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I love my new job, but there are some challenges that come with it. When I worked for HC, I had a hard time with driving to the southern most exit in the Denver Metropolitan area from an exit just north of the down town area every day (about 27 miles). This would often get me to work on edge and angry about stuff. Now I drive the same distance, only it is a real pleasure. One of the greatest things about the drive is being able to see the actual front range. I start with a wonderful view of the Flatirons from my back yard and arrive at work with Long's Peak looming over the parking lot of my job.

One of the things I have conditioned myself to do recently is listen sermons while I am driving in the car. With sermons being somewhere between 30-40 minutes it is a perfect way for me to get some daily feeding from God's word, as well as, preparing me to be focused on Jesus. Since My Wife getting pregnant, I have been trying to be more in tune with being a husband first and a father second. Recently, My Wife and I completed the eight week course of Dynamic Marriage. This is a great Bible based way to better understanding God's standard on His relationship with us as well as with our spouses.

One of the earliest things I noticed was that the course provided My Wife and I a way to communicate using the same vocabulary. For example, when My Wife says, "in the spring let's go...." I hear, "in May or June let's go...." My Wife means, "in March or April let's go...." It's the classic The Far Side comic that has a picture of a man and his dog on top, and the man goes off about how bad the dog was and the bottom is the same man and dog and in the bubble is blah, blah, blah....

In the end I have been more awaret of My Wife's needs, which makes me what to need them more readily. At the same time, because she meets my needs I become more willing to meet hers. The first two or three sessions My Wife felt attacked, when I was just trying to share. She would do the home work introspectively, where I wasn't. As weeks went on, I think our approach to the homework flipped and I was looking at myself more. The biggest message to take from the whole class was three things: spend 15 hours a week having good conversations with one another, spend 15 quality hours with your family and pray with your spouse daily.

Which brings me back to the sermons I have been listening to. Because the speakers are married they all seemed to inject about the fact that they pray with their spouse. One I heard has a special prayer time once a week to cover more specific joint prayers. We've been on and off about this again, but one thing that convicted me was My Wife saying that praying together will allow our unborn child to hear my voice and the baby will know I am their father, when it's born.