Steve Sikes Blog  

For 1 and ½ years I’ve had one NJ license plate on my truck.  That’s all I needed in Indiana and Nebraska where we’d lived before!  When the DMV handed me my new license plate to put on my truck – I put it on.  When the police stopped me (twice) in the past month for only having one license plate, I told them my “assumed’ truth: “I was only given one tag last year.”
. Then last Sunday, Dan Cooper made a comment to me on how “thick” my truck’s license plate was.  Sure enough, when we looked it was really two plates stuck together!
. Have you ever assumed anything and been fooled?  Have you ever assumed someone understood what you had said or done, only to find out the opposite?!  In relationships, assuming is a bad word.  Listen, ask questions, share, communicate – quit assuming you already know the answer!  What you’ve assumed about the other person may not be the truth at all.
. This is all easier to say than to do; ask my wife, Patti!  After 35 plus years of marriage, I still (once a week or so) fall into the trap of assuming that Patti and I are on the same page in our thinking when in reality we may be at opposite ends of the spectrum! 
. The skill of not assuming (via listening, asking questions, and sharing thoughts) is another way we can FIREPROOF our relationships!  God is good, and I’m driving legal!  Mr. Steve
.

They were both freshmen in college – he was 18, she was 17.  She asked him to go with her to her club banquet.  He accepted but first asked his older brother to take her out on a date to “check her out.” 
. Even with his big brother’s approval, he was more than a little nervous.  It was his first date ever and he didn’t know what to say – so he didn’t say much.  After the banquet was over, he took her bowling.  She beat him both games.  S-T-R-I-K-E ONE!
. Several weeks later he asked her to his club social.  She accepted and months later they double-dated to see the hit movie, “Love Story.”  After the movie, they went back to a locked car with the keys still in the ignition.  One policeman and two hours later, they returned to the college dorm where they each got demerits for missing curfew.  (Sorry, Dear.)  S-T-R-I-K-E TWO!!
. She wanted to get married; he wanted to play sports.  She wanted to rear a family; he wanted to raise a few head of cattle.  She wanted commitment; he wanted space!  She wanted to be loved, listened to, understood, honored, valued, cherished…; like I said, he wanted space!  S-T-R-I-K-E THREE!!!
. Being patient, kind, serving, forgiving, and respectful with someone quite different from you is difficult.  However, the LOVE OF THE LORD can not only resurrect “STRIKE THREE” relationships, but make them FIREPROOFED, too! 
. Thank You, God, for my last 38 and ½ years with Patti Klein Sikes!!  You are good!
. GIGATTAATTGIG!!!!!  

It was Tuesday morning and I had just gotten through praying with my brothers in Dan’s office.  Chuck Olley, a brother in Christ and a tug boat Captain, was a part of our Tuesday morning prayer time.  Afterwards, Chuck and I talked a little about his tug boat recovering the plane motor from the Hudson a little over a month ago and one thing led to another.
. I got to thinking, this week, about boats and anchors and went back to a book I have read several times called “Anchor Man” by Steve Farrar.  In one chapter, Farrar gives 50 coaching tips to parents (especially men) on how to coach your children.  Here are twelve of his “FIREPROOF” coaching tips:
. 1. Coach them how to pray.
2. Coach them that the most important book in all the world is the Bible.
3. Coach your sons that men protect women.
4. Coach them ahead of time how to handle pornography.
5. Coach your daughters that there are two kinds of beauty – outside and inside – and that inside is more important to you and God.
6. Coach them to do a job right – the first time.
7. Coach your son to be a gentleman and coach your daughter to be a lady.
8. Coach them that motherhood is the most important job in the world and definitely more important than a career.
9. Coach them to love people and use things – instead of the other way around.
10. Coach them that Daddy will never leave Mommy.
11. Coach them that there is nothing they could ever do that would make you stop loving them.
12. Coach them that there is nothing they could ever do that would make God stop loving them.
. Anchor your kids in the Lord! 
. God is good all the time.
. GIGATTAATTGIG!!!! 

There is a game I have not played in years called “Hide and Seek” – but I remember playing it when I was younger.  I remember the anticipation of almost being found; I was sure the person looking for me could hear my heart beating out of my chest and /or hear my deafening breathing.  But then there were times I wanted to be found!  As a young parent, I connected with my small children when we would play this game and I would hear my youngest daughter say, “I’m over here, Daddy!  Come find me!”
. Last night at Lee Smith’s funeral viewing, I had a déjà vu “Hide and Seek” moment.  Lee Smith’s granddaughter, Ashley, showed me a card she had written to her “Poppy” and placed in his hand in the casket.  She opened up the card and let me see her future wedding picture and then allowed me the honor of reading what she had written to Lee.  “I’ve been somewhere looking for you today” were words that jumped out at me.
. Ever since Ashley was little, these were precious words her grandpa would say to her – in person, over the phone, on a card – and that she in return would say back: “I’ve been looking somewhere for you today.”
. These words reminded me of two things: 1) My memories of playing Hide and Seek with my friends growing up, and my little children; and 2) God’s words of comfort through His prophet Jeremiah to a people heading for 70 years of captivity:  “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD,’ plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.  And I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD,’ and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD,’ and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”  Jeremiah 29:11-14
. We all need a future and a hope…especially when we realize calamity is coming or we are already in the middle of it!
. HOPE: Praying to the Lord, knowing He is listening!
. HOPE: Seeking the Lord, and finding Him!
. HOPE: Being restored and gathered; NOW THAT’S SOME FUTURE!
. GIGATTAATTGIG!!!!!

I Heard the Ocean Roar!
. I will never hear the roar of the ocean the same again!  Last Saturday I officiated an outdoor wedding on Amelia Island, Florida, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  Earlier that morning I had opened my hotel room’s sliding glass door to bask in the beauty and expanse of God’s ocean and hear its roar. 
. I had my Bible open, contemplating the upcoming wedding ceremony and was moved to read Jeremiah 31:35, “Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is His name.”
. Have you read Jeremiah 31 lately?  It will stir your soul.  It reveals a God who promises to fill priests’ souls with abundance and have a people satisfied with His goodness (Jeremiah 31:14)!  This is a chapter prophesying great sorrow and yet even greater joy!  God is faithful!  He promises to restore peace, hope, honor and gladness on His people.  He reveals the coming of a new covenant – a covenant of victory, of heart and relationship.  Years later, the Hebrew writer (a fan of Jeremiah’s) word-paints the blood of our Lord powerfully flowing through this covenant, empowering both forgiveness of sins and God’s non-remembrance of our sins committed against Him!
. And then I heard the ocean roar again and knew God’s promises are awesome and true.  God Is Good All The Time And Al The Time God Is Good - GIGATTAATTGIG!!!!
. GIGATTAATTGIG