Saturday, November 29, 2014

The Men in My Life~Part 2

 Kim Webb,  My First Best Friend

  I started the series on the Men in My Life with my father.  There were a few other great men in my younger days, my grandpa was one of those great men.  He died with I was really young,  but he made a great impression on my life.  He was a strong man who had handled many hardships in his life and overcame them to become a talented, hard working, very well respected person.   He could do everything from construction, to writing poetry.  He was a artist and owned cafe's in the 40's.  He could do anything, and anything he did he did well.  He lived a hard life,  but as a Grandpa he was amazing.

    Other men that made in impression in my life while I was growing up was my uncle, his best friend, my 6th grade school teacher, and his best friend.  They were great men who had a positive influence on me and loved me.  

    The sad thing was I didn't really have a friend my age during school.  I had a couple of friends that were fair weather friends.  When there was nothing better to do I was there for them.  It was a hard time.  I longed to have a good friend.  My friends were mostly the waitresses where I worked and they were work friends, meaning that at work they were friends, but outside of work there was no relationship. It was understandable, they were way older then me and had families and lives.  I started working as a busboy at age twelve.  The waitresses and people I worked had a great influence on my life, they taught me how to work and forced me to deal with people.  In that world I was accepted and  did well.  Outside of work it was hard,  I didn't relate with anyone my age and I think that working with all those women in the restaurants I learned to associate with older people.  I was comfortable with them and pretty much was accepted by them.

    So needless to say grade school and high school were dismal, lonely times for me.  I finished high school with not one close friend.  I knew a lot of people in the town where I lived, but none accepted me and thought of me as a friend.

    I still remember the night I met Kim Webb.  It was after high school,  I was at a youth dance in Holbrook, Az.  It was a young adult dance.  This man walks up to me and asked me for a ride home.  After that dance and the ride home, we were inseparable for the next year.  After that night every place I went he went, and every place he went I went.  I don't remember him not being there for the next year.

    Kim Webb was absolutely everything I wanted to be.  Handsome, funny, talented, happy, confident, popular, spiritual, and every other good thing you can think of.  I adored him.  He was a return missionary, and every mother wanted their daughter to marry him and I could not imagine why he wanted to hang out with me.  But he did and I adored him for it.   It was a hero worship from the start.

    The thing about Kim Webb was that I could just be me with him and he never judged me. He liked me for just who I was from the start.  He never made fun of me, never called me a name, never made me feel stupid.   From the first moment we met we were best friends.  From the very first moment we met we knew each other.  There was never a getting to know you phase, we knew each other from the start.  He was amazing.  I was everything he wasn't,  or at least I thought I was.  I had absolutely no self confidence,  I was unhappy,  had no friends, had no clue how to be a friend.  It was a new experience for me.  He loved me completely without question from the start.  With him I knew I was someone special and with him I felt like someone. With him I felt important.

     Kim Webb knew how to be a friend and he taught me how to be a friend.  He was always there for me and I knew as his friend I was important.  I had never felt that way before in my entire life.  From the very first moment we started hanging out, I just knew he loved me and I was important to him.  It was  the most amazing and important thing that could have happened to me at the time of my life and proved to be one of the most important friendships of my life.

    Often times in life we have no clue how our actions will effect those we come in contact with.  I think that about my friendship with Kim Webb.  He had no clue at the time he chose to be my friend that it was the most important event to happen in my life that would change my course forever.  His friendship was the most important event to happen to me up to that point of my life.

   That year I spent with him before I left to serve a mission was by far the best year of my life.  I had a friend, someone who loved me and understood me in every way.  That summer I had just gotten active in the Mormon faith and was preparing to serve a mission.  It was a hard year for me, but a joyful year.   I had a lot to over come before I left on my mission, and I would have never done it with out Kim Webb's love and support.

