goes on to give the example of homosexuality. Although this sin is slightly physical, it is more of a problem of identity. It is very much an inward battle as much as an outward battle. Last he gave them over to a depraved mind. This addresses the psychological side of things. God gave them over to their mental sins/struggles. 
What is interesting to me was how it talks about how God gave them over to their sins, meaning that living in their sins was the curse or consequence for rejecting God and his truth. This means that homosexuality (although yes a sin) is a curse or consequence of sin as well. It IN ITSELF is PUNISHMENT. Homosexuality was God's judgment on them. It defiles the picture that marriage between a man and a woman give of the relation ship of Christ (the bridegroom) and the church (the bride). What is often interesting also is that in a homosexual relationship, there is a person that "plays the male or more masculine role" and the other "plays the female or more feminine role", although they are both the same sex. This is not always the case but sometimes it is and it is proof that even in a homosexual relationship people can not get away from the fact that a marriage needs a male figure and a female figure because that is how God created and intended it. 
What is scary is that i went through the list of sins that God gave to describe the people who he had turned over to their sin, and some of the sins I am guilty of OFTEN!!
1) Envy: discontent, resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities or luck
2) Murder
3) Strife: angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues, vigorous or bitter conflict
4) Deceit: the act of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth
5) Malice: the intention or DESIRE to do evil, the desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another
6) Gossips
7) Slander: the crime of making a false spoken statement damaging a person’s reputation
8)  God haters
9) Insolent: showing a rude or arrogant lack of respect
10) Arrogant: having or revealing an exaggerated sense of ones own importance or abilities
11) Boastful
12) Invent ways of doing evil- note: he does not say they invent new sins, they just invent different ways to commit sin
13) Disobey parent
14) Senseless: def 1: incapable of sensation. Def 2: no common sense
15) Faithless
16) Heartless: complete lack of feeling or consideration
17) ruthless: having no pity of compassion for others


I am guilty of some of these! self check! Are any of these sins becoming a lifestyle??  
Stay tuned....This leads right into the next chapter about judging other people. 

Romans 1: 8-17

It seems like whenever you try following after the Lord diligently, the devil tries more than EVER to make you tired/ make you have a headache/help you make excuses to put Gods word off. Hence, it has taken me FOREVER to blog about the next verses! Im determined he won't win....so...here is verses 8-17
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.⁹ God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you ¹⁰ in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
Last night I went to a "parenting talk" by Josh McDowell and one of the things that he said that stuck out to me was that relationships are the foundation for everything. We were made to have relationships... a relationship with God and relationships with people. In saying this he also said that we often "preach the truth" or quote scripture but there is no relationship with the people we are preaching the truth to. He said, "Truth without relationship leads to rejection". Paul, in Ephesians 4:15, refers to "speaking the truth IN LOVE" and David in the book of Psalms says, "I am constantly aware of your UNFAILING LOVE, and I have lived according to your TRUTH". Both of these verses tie the truth with love or, in other words, a good relationship. In these verses in Romans Paul is explaining how he is preaching the gospel of Jesus to them and to others, BUT he says this in the same sentence in which he makes an effort to applaud them regarding their faith! He is also talking about how he has tried MANY times to try and get to Rome so he can fellowship with them and encourage them (as u will see in the next verse). He is trying to establish a relationship with them, ALTHOUGH he has not actually be able to get to Rome to meet them and talk to them in person! He understands how important it is for him to establish a good relationship with them so that they will listen and apply the TRUTH of God that he is about to try and teach them!
¹¹ I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— ¹²that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. 
In verse 11 Paul is NOT saying that he can GRANT or BESTOW spiritual gifts! In fact he clarifies himself in verse 12 by explaining what he meant. He simply meant that by being with them, he could share his spiritual gift with them and they could share theirs with him, resulting in encouragement. You have to remember that Paul does a lot of lonely traveling and he hasn't exactly lived the "american dream" life, so he is probably longing to be with people who share the same desire to follow Jesus as he does. It is a break from being chased around by people who hate him or are trying to arrest him!

¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.¹⁴ I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵ That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

In these last few verses there are several thing to observe: 

1) Paul makes three "I am.." statements
"I AM OBLIGATED both to greeks and non greeks"...aka every body
"I AM SO EAGER to preach the gospel to you in Rome"....since his efforts to get there have been foiled over and over...it is almost as if he is relieved because he felt responsible to get the truth to them and has finally reached them through this letter
"I AM NOT ASHAMED of the gospel"...this basically sets him up for the rest of the book....

2) in verse 17 he says "righteous that is by faith from first to last"....My inital question was "from first to last what??". Paul simply means that the righteousness that you have is by faith from the minute you begin your spiritual walk with christ on earth to the last breath you take before you see him in heaven.


3) verse 16 is one of those verses that you hear a lot and so when you read it, it is really easy to read it fast and not think twice about it. It is actually very cool. Paul says that the gospel is "the power of God". That is....the gospel is literally God's power (his power was demonstrated on the cross). "For the salvation of every one who believes"... so it is GOD'S POWER and through his power we have salvation. By believing, we have salvation, salvation is through his power, and his power is the gospel! #a lot to ponder


SOOO....to sum these verses up....


Vs 8-13 Paul is trying to build somewhat of a relationship with them (after introducing himself in vs 1-7)
vs 14-17 Paul says that he is obligated to share the Gospel with every one (including them) and he is eager for them to read this letter because he has had a hard time physically traveling to them. He feels like he is beginning to fulfill his obligation to them, and so...he is eager. He is also not ashamed of the Gospel, hence his hard effort to get it to them, and also hence the things he is about to try to teach them! He is about to get into some TOUGH STUFF!!!