Tribute to Fathers

I am fortunate to have been raised by a father who understands what it means to be a man of integrity, a man who provides for his family, a man who loves God, a man who is loyal to his wife and children, a man who has a positive attitude, and a man who always does his best.  I hope that I can emulate these traits for my three sons.


I found this video which summarizes the significance of Fathers.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013&lang=eng&cid=HPTU061014222

Below are pictures of the 4 most important people to me.

Value of Service

On April 6th I was asked to be the "bishop" of the local congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This is similar to being a pastor.  I was told by the men who oversee the congregation that they asked me because they felt in their hearts that this is what God wanted.  What can a person say besides yes, when we are being asked by God (through other people) to serve.

On April 13th I began serving as the bishop.  Image, being responsible for all aspects of a congregation of 380 people, while having a busy full time job, being a father of 3, and taking care of all other aspects of life.  I am helped with this responsibility by two men who are assistant pastors and by nearly all of the members of the congregation, who each have assignments to help.  Much of my role is to direct the efforts of others and to seek to understand God's will for our ward (congregation).  I also play an active role in ministering to the boys who are 16 - 19 years of age.

It has been an amazing experience, an experience that I wish everyone can have.  Through serving as the bishop I have seen the following blessings:
  - I have felt inspiration from the Holy Ghost about things that our congregation needs to do
  - I frequently feel God's love for the people within my stewardship
  - My family has been blessed with greater peace, despite the fact that I am out of our home more
  - I feel blessed to be able to prioritize and to be more efficient in my professional duties
  - I am amazed to see the faith, strength, and diligence of my wife
  - My relationship with Jesus Christ has become much more personal

I am excited to see how the blessings, growth, and challenges, which will come over the next few years.

Anyone is welcome to join us on Sundays at 11 am on Waverly Drive in Albany, OR.

David Blunck

Blessings

My wife and I have been reminded about God's love through the process of selling our home in Ohio.  When we first put it on the market I felt that it would take awhile to sell, but that everything would work out.  As time passed the reality of having a vacant home in Ohio became more real.  As my wife and I continued to pray and fast that our home would sell I continued to feel at peace that everything would work out in proper time.  A week ago we finally received an offer on our home.  The offer was very low, so naturally we counter-offered.  Again, I felt the peace that we had felt before - that everything would work out.  The peace continued even when our agent was told that the prospective buyers were near their financial limits (which was much lower than we would accept).  I am prone to worry and fret about things that I can't control, so I know that the peace we felt was from God.  On Thursday of this week we were notified that our counter-offer was accepted!  We are very excited and anxious to close this chapter of our life.

Through this experience I am learning several lessons:
1) Trust in spiritual promptings even when logically things don't make sense.
2) God's perspective is much different than our own.  The feeling that everything would work out has been true, although not what I expected.  For example, we will not have the return on investment for the home that we desired (or think we deserve), but our home has been safe and protected through one of the coldest winters on record.  In addition, my job has provided more than enough income for us to live with two mortgages.  So has everything worked out?  Absolutely.
3) God allows us to be stretched to grow.  My faith in receiving personal answers to prayers has grown through this experience. 

So for people going through difficult times - turn to God and trust in him.


A link to our home is shown below for those interested.

http://dayton.rapmls.com/scripts/mgrqispi.dll

Family Life

My family is amazing and is my greatest sources of joy!  This last weekend we went to Portland, Oregon to visitor center for my church.  The boys had a blast.  Below is one of the pictures from our trek.

David Blunck

Faith and Moral Absolutes

The significance of faith has been on my mind recently.  There seems to be a shift in society away from faith in God and a leaning toward moral relativism.  The latter idea being that there are no absolute right or wrong decisions in life.  As an engineer/scientist this defies everything which I understand.  Science is founded upon absolutes.  If I jump off of a building I will fall.  If I put certain chemicals together reactions occur.  If a balloon is put over a fire it will pop.  Etc...  These actions occur every time, even if I don't understand the reason for it.  To summarize, there are actions in reactions in all aspects of our life.  The pursuit of science then is to better understand the cause and effect of actions.  Just as how there are physical laws that have consequences, so also are there moral and spiritual laws which have consequences.  To acknowledge that there are physical absolutes, but not spiritual or moral absolutes does not make sense to me.  Our job, just like we do in science, is to understand these spiritual laws and then live our life accordingly.