     It was great experience for me to have a friend like that.  I still think he was paid to be there, but he denies it.  Through his friendship and example I gained the confidence I needed to go on a mission.  We spent so much time together and he taught me by example and deed.   I would go with him to his work and he would come to and helped me at my work.  If I was struggling at work all I had to do was call him and he made it better.  He would talk me through it and I would be okay.    His family accepted me as a son, brother, and friend. I knew when I was there with his family I was loved completely.  Where ever he went I was there tagging along, from family events to single young adult events, I was his constant shadow.  Every thing important that happened to me that year he was there.  We traveled together, when to church together,  worked together, played together, and grew together.

    I fondly remember going to work with him.  He drove a logging truck so we had to get up really early.  It was hard work and I hardly got any sleep because I got of work just a few hours before, but I didn't mind,  I was just glad to spend time with him.  I loved going to work with him.  Sitting in the truck with him as it bumped along on the dirt roads.  It was bouncy and crazy,  but I was with my friend.   I would just sit and stare at him.  I adored him in every way.  One of the things that I loved about him was how happy he always was.  He never got mad or discouraged.  True story,  one day the truck broke down.  He fixed it and just a few hours later the fan went through the radiator.   He just laughed and took it in stride.  I was so amazed.  I would have been furious in every way, but not Kim Webb, he just laughed it off and started over again.  That was how he handled everything,  with a positive outlook on life, no matter the circumstance.

    He would work hard all day and if he knew I was having a hard time, which was most of the time he would show up at my job at 10:00 at night and help me.  I remember one really hard night at work.  I was in tears just crying and crying.  He called me on the phone and talked me out of the mood and a while later he was at my work helping me.  I could count on him.  The fact that I called and cried like a baby never bothered him,  he just took it in stride and never once made me feel stupid.

   Oh how I adored him and loved every moment spent with him.  As I look back, I must have been so needy.  Constantly dealing with my ups and downs.  He always knew how to make me happy.  On a trip to Conference I was having a really hard time, as I often did due to the total lack of self confidence I dealt with.  This particular night I was in a mood and feeling so sorry for myself and Kim Webb just sang to me.  I still remember the song he sung to me.  It was "I feel sad when your sad, I feel glad when your glad,  If you only new what I'm going through,  I just can't smile without you". etc.  I love that song, because it reminds me of a friend that cared for me so much.  That was how it was with him, he always new just what to do to make me smile and happy.

     His friendship was vital to my preparation for a mission.  He told me stories of his mission and taught me how to be a good missionary.  He gave me the confidence that I could do it.  He believed in my when at that time of my life I felt no one else did.  I had many obstacles to over come that year and with each one he was there to assist me.  From getting over bad habits to creating good habits, he was there to teach and instruct, and I never once ever felt judged my him.  He never once condemned me for a problem,  but he did encourage me to be better and had the confidence in me that I could do it.

   As I got closer to leaving for my mission the hardest part for me was I knew I would not see Kim for two years.  I hated leaving him.  To have a best friend like that was so precious to me that I could not stand the thought of losing him.  The night before I left we sat out side the home where I was staying and this is how it went down.

I was crying, no sobbing,
Kim was patiently seated in the drivers seat.
Sob "Will you still be my friend when I get home,"  Sob sob.
"Yes I will still be your friend when you get home"  Kim gently assured me.
Silent for a moment, except for my sobs.
"Are you sure?"  I choked out between more sobs.
"Yes I am sure." Kim promised.
Silent for a longer moment as I considered this between more sobs.  And the more I thought about leaving him the harder I cried.
"WHAT IF YOU GET MARRIED."  I cried out hysterically.
More patience from Kim as he answered with kindness, "Even if I get married we will still be friends."  He promised again.
"Are you sure?" I cried again.
"Yes I am sure"  he gently said again.
Still sobbing I considered this and asked many more questions to make sure that he understood that he had no choice, he was going to be my friend when I got home.  This went on for at least one hour and finally I got control enough after his constant assurances that he would be there for me that I went in the house, still not completely certain that I would be okay.

