Happy 25th!

Odd thing, silver wedding anniversaries. They usually happen to older people, not young couples like us. Well with that said, I thought I'd throw my own "list" together. They seem to be all the rage on blogs, facebook and the like. So, looking back over the last 25 years, here are some highlights....
Biggest Surprise: Our move to Terrace
Greatest relief for Joleen: God didn't ask us to take over the farm.
Hardest Moment to explain: I had taken a puck in the eye (shiner), Joleen had taken a falling casserole dish to the nose (more shiners) and we happened to be taking Kevin in to the doctor for (yah, you guessed it). They let us go without incident. Our reputation had preceded us.
Funnest family time: trip to Disneyland (I think I would have agreement from the rest of the family on that one.)
Average baby birth weight: 10 lbs
Didn't see that coming....
Steph: The girl that always said she would like to live up in the mountains with her dogs - now living in Canada's largest city with 5.5 million of her closest friends.
Ryan: He has turned into a fine carpenter at a young age and I'm still try to master a hammer.
Kevin: He convinced us to buy him a drum set (like we thought almost every teenage boy does) and he's never looked back since. Me? I'm still trying not to clap on the off beat.
Our God has blessed us richly over the years and has now added Leah to our clan. We have much to be thankful for!

Lead us Not into Temptation

First of all, let's get one thing straight; "God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone..." So, according to this truth expressed clearly in the book of James, when we pray that we would not be led into temptation, there isn't an inherent risk that God might tempt us. There is plenty of scriptural evidence though, that He is able to deliver us from temptation. Ps. 119: 35 says, " Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. " Direction, preservation and even our own desire to follow His commands all fall within the scope of things we can ask God for. We may think that that is not a prayer that God will answer but several places in Ps. 119 and elsewhere give us several precedents to express this prayerfully to God.
It seems obvious that the best way to be delivered from evil is not to spend any time on the road to temptation.
Another implication we can take from the fact that this specific prayer exists is that we are not to trust our own ability to fend off sin and the tempter. This is something we must go to God for; no if's, ands or buts. If we try to fend of temptations to our flesh, in the flesh, it will not work.
Neil T. Anderson said, "The essence of temptation is the invitation to live independently of God. " If ever there was an indictment against our flesh, there it is.