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
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
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
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 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
Sunday, February 16, 2014
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
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.
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.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Integrity Diligence Excellence
As I prepared to become a professor I wanted to summarize what I value and what are the expectations for the students. The sign board is what resulted from this process.
Integrity - Making the morally correct decision, even what no one else will know. If we do not have integrity then we are not true to ourselves. The students I advise know that any form of dishonesty will result in them being removed from the group. Any form of dishonesty from the students I teach will result in them failing the course. People can take away from us many things (e.g. money, fame, etc.), but they can not take away our integrity.
Diligence - Working consistently and not allowing ourselves to become distracted by things which are not important. Any success that I have been blessed with I attribute to the talents God gave me and to working diligently. I am grateful to a father and mother who set an exampling of working hard. I have seen many people who have tremendous talent and abilities, but who don't apply themselves and so never succeed.
Excellence - Doing our best with the resources we have. We gain the respect of others as we do quality work and do our best.
So, if you are ever in one my students or work with me - you know what I expect and what to expect from me.
David L. Blunck
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Family Duty
I had an interesting experience yesterday that is worth sharing. At church we are assigned families to check on and to help spiritually and physically. I am assigned a single lady who uses wood to heat her home to reduce costs. She was out of wood so yesterday I arranged to go and get some. Prior to going I stopped by her son's house, who lives three houses down. Her son is about my age. As I walked up I noted that he had a small amount of firewood himself. He was not home so I went with two of my boys to get the wood. We came back to her house and proceeded to unload and stack the wood. It takes a while to unload and stack wood when your help is a 9 year old girl (her daughter), and 7 and 3 year old boys :). At some point her son came home (I think while we were unloading), but did not come over to help unload the wood. I will confess that I was also frustrated by the situation. I took the lead on helping this dear lady while her physically capable son has wood and is not taking care of his mother. Now it is not my place to judge her son, and perhaps he has challenges I don't know about, but it is hard for me to think of any reasons why he should not take care of his mother. It is our duty to help our family and to not allow that burden to be shifted to others until we have done everything in our power.
Thinking about this experience has caused me to think about my parents and how well/or not well I take care of them. It is easy to take advantage of those we love and to be selfish. I hope that I can teach my boys to take responsibility for their family. I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to spend that time with my sons and to teach them about service and manhood.
David Blunck
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