     My mission was hard.  Many times I wanted to quit and come home.  The one thing that kept me trying was that I knew if I came home early I would disappoint Kim and that, I would not do.  So I would just keep trying because I knew that at least one person in my life knew that I could succeed and believed in me.  I was not worried about disappointing anyone else,  in my eyes they all knew I was a failure, but Kim believed in me.  I wrote him every week with out fail and his letters always came at just the right time when I needed them most,  always full of encouraging words that helped me push to the end.

    And sure enough when I got home from my mission two years later he was my friend, only the friendship was deeper and sweeter  then before.  It has been 37 years since we met and our friendship has grown in sweetness and depth and is a constant blessing to me.  The wonderful thing is the circle has grown to include our families and friends.

    Kim Webb.  I still adore you and when we are together,  I still can't keep my eyes off you.   You are the perfect friend, brother, teacher, and example to me.  Through you I have learned what a friend really is and can be.

Thank you.  Brad

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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Men in my Life~Part 1

     Since this is a blog about men,  and developing healthy relationships with men,  I have decided to write about the "Men in my Life".  So for the next several weeks I will be posting about my close personal relationships with men that have impacted my life and blessed me beyond words.  I will share how we met and I will share personal insights to building, developing, and maintaining good healthy friendships that increase in dept and beauty as the years go by.    I believe with all my heart we are meant to have deep personal, intimate, and healthy, relationships with men.  It is part of Gods plan that his sons bond together to offer strength and support for each other to assist in returning back to him.  The journey is hard and a loving Heavenly Father did not intend for us to make it alone and without help.   How sad to go throughout life without taking the time to develop and nurture healthy loving relationships with our brothers.  So I hope you enjoy the message and I hope by my telling you of my close relationships with other men it will bring you greater understanding and inspire you to take the time to let others into your heart.

Dad, the first man in my life.

    I have thought about this a lot and even though my dad was a huge part of my troubled youth, I cannot write about the men in my life without starting with the man that is responsible for me being here and whether we like it or not we are a product of our Fathers.

     Before I go any further,  I need to say that I love my Dad with all my heart and admire the amazing man he is.  Relationships are a process that if we continue working at,  will eventually become what we need and desire.  That is how it has been with my Dad and I.  A process that through time we reached the point where we have come to now,  that is to say, where we understand and appreciate each other for who we are.

     My dad is a cowboy.  Not just a once in a blue moon cowboy,  he is a cowboy to the bone.  Those old fashioned kind that would never are seen without his boots on.  He reminds me of John Wayne in so many ways.   He was raised on a ranch in northern Arizona and he was raised by his grandmother.    Grandma Petersen was an amazing woman in every way.  She loved her grandson with all her heart.  "Buddy" my dad's name given to him by her,  was the joy of her heart.  She taught him all about ranching and cowboying.  He was raised to be a cowboy in every way.  He inherited all of the good cowboy traits, but he also had a few of the not so good ones and he was raised with out a father.  Grandma did a great job, but Dad had no idea how to be a father.  And he had no idea how to deal with a son, especially one like me,  that was not a cowboy.

     Growing up I worshipped the ground he walked on.  I remember in third grade the teachers were so worried about me.  I had a habit of putting my hands in the front of my pants.  Oh, they were so worried.  My mother would come to class to see what the problem was.  It was simple, but I was embarrassed to tell them.  Cowboys, and my dad always walked around with their fingers in the top of their pants.  I wanted to be just like my dad.  I guess I could have relieved a lot of stress if I would have just told them it was what my dad did, but I was to shy to say why and I knew they would laugh at me so I just let them think I had some other problem.

