A Broken Flapper and Scratched Cell Phone

By Jeremy White

God has a wonderful way of teaching us lessons in the simplest of ways. My wife and I drink a ton of water and use our Brita Filter more than anything else in our house. I was getting the filter out of the fridge a couple of weeks ago when the lid fell off, hit the floor and broke the flapper. This incident put me in a bad mood for several minutes. My wife knew I was frustrated and after some time asked if I was still upset that the flapper had broke, which I embarrassingly admitted that I was. I couldn’t believe how upset I got over a broken flapper and how I had to use two hands to pour my water instead of one now. There are people around the world that would love to have clean drinking water whenever they wanted and yet I get hung up on a broken flapper. Now when I pour water I am reminded about being grateful, which is lesson 1.

Lesson 2 was the new cell phone I recently got in, which I kept the protective plastic layer on. I can be hard on phones whether dropping or scratching them so thought I would try and leave it on as long as possible. I had the plastic film on the phone for several weeks until it started to unravel a bit, so I took it off. The next day I was moving some dead branches from my backyard through the side fence to the curb. I was squeezing through the fence with a large pile of branches when I heard a big scratch. Wondering what the sound was, I look and saw that I had rubbed my phone that was clipped to my belt across the brick of my house. This mistake caused a scratch the size of Texas on the front screen which I was not pleased with. I took my frustration out on the branches crunching a big pile into small sticks.

Unfortunately, the scratched cell phone put me in a bad mood all the way through dinner, but also made me realize how much I love the material things of this world. Now every time I look at my cell phone I see a big scratch, but am reminded to keep my eyes fixed on the eternal, which was lesson 2. What simple lessons is God trying to teach you right now and are you really learning them? I am amazed at how God can use things like a broken flapper and a scratched cell phone to teach me so much. May God give you a reminder today of what He wants you to learn.

Darin and Mandy's wedding

The White Family

This is the most recent family picture that Sabrina took when we went back to Ohio about a month ago. For those familiar with Burton, we are outside the log cabin in the square in good old downtown Burton.

My God is so Big

This is one of Graydon's favorite songs. He was a bit distracted by the camera so his reaction wasn't quite as big as it usually is.

Sabrina's Photography booth at our local Fall Festival. Pray that there would be some good contacts made.

Two bottom teeth have arrived just before I turned 7 months old!

Graydon with Aunt Chrissy
















Graydon's first taste of Fall up north in Ohio, where the leaves actually change colors unlike Texas:)

Graydon's baby dedication at our church. Frankie a close friend of the family came out from Las Cruces, NM for a visit.

Graydon supports our troops! Wearing his Grandpa and Great Grandpa White's Army dog tags.

This is a bit old but still cute

We've gotten behind in posting...

This is a recent picture of Jeremy and & Graydon from our trip to Ohio a couple weeks ago. The other picture of G-man in his car seat is just cute!

Six Months Old already, where does the time go?

Graydon is six months! Can you believe it?! We can't. Sabrina took his six month pictures last week, here is a sneak peak at one of our favorites. Click the link to check out her blog at DefiningGracePhoto.com and scroll down a bit to see more pictures from this photo shoot.

Kissing Mommy

Graydon loves to give mommy big wet kisses. Most of the time he thinks its pretty funny and cracks himself up. Daddy just got the tail end of this "make out" session!

Graydon & Mommy

Thanks so much to my friend Shauna of Vision Yard Studios for taking this picture of us.

Trip to New Mexico

I, (Sabrina), went to Albuquerque NM for a long weekend for my annual "BFF" reunion with my three best friends from college. As you can see three out of the four of us have new babies (all boys). Mariah was very gracious to host all of us and all our baby gear for the weekend. From left to right we have Shauna with baby Simon, Mariah, Bryn with baby Keenan, and me with baby Graydon. Below is a picture of the three boys on the couch and below that are a couple pictures of Graydons first time in a pool!! He enjoyed it but was pretty mellow because it was very close to nap time when we went for our swim. The weekend was much needed and it was great to see my girls and be back in New Mexico!

It's been a long summer, so the elders gave me the week off. Sabrina, Graydon and I went to a Cowboy Church not too far from where we live. It was certainly cowboy, from the boots, hats, music, horses, and even the 10 commandments:)

Graydon in his cowboy boots ready to head to the cowboy church

Graydon's new popsicle

Taking a hike with the fam

Block party at our house, we had 55 of our neighbors stop by and had a great time getting to know them

















Daddy and baby g taking a nap

The Giving Tree and Turning 30

I just talked to my mom this morning and she was telling me that the big old apple tree in our backyard had finally fallen over. It had been rotted within for years after putting up a good fight. Every year that tree would bare hundreds of apples that my sister and I grudgingly picked up a lot of the time. My mom would always yell at me since I thought it was more fun to throw them across the yard and try to get them over the fence than to just pick them up and put them into old paper grocery bags. I usually got about half of the apples over the fence and my mom would mow over the other half that didn’t cross that green chain linked fence. That tree provided us shade from the hot summer sun, held up a hammock that we used to swing on, was our canopy for more parties than I can remember and now is firewood for an Amish guy down the street to keep his family warm in the winter. I think of the book “The Giving Tree” that was read to me as a boy and now I read it to my boy. I can only help but think of the greatest giver of all in God everytime I read that story.

As I turned 30 last month I was reminded at all that has been given and entrusted to me. I have wonderful friends and people in my life that have helped shape me into the man I am today. I have lived all over the country and experienced so much is such a short amount of time. I know there is still a lot of growth to come, but am grateful at what my life looks like today. I have served a faithful God even though I have not always reciprocated that faithfulness. Wherever you find yourself today no matter how young or old you are, take a step back and be grateful. God the giver of life wants you to know how special you are. Some of you may feel like an old apple tree that may look good on the outside, but you are rotting within. Some of you have already fallen over and everything has been exposed, what a great opportunity to realize where your trust and hope is fully lying in. There is a maker that can give you life like you have never experienced before now and forever, will you call out to Him today?

Daddy's little Cowboy

Graydon's first pair of cowboy boots. Thanks Aunt Kristen and Uncle George!

Look what I can do

International Youth Convention in San Antonio

Our little Texan
















Getting a picture by the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio



















Graydon at his first Christian Concert at IYC. Don't worry Grandparents, he had earplugs in and those big set of headphones on so he didn't even flinch at the noise.

Graydon in his new Hawaiian outfit his Uncle Elton gave him.





















Always helps to have an extra hand at folding the clothes.



















Our youth put on a morning camp for the kids in our Church neighborhood called Camp Oak Cliff. Everyone had a fun time getting wet and learning about the love of Jesus.












Our Little Firecracker, Graydon was all set for 4th of July with his new t-shirt. He was mesmerized by the fireworks, but enjoyed them more by watching them through the window inside our friend's house.

Trip to Phoenix

Graydon and I got to meet Grandma Caldwell (Sabrina's Dad's Mom) for the first time. What a sweetheart!














Sabrina got to visit her best friend Shauna and her little boy Simon. The boys don't know it yet, but they are going to be best friends too:)











Grandpa Rousay took Gradyon to his first baseball game at the Arizona Diamondbacks stadium. The D Backs lost 15-1, but it was still a neat experience to check out a new ballpark.











Visit to the Arizona Cardinals football stadium with my brother-in-law Jon. The temperature was 115 degrees at the time, so we didn't stay outside for too long.

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