Who's your daddy?

For those of you who would naturally assume that the amount of time that passes and the number of posts that appear on the thinktank would have a direct relationship; it is actually inverse. My apologies.

As I have looked out over the blogging pond I have noticed a considerable number of ripples arising from a certain issue that I would now like to address. Now, some of you in your daily conversations may have been noticing an suprising increase in usage of certain terms such as "patriarch" and "father of blogs." As you think about it, don't you find it rather alarming? Why are these terms popping up more frequently? What is causing their use? Let me explain.

Through a great big giant misunderstanding named Tyler Flower the word has gotten around that I have proclaimed my family's blogs as issuing from a source. This is not true. (Obviously, how could the man who left different angles of his swollen ankle as the headline of his blog ever be referred to as the patriarch of blogdom? - The paternity test came back negative)

To give credit where credit is due, the married dynamic duo of my brother and sister-in-law actually started the blogging trend in the Blakey family with a xanga (so archaic) site that Christa hosted. And now, as a direct result of their influence, look how far we have come. Even Ben Blakey has joined the blogspot revolution that is sweeping the nation.

(To further correct misinformation, Baxter the dog does not have a blog.)

The Inverse Relationship

Lately my life has been filled with 3 large letters that I think have become 3 of my least favorites in the Roman alphabet. C-P-A. I am beginning to think that it means Certified Pain Afflictor.

When I first thought about the upcoming exam, I knew that I would need to study, but overall- no problem. My thoughts changed when I got my review books for Becker Convisor. Now, there are four sections to the CPA exam, in the study materials their is a paperback for each of them about the size of an unabridged Webster's dictionary. As I my lat muscles strained to lift them I thought- perhaps there is a reason that less than 30% of people pass on any individual section of the exam.

The course I am taking with Becker Convisor is the self-study course which means that I use video cds to watch the recorded lectures. My "instructors" via the computer are, how shall I say it- interesting. As is typical with accountant types, they have been sucked into the accounting vortex like safari campers into oh-so-much quicksand.

In the course overview video that I watched, my instructors were quick to assure me that the material on the CPA exam is not that difficult. If the depth of the material were the depth of the water in a river you were trying to cross, it would only be foot deep. The problem, they said is that the proverbial CPA river is 50 miles wide! The total alloted time (which I will need all of) to take all four sections of the exam is 15 hours. The instructors said that they studied for the CPA exam 3 time harder and longer than they did for the BAR exam.

Anyways, it has not been too terrible so far but something struck me in the last lecture that I watched. We were learning about the income statement and one of the items on the income statement is "Extraordinary events" and those are events that are BOTH unusual AND infrequent in a business. The instructor decided that he would give us an example of one. He said, "think about your life right now- you going out and having a good time with your friends had better be an unusual and infrequent occurence between now and the time that you want to take the exam. There is an inverse relationship between happiness and your ability to pass the CPA exam. The more miserable you are between now and when you take the exam, the better your chances are to pass."

Gee, thanks.

The Becker Convisor teachers (probably the most widespread accounting teachers in America) just gave an unsolicited testimonial that studying accounting will make you miserable. Sign me up.

As I thought about this, I drew a contrast to the word of God and the words of Psalm 1:1- "Blessed is the man ... whose delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in it he meditates day and night." While accounting says meditating on it will make you miserable, the Bible says that studying it constantly and thinking about it all day long will make you blessed (happy)!!! Isn't it great and amazing that to communicate with us, God gave us a book that doesn't give us all the answers with a quick skim? Isn't it wonderfully preposterous that God says that study (a thing distasteful to most humans) can make you happy and be your joy if you are studying His words?

Yesterday I disciplined myself to have an extended time of studying the word and prayer and believe me, it is true. I was happy when I was thinking about the Lord and his words. And it is a happiness that is so powerful that it can sustain me even in the self-proclaimed drudgery of CPA review. One thing that I did like that the instructor said was this, "The difference between success and failure is effort." When I think about that I realize that often I don't "get much out of" God's Word because I don't truly put myself into it.

Be encouraged to throw yourself into God's word and immerse yourself in the blessedness that it brings while I seek to do the same (while at the same time making myself "miserable" studying for that little CPA exam).