   I loved my dad with all my heart and like any son I needed and wanted and craved for his approval.
As a little boy I felt loved and excepted, but as I got older and my personality started to come out the distance between us started to grow.  I was a very sweet boy who loved girly things, from planting flowers, to playing dolls.  I love to write poems and wear my moms cloths.  As I look back I do not place any blame on my father for how he acted.  He had no clue how to deal with a "sissy" for a son.  It was against everything he new.  Men were men and did man things.  I was more than he could deal with.  In all fairness he did good most of the time, but there were times when it was just to much for him and I could tell by the look on his face, at least as a child, it looked like disappointment to me. My brothers on the other hand were real boys.  They loved sports, horses, tuff stuff and he loved them for it.  He could understand them, were with me, he had no clue.

    I have to admit,  I was a case.  I felt he didn't like me so I would go out of my way to drive him crazy.  In the 70's short shorts were the thing.  Wranglers cut really high.  Platform shoes and silk shirts with designs on them.   I would puff out my hair, put on the shorts, shoes, and shirt and parade out in front of him and his cowboy buddies.  It drove him insane.  Oh,  I would also tie a scarf around my neck.  I know,  it was a mean and cruel thing to do, but I was trying to get his attention.  The things we do to get noticed.

     The older I got the more distance we had between us.  My parents divorced and my mom had a few different husbands that also played havoc on me and my personality.  I think that drove me to want positive affirmations even more from my dad.

     Once I even went out for the football team to get his approval.  I worked really hard to get on the team and I made.  I hated every moment of it and when we went to the games I stayed on the bus.  I don't know what I expected from him, but it seemed to make no difference in how he felt about me, and it added another failure to my long list of them when I quit the team.  To make matters even worse at home, the small town where I was raised was a ruff place to be if you were a sensitive somewhat feminine boy.  Faggot was the common name used in the 70's for boys like me, that were different.

     At my school there were four groups,  the cowboys,  the jocks, the hippies, and the Mormons.  Some belonged to several groups, but if you didn't belong to one of them you were nothing.  I was not a cowboy, and certainly not a jock, the hippies did drugs and other things I would never do and I was not active in the Mormon faith at the time.  I was nothing and each group found a great pleasure in taunting me and teasing me.  From being beat up often, to being spit on frequently, ignored all the time, my self esteem was horrible.  I would go from school where I knew I was hated to a home where I did not feel loved or excepted.  At home I was called a sissy and at school I was called a faggot.  Life was pretty hard.  I grew more and more introverted and as I look back now I can understand why some thought what they did, but at the time it was confusing and hard.

     I remember one time I was playing with my little brother, tickling him and pretending I was Grannie.  We were having a great time.  My dad just went off.  He yelled at me to stop and told me I was a girl in a boys body and one day I would wake up and be a girl.  He informed me that was just what I wanted.  Please understand I don't tell this to belittle my father at all.  I remember at the time my mom had left him and he was not himself.  He was lashing out at me because I was the closet thing to my mother he could find at the time to  vent his hurt.  But at the time it crushed my heart and solidified my low opinion of myself.

     High school is a hard time even at the best of times.  To be raised in a home where I didn't feel loved and on top of that to move each year twice to accommodate my mothers marriages added to the distance between me and my father.  I ached to be loved by him and to cover my hurt I hated him.  That was how I got through it.  If I hated him it was easier to get over the hurt of not being loved by him.  I am sure that even moved him further away and added to his frustration.  During those years I still taunted  him by showing up in the most outrageous cloths I could find.  To his credit he endured them well.

    It is always great to be able and look back and have understanding.  At the time you are living it, understanding is hard to come by.  I lived those years in resentment of not having a father that loved me and accepted me for who I was.  All along he did love me, but did not understand what my needs were and so we both struggled.  I with the need for a father and him with the need to understand his totally foreign son.  It is funny and tragic how our struggles can build up walls around us and keep us away from the very thing we are fighting for.

