Hill Country Writer

"A damn'd mob of blogging women." That's a paraphrase of Nathaniel Hawthorne's feelings about women.

I don't feel that way.

But, man, these ladies are blogging fiends. I'm talking about productivity here. How do they do it? Tip of the hat to Camy Tang for leading me to the One Thousand Gifts.

(The only guy I know who even comes close is Scot McKnight. I'm convinced Scot is actually a team of preachers spread across denominations. Scot must be a conspiracy. It's the only explanation for his prolific abilities.)

Have you seen this?


It's sponsored by Christian Women Online. Their expressed purpose is to unite women of faith. That's a good purpose, but I'm not a woman.

Still, I couldn't find any rule that said their One Thousand Gifts project was specifically to unite the women of faith. It seemed to be more inclusive than "Finding the Me in Mommy" or "Scriptural Fruit Cake," for example.

So, I'm going to list One Thousand Gifts, too. Try and stop me.

1. My wife, Amy, who keeps me in line.
2. My daughter, Carroll Jane, who we call CJ and who reminds me to slow down.
3. My son, Lyle, who reminds me to run (the pre-school teachers at our church call him "4 by 4").
4. My dad, the FedEx pilot, who taught me to dream.
5. My mom, who taught me to love.
6. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Wow, am I a bad Christian for not thinking of this until #6?)
7. My friend, Dan. (Who apparently ranks just under Jesus.)
8. In fact, the entire communications department starting with Keith (you're the best, man)
9. And Vicki (she is a Llama farmer!). I can't say how much you all mean to me in #7-9.
10. Oh heck, I can't leave out the development people. Like Perri. She taught me about dispensationalism.
11. And Connie, who gives me chocolate kisses and a poinsetta!
12. And Sherry, who just retired to be with her grandkids full time, but I miss her.
13. Let's see. More people. My sister, Renee, OF COURSE. She lives in San Antonio. And I love her to death. She can't tell a lie.
14. My brother-in-law, Greg, her husband. We had a good time at Laity Lodge. We need to kill each other on the XBox again soon.
15. My other brother-in-law, Rob. Amy's brother. You keep me honest, man. And we can watch slasher flicks together. Cool.
16. And OF COURSE, my blood brother, Nathan. I love you, bro. Enough said.
17. His wife, Tammy, who is still trying to help me understand the perspective of a Southern Belle. I'm trying (and I love you too.)
18. Their wonderful four kids. My daughter can't wait to spend Christmas with you all.
19. My sister's wonderful kid(s). The one that's out and playing with Lyle . . . and the one that's still cooking.
20. The sudden feeling of being overwhelmed by the tremendous blessings of my friends and family and the knowledge that none of them will think I'm ranking people here. This is a stream-of-conscious list.

More later. (If I'm crashing a party by doing this, I'll stop. I just think the idea is too good to limit to one gender, even if they are the fairer sex.)