Rick Beeman

The is the last of the three part installment of my top 10 list of 2011.  At first I didn’t think 2011 was all that great.  But on careful recollection in going over the list I have discovered/remembered that 2011 was actually quite remarkable for me.  I think that is the value of counting your blessings and looking back for a short time.  One shouldn’t live their life in the past, but rather use it as a springboard for justification of their optimism that their future will be brighter.  My father always said, “May the best of your yesterdays be the worst of your tomorrows.”  Again, I reference Romans 8:28, as a believer each year should get better and better otherwise you’re not doing it right.  Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways.  Actually in my life, that’s the norm.  God doesn’t always make sense in the present.  Only in retrospect I see how His perfect plan had unfolded.  Take Tim Tebow for instance.  I am a life...

2011 was a real year of transition for me in so many ways.  For me following up 2010 was difficult, as 2010 has gone down as the best year of my life, so far.  The key here is “so far” as I believe that if you are doing it right, life should get better and better.  That isn’t to say you won’t have setbacks, rather the setbacks will not be debilitating.  With the right attitude you will be able to build on them.  I certainly had my share of setbacks this past year, but I refused to do be identified with the setbacks.  Instead I think of setbacks as just setting the stage for the comebacks.  If you would like to read the highlights of the aforementioned 2010 it can be found here.  http://rickbeeman.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html Jennifer gave me this idea about doing a top 10 list.  I think it’s a fabulous idea for a number of reasons.  First of all, it will be nice in a few years to look back and see what the actual highlights wer...

Sloan helping me write my blog. Three nights ago Jennifer and I were about to eat dinner.  We heard the doorbell ring.  Both of us were surprised as we hardly ever get unannounced guests.  So I yell to the door hold on, and I finish what I was doing and go to answer it.  When I opened the door, no one was there.  Doorbell ditch was my first thought until I looked down.  On the porch was a small basket with two wrapped pears.  The note on the outside of the package said, “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree.”  I thought it was cute.  I showed it to Jennifer and neither one of us had a clue to who it was from.  Jennifer thought one of the neighbors, I thought maybe someone from the new church we are attending.  Later that night was trivia.  That is my regular thing on Tuesday nights.  Not really sure why I enjoy it so much.  Perhaps it makes me feel smarter or I am g...

It was a nice moment earlier tonight.  Jennifer was taking a break from baby duty, my mother, father and I were on the couch.  We were all watching a movie.  I am pretty sure my mother was in heaven as she was holding Sloan while she slept.  I believe Sloan is different for her then most other grandparent-grandchild relationships.  Sloan is a little bit more than that.  I think Sloan represents not only God’s faithfulness to me, but to her as well.  Not only did I lose the relationship with my children like I used to have, but she lost her relationships as well.  They used to be very close, now they barely speak at all.  Its just another tragedy of divorce, the kids lose out on all the relatives as well.  When my divorce happened, it really hit my mother much harder than myself.  Why, because I knew how to channel my hope through faith. I learned to have peace in the midst of the raging storm.    For my mother, it w...

Sunday night was a pretty eventful night.   At about 9:00 PM we got our first and only (so far) offer on our house, which had been on the market since March.   We went back and forth and finally agreed on a price.   The next day we were scheduled to go into the hospital for the induction.   So Jennifer on Monday being a very 9 months pregnant hoofed it with our real estate agent to look at 12 houses to buy.   I think this was important.   The hospital finally called us at 9:00 pm to tell us that a bed had opened up.   So we got our bags and headed off.   We got admitted right away.   Jennifer was already dilated to one centimeter and was experiencing contractions already.   She was going to try to have the baby naturally.   I think all the walking helped.   We were trying to do whatever we could to avoid a C-section.   That was the plan if the inducing didn’t work.   For Jennifer’s health, we had to get this baby o...

I haven’t had much time to write lately, though I’ve had so many blogworthy items to write about.  I’ve had my boys for the last six weeks and Im devoting all of my extra time to them and caring for Jennifer.  We are at a lull at the moment as its bedtime for Jennifer and I. The boys wanted to stay up to watch TV so I don’t feel like I’m sacrificing time with them.  Your prayers are so appreciative and coveted.  They really do work.  I feel amazingly blessed at the moment.  I feel my life is peaking, but the peak from this vantage point doesn’t seem to have an apex, it just keeps getting higher and higher.  Isn’t that how life is supposed to be?  I don’t mention all of the blessings in my life to gloat.  Instead I try to use my hardships as a testimony to how God can turn a life around.  I’ve heard a lot of dramatic testimonies of people lives before and after Christ.  But since I’ve been a Christian virtually my entire life, I have...

It was a nice day today.   I am enjoying my career thus far at SAS.   To update you, Jennifer had planned on moving to Dubai to join me.   Then at a crucial moment I was waiting on a key decision from the people I was working for in Dubai.   That same day I got a job offer to come back to the US.   I don’t really think it was entirely my skill.   It was more like they were trying to keep my wife in the US.   Since the timing was so perfect, the day we were to make a decision, it was an easy choice to come back to the US.   I have found that as long as you are walking according to God’s plan the hardest decisions become the easiest to make.    It seems that God closes all the doors and keeps one open so you really don’t have much of a choice.   That’s why it confuses me when Christians spend so much time searching out God’s will.   I think as long as you are living your life right, every choice you make is according to God’s ...