    At the age of nineteen I was preparing to serve a mission for the LDS church.  I struggled with my feelings of hate for my father.  I talked to my bishop about them and his wise counsel was to not worry about it.  Go serve the Lord he said and it will work out.   So I left with a heart full of anger and resentment for him.

    My bishop was right.  The change started.  The most amazing thing was my dad wrote me every week of my mission.  You have to know him to understand how hard that was for him.  His letters were really short,  sometimes two sentences, but in my heart I knew that if he could do that he must love me and my heart softened.

     My dad had never in my life expressed that he loved my and he had never hugged me.  It was just something he did not do.  He didn't know how.  I am and always have been a hugging person and to me if someone does not hug they must not love you.  I need to hear the words also.  Some can go a life time with out needing hugs or words of love, but I cannot.   Dad just had no clue how to say the words.  I started to realize as my mission went on that he did love me and he was proud of me.  He still did not understand me, but he did love me.

      The most amazing thing happened when I got home off my mission.   My dad was a truck driver at the time so he was not able to come and get me at the airport.  We got home late and he was in bed.  I got up early the next morning to fix him breakfast.  When he got up and came into the kitchen the first thing he did was wrap me in a hug and he told me he loved me.  You cannot imagine how that felt.  To this day it is one of my most precious memories.  The perfect homecoming gift.

    It was a weird adjustment.  All the sudden I had a dad.   It took some time to adjust to that, but over  the years we have developed a wonderful meaningful relationship.  Dad frequently tells me he loves me and always hugs me when he sees me.  He is one of my greatest examples in so many ways.  He has shown me how someone can change and become what we need and I have learned that change is duel.  I had to grow  and learn also.  My dad is my hero.  Strong,  dependable, honest, kind, good, loving, honorable, decent, and his heart is pure.

     Life is a journey,  and if we persist in moving forward and keep trying to improve, it gets better and we learn the lessons we need to and we can come to love and understand those we thought we never would.   My dad is one of the greatest men in my life.  40 years ago I would have never thought that possible, but now I see and understand how important the journey was.  It's the ending that really matters, not the beginning.  And this ending is great, I love my Dad.

Brad

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Friday, November 14, 2014

Am I Gay?

     It has been a year since I choose to "Come out of the closet", so to speak, with my Blog and support group called JADE.  It has been a wonderful year and, oh my, how much I have learned.  I have to come to understand myself more and realized some things about myself that I didn't know.  This past year I have developed some amazing friendships that I am certain will last forever.   And, yes, these friendships are with men.  

    One of the interesting side effects of “coming out” and making a stand about the importance of "healthy male relationships", is that many of the first responses my wife and I have received is that I must be gay.  In fact, many have stated that they always new I was gay.  It totally amazes me how quickly we are to judge without knowing the truth.   One of the main reasons I have decided to open up is to fight the judgments many have about male relationships, by telling the truth about them.

    So, the question of the day is "Am I Gay"?   Years ago as a young man, I was confronted head on with that question.   From family that could not understand me, to a small-town attitude about “girly-boys”, it was a constant part of my life.  One word that I hate is “faggot” - the most used nickname for me in the small town where I grew up.  I was told so often that I was a faggot or gay that I sometimes wondered if I was.  I did like so-called girly things.  I played with dolls, liked to dress up, wrote poems, planted flowers, hated sports, and loved cleaning house.  So by all appearances, I was gay.  Can you imagine the personal struggle?  Well, I decided long ago that I was not gay; meaning, I had no desire to have a sexual relationship with another man.   I have never had that desire and still don't.  But, let me clarify something.  I do enjoy a great, emotional, healthy relationship with other men.  

    Yes, I am effeminate.  Yes, I cry at chick-flicks.  Yes, I love to bake, and write, and even dress flamboyant from time to time.  I don’t enjoy sports, hunting, and other manly things.  So, if you look at it like that, I must be gay.  All of you who thought so, congratulations!  You are right.  I am gay.  But, if you look at what the real meaning of “gay” is, I am not gay.  To me, the real definition of a gay man is one who desires a sexual relationship with another man and acts out on that desire.  So, by that definition, so sorry, I am not gay.  

