Ouch!

Archer is home from school today.  Last night while playing basketball with the youth at church he got an elbow in the face.  His diagnosis is a concussion and "probable" broken nose.  Poor kiddo!  Surprisingly he doesn't have any black eyes, which really surprises me.  He's in a bit of pain, can't walk straight, and is having trouble remembering things.   The thing he is most upset about with all this?  The fact that he is not supposed to read until next week.  He LOVES reading!  Not overly upset about not being able to play video games and having to miss recess at school, but take away the boys books and he's not a happy camper.  Have to say, I kinda love that about him. 

This seemed appropriate for the circumstances.....Alex Boye's "Churchball Anthem".

Alex Boye

Today I had the opportunity to go to "Strength of Youth" with Archer.  S.O.Y. is something our church does once a year for the 12-18 year olds.  They bring in a speaker, have dinner, and the 14-18 year olds stay for a dance.  This year was Alex Boye.  He is AMAZING!  He started off with a song and then spoke for about an hour.  The time flew by!  He is such a great speaker.  He is funny, his smile is infectious, he is self depreciating, and he is very inspirational.  I really hope the youth that were there tonight really listened to what he had to say, as it was important. 

Some of the points that he touched on were:

• How important words are.  That you need to watch what you say and what you think. 
• That a song is a prayer, so is the music you listen to a prayer to God or to Satan?  He suggested the youth print the words to their favorite songs and if they can't read them in church, they shouldn't be listening to it. 
• He talked about no matter how bad things get, how hopeless it might seem that Christ knows and understands.  He went through worse and never complained.
• Scriptures and cell phones.  How often do you look at your cell phone every day?  How often do you open your scriptures every day?  We carry our cell phones with us everywhere, but what about the scriptures?  The scriptures are our life line.  No matter how many times we read them, we haven't really read them.  We will ALWAYS learn something new and different.  We can read them every day for our whole lives and still have them be applicable. 

I have to give props to Alex Boye's pianist - Mr Smith.  He did a fabulous job.  He added a sound track to different parts of the talk and did it effortlessly.  He just sat and played.  No music, just feeling.  I could feel his joy in playing that piano.  So hats off to you Mr. Smith.

I do have video of Alex Boye's final performance tonight, but it's still on my phone.  So in the meantime, here is Alex Boye, Jon Schmidt, and Steven Nelson Sharp in the Piano Guys version of Coldplay's Paradise (Peponi).  Enjoy!