The underpinnings of spirituality is faith.  Faith is believing in something which we can't see, but know is true.  So, how do I have my faith in God and Jesus Christ, both of whom I have never seen or heard?  I know that They exist because I feel it - through the Holy Spirit.  Just as people are motivated by love (which cannot be seen with mortal senses), I am motivated by special experiences and feelings which I have had.  I know that these experiences came from God and I know that other people can experience this as well, if they seek it.  I have performed "experiments" where I have come to understand things in a spiritual sense.  Other people can do it, and if what I believe in really is moral absolutes, then they will receive the same responses.

David L. Blunck



   

The Wonder of Marriage

This past week my wife and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary!  It was been great thinking about the past 10 years, how much has transpired (e.g., 3 kids, 3 homes, graduated from college, 2 jobs, multiple moves, etc.), and considering how fortunate I am to be married.  My wife is amazing and is the anchor of our home.  I am so grateful that she puts up with me and teaches me how to be a better husband and father.  She truly completes me.  I believe that marriage is ordained of God and is part of His plan.  This knowledge has a profound influence in my marriage.

There are several things about marriage that are important to me:

1) Marriage is often depicted as something that people can get in or out of as they please, almost like shopping around for cars.  Marriage is an eternal commitment between my wife and me.  Irrespective of frustrations and challenges we are both committed to each other because we know that are relationship can be eternal.  Honestly, it takes work to sustain our love.  My goal (although I fall short often) is to put the needs of my wife above my own.  This is true love. 

2) Marriage is between a man and a woman.  Marriage is so important in God's eternal plan that he specifies that it is to be between a man and a woman.  I say this with no hard feelings or ill will against those who advocate same sex marriage. While I respect their desires to live and act as they please I do not support the act of marriage for people of the same gender.  My experience is that only when we follow God's plan are we truly happy and blessed.

3) Marriage is worth all the challenge and effort.  For two months this past summer I lived in Ohio finishing up work while my wife and kids were in the West.  This gave me must more "free time" (although I found myself just as busy).  Near the end of my time apart from my family I reflected on how I felt during our absence.  Obviously, I missed my wife and kids dearly, but more than that I was struck at how flat my life felt.  My life was not as meaningful or rich.  Sure, I did not experience the frustrations that come with parenting, but my life was not nearly as rewarding.  It was a good reminder to me of how important marriage and family is and that there will be no greater joy which we can experience in any other pursuit.  I feel sorry for those who put off getting married or starting a family.  Nothing has been more rewarding and worthwhile to me.

Below is a picture taken by my 7 year old.  It is not the best picturs, but it sadly the only one we have from our anniversary.  I look forward to another 10 years and more!

David Blunck

We do Hard Things

In our family we have a motto - "We do hard things."  It is human nature I suppose to avoid things that are hard or challenging.  Yet, it is through setting goals, tackling challenges, and trying to become better that we grow and develop.  As parents it is important to not shelter our children from hard things.

A week ago we had one of those opportunities to do hard things.  We had nearly a foot of snow fall over two days.  So we piled snow around the base of the trampoline and then my oldest and I slept outside in our "snow fort."  My second son was going to sleep with us as well, but he ended up sleeping inside because of some poor choices.  My oldest son loved the experience!  He was more teachable and humble than any other time that I can remembered.  We talked about school, his choices, things that concern me, and he proudly showed me how well he could do math in his head.  He loved sleeping outside and felt proud of himself for his accomplishment.  the next day he told both of his grandma's about his feat. I will admit that I did not sleep well and would have preferred to sleep inside, but the next morning I knew that it was worth it becauseI had helped my son do a "hard thing." 

Below are pictures taken the day after our adventure.

The entrance to our cozy abode.

Nothing is better than snack in a snow cave.

My second son enjoy hanging out with his brother in the fort.