    I do not desire and have never had the desire to have a sexual relationship with another man.  At the same time, I do desire to have deep, meaningful, healthy relationships with many, wonderful men who have the same values I have.  To me, a healthy relationship with another man i has four aspects: spiritual, emotional, social, and physical.  


     A spiritual connection means that we are on the same page.  I am a follower of Jesus Christ and live by His teachings.   He has taught that we can love another man deeply and completely without having a sexual relationship.  In fact, I strongly believe that when we establish relationships on principles of true, Christ-like love, there is eternal increase - meaning that friendship develops and becomes deeper and sweeter as time goes by.

     An emotional connection means that we are able to meet one another’s emotional needs.  A healthy emotional relationship is one that builds and lifts, offers positive support, values who we are, and helps up become the best we can become. Men need the emotional support of other men.  Men are men, and pretty much think alike, and have the need to share this life-experience together.  The right emotional support can lift and help us through this life’s challenges.  

     A social connection means sharing healthy life activities together.  It can be anything from sports to cooking, or just hanging out doing positive things.  We are social people and we crave the social interaction with others.  When we interact socially, we learn and grow and become the men God intended us to become.  Men need strong social relationships with other men.  

     A physical connection means sharing a strong, physical bond.  When I say, “physical connection”, I do not mean sex.  Men, some more than others, need a healthy, physical relationship with other men; from working side-by-side, to pats on the back, and good healthy hugs.  I believe that when we hug, our spirits can communicate, and we can become closer.  In todays world they teach us that physical bonding must include sex.  I totally disagree.  I believe that men need healthy contact with other men.  

     Think what you will, but I strongly believe in healthy male relationships.  I strongly believe that, next to the relationship I have with my wife and family, the most important relationships I can have are the ones I have with other men.  Those close spiritual, emotional, social, and physical relationships that I enjoy have brought me peace and comfort, and have taught me to be more Christ like in my association with others.  

   You may still think I am gay, but truth be told, I am really just a big, tenderhearted man that loves everyone and has no problem  expressing it by word or deed.


