Sterling Griggs

Sometimes is hard to enter blog posts on a regular basis because, you know, life isn't always that intriguing. But my oldest daughter Chandler (7 y/o) has graciously agreed to help her daddy today in posting some of what has gone on in the life of the Griggs' family these past couple of weeks: So these two cats came up and they were so so sweet. We named them Pancake and Waffle. So we decided to keep them. So then somebody took Pancake. So Waffle is the only cat left. So she is really really scared. So this person named Cara that works with the homeschoolers at the church decided to keep her. So this is a picture of Waffle: Update: Waffle has found a home! A friend of ours wants to take Waffle in as a Christmas gift and will pick him up this weekend. Of course, she can name the cat what she wants to - I'm just glad he's found a home.

You've seen "that" parent out in public. The one with zero patience for his/her kids who yells and basically disrupts the whole place with non-stop barking. I saw one this past Monday at the grocery store. She fussed constantly at her kids while in the store and when they went to the parking lot, she stopped to talk to some friends. When her kids came over to ask her something she went off on them, ordering them back to the car and daring them to come out until she got there. Watching her ticked me off. I wanted to pull up alongside of her before I left and give her a piece of my mind. "Never would I treat my kids like that in public!" I told myself. And then I got home. It wasn't long before I found myself riding my kids for the little things they were or weren't doing. The next morning one of them finally pushed it too far and I got angry, saying things in a way that I immediately regretted. It was then I thought about "that" mom fro...

When I had to write papers in college and seminary, I would almost always come to a point where my thinking process would leave me hanging and I'd have to take a break until I could find my creativity again. Judging from the gaps in time between some of my blog entries, you could say I still occasionally suffer from this malady. One thing that the news never seems to run out of is controversial issues upon which to report. Newspapers and television stations get particularly giddy when state and national Baptist conventions get together for their meeting times each year. These media outlets do their best to draw national attention to the issues that Baptists are dealing with, forgetting that while although these issues get voted upon, each individual church is autonomous when it comes to its membership in the conventions. That's why this headline from the religion section of my local paper made me chuckle today: Convention of Baptists Less Divided than Usual . The Baptist St...

I'm terrible at waiting. Whenever I am asked what I consider to be my biggest weakness, without hesitation I tell them patience. I don't scream and shout in traffic or demand that my family be on the time at the precise second we are to leave, but in certain areas of my life I am very impatient. I struggle to wait for myself. What I mean is that when I know that there is an area that I need to improve upon, I get frustrated when I don't arrive at my goal immediately. Whether it's trying to stay disciplined spiritually or striving to order my days better, it chaffs me when I can't work out the details right away. Then there is the area of God's desire for my life. Like many of you have probably done at some point in your life, I long to know for certain where it is that God wants to use me and to what extent. This doesn't mean that I'm looking to get out of what I'm doing now but it does mean that I want to make certain that all I am doing is wh...

We've all heard that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But what about people? Doesn't there seem to be a point beyond which many people can't change or refuse to change? I've heard that when it comes to salvation, most people surrender to Christ by the time they are 18. After that, it becomes less and less likely that someone will be saved. Is that because of a hardened mindset or is it because their hearts and minds become so filled with other worldly things that they just simply can't accept the validity or truth of Jesus? And what about the life of the believer? What if you were confronted with a fresh perspective on how you viewed certain theological viewpoints? Would you be willing to possibly adjust or even abandon your viewpoint altogether if you realized that your previous view may not be accurate? What about the way that church is "conducted?" By this I mean, if the church you attended made the decision that drastic changes in wors...

There are probably millions of blogs showing up today about our new president-elect, Barack Obama. Unlike those others, this isn't intended to attack his policies or even him as a person. Rather, I want to lift him up. Reaction by Christians has been strong on either side for Obama. Many have, unfortunately, doomed America to destruction by his election and others have even "threatened" to leave the country altogether. Prior to the election there was the slew of emails labeling him as the antichrist or even as a closet Muslim. Obama has claimed to be a follower of Christ and until I see otherwise, I will take him at his word. And none of us knows who the antichrist will be so to label him as such is a stretch. Look, I did not vote for Barack Obama. My concerns were many: His inexperience, his desire to provide many programs that I believe will inevitably raise my taxes (and then some after the Bush tax cuts aren't renewed in 2010), his stance on extending abort...

I was reading in 2 Chronicles 29-32 this morning and the example of King Hezekiah of Judah blew me away. If you take any time to read through the Old Testament books of 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles, you will see long lists of kings who ruled over both Israel and Judah. And, for the most part, these kings "did evil in the sight of the Lord." There are a few that stand out - Asa, Uzziah, Jotham, etc. - and then there's Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the son of King Ahaz, a king who did not do what right in the Lord's sight. Ahaz's father was king Jotham whose father was king Uzziah, both of whom served in honor before the Lord. Hezekiah's primary example would been that of his father and Ahaz served as a poor one at that. But Hezekiah chose to break from that example. 2 Chronicles 29:2 says that Hezekiah "Did what was right in the Lord's sight just as his ancestor David had done." The next couple of chapters chronicle the faith of Hezek...