Brad

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Monday, November 3, 2014

Guard Your Heart

      I have been thinking a lot lately about friendships and relationships.  I have decided that they can be hard and complicated.  I have started to kind of understand how we limit ourselves and build up walls to protect our hearts.  When I say limit ourselves, I mean that we limit who, when, and how many people we invite into our sacred heart corridors.   We have become overly protective of that sacred realm, which we guard with walls that often times are impossible to penetrate.  
    One of the main reasons we guard our hearts is for fear of being hurt or rejected by those we choose to let in.  So, to avoid any hurt, we just close the door tight and build up walls that even the most gifted wall climber could not scale.
     I have thought often that our society has trained us to not freely give out space in our hearts, and we have been taught not to let our guards down.  Some common mistruths that exist today in our society are as follows.
     We only have limited amount of room in our hearts.
     We cannot love everyone.
     It's not right to love someone that much.
     How can the same gender love that deeply without sex?
     If you have one best friend, you're lucky.
     You will get hurt for sure.
     There are limits on how many or how much you can love.
      Love hurts.     
     The list can go on and on.  You get the point.  We are surround by a society that dictates just how much we can love and how to love.  In our society today, we are a very self-centered people. Our only concern is, "What‘s in it for me?"  If there is a chance that we might get hurt or disappointed, we don't go there.  And, let's face it, love can be hurtful and disappointing.
    So, we "Guard our Hearts" and in the process remove wonderful opportunities to grow and love.  One thing I have found to be true that there are absolutely no limits on how much the human heart can love.  There are no limits on how many people we can love, and no limits on how deeply we can love them.  It's all up to us, and just how freely we want to open the door.
    Oh yes, when we open the door, we open ourselves up for disappointment and hurt.  But, in the process, we can have joy that exceeds our understanding.  The more we open ourselves, the more our ability to understand and love others grows.  Disappointment and hurt only serves to intensify the joy that we can experience when we allow others to come freely in our sacred realms.
     The reason I am writing this Blog is because of a recent experience I had tested me and pushed my heart beyond its normal range.  Without sharing too much detail, I will just say that I opened up my heart so completely, and I felt like the door was slammed so hard on my heart that I thought it would break.  I had to really take a good look at what my motives were and I had to remind myself that love is not always about receiving.  In fact, it is seldom about receiving.   I had to remind myself that it was about what could I do to help another; and I had to remind myself that this friend and I are at different stages and have different expectations, as is the case in most relationships. and expectations are seldom the same in any friendship. 
      I have found that when I meet someone and feel a strong connection, that if I follow through, it always turns out good.  It does not mean the experience is without pain and frustration, but the end result is always great.   When I feel that connection and act upon it, 100% of time it turns outs that a deep friendship evolves.  So often, we go throughout life and ignore those feelings for reasons already stated, and by so doing, miss out on great friendships that bring joy and growth into our lives.
     It really puts us to the test when developing same-gender relationships.  In today's world, we are told that if we have or want a strong connection with someone of the same gender, we must be gay or messed up.  It is not acceptable to openly express feelings of love for other men, and most often, we are told to be satisfied with one good friend.  There again, we are guilty of putting limits on how we love.  
     I strongly believe that if you love someone, tell them.  If you feel a strong connection to someone, tell them.  If you want to be a friend with someone, do it.  Forget the limits and boundaries that the world sets.  The only boundaries that really matter are the ones that God has given us, and those boundaries are designed to keep our relationships healthy. The boundaries that God sets protect us from heartache and hurt.  I am not aware of boundaries that limit how many people we can love or how deeply we can love them.  I know of no boundaries that restrict our friendships to a few, or our love to small amounts.  In fact, the greatest commandment of all was to love one another as we love ourselves.  
     So, for me, I am going to work on having no walls and limits on how or whom I love.  I am grateful for the male relationships I have, especially the ones that are open and loving.  Next to the relationship I have with my wife and family, those bring me great joy.  Life is an amazing journey, and when we take away walls that guard our hearts, it can be more joyful and meaningful. 

    Wishing you joy in your journey and relationships with others.  
Brad

JADE meets the first Tuesday of each month at 703 E. 1st. Ave. Mesa 
7:00  For more information on JADE you can call 480-231-2424
JADE is a meeting that teaches and instructs men how to develop
healthy positive relationships with other men

Become a member,(on the side panel) and recieve notice when we post a new blog entry. You can also respond, comment or ask for informations about our JADE group by using the link on the top of the side panel.  Thank you. 

Saturday, November 1, 2014

November JADE Meeting~ Cupcakes and Friendships

   Cupcakes are like a friendships,  they come in a variety of shapes, colors, textures, flavors, and intensities.  Sometimes they look fantastic, but there is no taste, or in a friendship, we just don't click. In this months Jade meeting, on November 4th at 7:00 pm we will be making cupcakes and discussing friendships.  More to the detail, how to take down the walls that keep us from developing those meaningful rich friendships that are packed with flavor and leave us wanting more.  

     So come and join us, you can RSVP by commenting in the comment at the bottom of this blog.  This months meeting will be at 703 E. 1st. Ave.  Mesa Az



I personally like whole grain cupcakes.  It takes away the guilt. 

Dark chocolate with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Can you ever have to many cupcakes.


So pretty.  Its all about how you dress.

Sprinkles add character


The End or maybe the beginning of something wonderful.  

Hope you can make our JADE meeting.  I have found that when we meet I fill a space in my heart that needs to be filled and I always leave feeling better about life and stronger in my convictions of following the Savior.    Brad