Stephen Leopard, a college grad

Seems totally unbelievable but Stephen has graduated college. And in 4 years!!! It's not unbelievable that you graduated because you're one of the hardest workers I've ever known. Whatever you set your mind to, you get it done. But how is it possibly time for this?! It's as if I blinked and you're grown. 

You've made us so proud in every way. For someone who never liked school and the motivation of college was always just to be able to play baseball there, you have finished well, extremely well!! You've taken full advantage of all that God placed in front of you. You studied hard and finished with a great gpa on the presidential honor roll. You made some incredible contacts from your junior college coach to Deans to Vice Presidents all the way to the college President himself. You've made lifelong friends with hearts for Jesus and ministry. You've impacted lives of those still searching. You've served students well and learned much from the college pastor. You've had fun with teammates and enjoyed and learned to appreciate All the different personalities. You've learned much in the classroom and you've learned much about team work on the field. You've learned from experiencing many victories and then the losses. You've enjoyed playing at the top of a junior college level at the World Series. From high school on you had so many baseball wins and developed that love for a winning mindset and being a part of a winning

culture that many don't get to experience. It's given you that spirit of team and competitiveness you will need in the next season of life. And experiencing the losses will prepare you for the losses we go through as well. They're no fun now, they won't be fun later, but we all have them. You've learned so much from watching strong leaders with winning attitudes just as you've learned from those who show forth poor and weak leadership. God wastes nothing!!! He uses it all to make us more like Him and give us that desire to be more like Him. Remember, just one tip, good leaders return calls within 24 hours! And when you question why God is telling you to do something a certain way, remember 2Kings 5 and just do what He says. 😊 

God promises in Ps 14 that those things He has purposed will stand and He has great purpose for your life as He's already proven. And He promises that our heritage is that He will refute every tongue and every weapon forged against us. Rest in that. Go and live believing that the Lord's favor is on you! He delights in you! Continue to live for Him and out of His mighty power. Armor up and never turn back!! We love you!! Exciting things are ahead, it only gets better!!!  From here...

To here...

Baseball pics to come, that season coming to a close but not done yet!

Monday Morning Perspective

Yes I know it's Tuesday but when you're on a baseball roadtrip your schedule becomes whatever their schedule is and it's been busy but lots of fun. Fun since we started winning that is. I did sit down to write this yesterday though and talking to others kind of took over and if you know me you know that is truth. 

Fairview worship was amazing Sunday. Always such a great spirit and love how many visitors keep showing up and how the Fairview fam continues to welcome them. We were challenged in the message from our series from Nehemiah how important peace and unity are in the body. I love how Eddie pointed out that Nehemiah stepped back and pondered the  problem instead of reacting quickly in anger. I also love how Eddie challenged us to be unified even when we don't agree. We all carry that bucket of water and that bucket of gasoline in cur hands. Which one will we throw out there when we hear grumbling and complaining and rumors?

I love this series more every week. It's challenging, encouraging, and definitely relates to today. 

We have much to be excited about at Fairview. God is doing amazing things and it's so exciting to hear others speak of being able to see how God is bringing so much together. His plan is always better than our plan!!!

Pray about it more than you talk about it

Guilty! So often I talk something to death. I go round and round. I think of every scenario and every what if. I talk it one way and the next day I talk it the opposite. Crazy! Praying trumps talking! Trust me it does. I keep having to learn that lesson. I shared at an event Saturday night and briefly shared something that happened to us last week with an answered prayer just to encourage so thought I'd share a little with you today. 

We have been praying over a matter for months now and it would seem trivial to some but for us it's pretty big. I do know that many people have much weightier things on their heart but I'm a big believer that God cares about all of it. Anyway, the past few weeks it just seemed to bear more weight on us. My husband was praying Thursday morning and just asking God to give us something. He texted one of our kids and he texted back saying he had just been praying the same thing. Ahhhh, I love how God binds us together in prayer and draws our hearts together. That afternoon we got an answer. But hear this!!!!! It wasn't a total answer. It wasn't really the answer we expected. But it gave us hope. The answer was what will not be rather than what will be. But that confirmed that if God knows what will not be, He knows pure well what will be. And He will bring it about!! At first I admit there was some heart hurt and bewilderment. But that soon turned to much joy and delight. And for all three of us praying over this one thing, we all had that same sense of excitement. It also cleared up for us some others things we had been wondering about that hadn't made sense. Suddenly it did. And suddenly that bit of clarity showed us some things about someone that we had thought, but now was blatantly clear. It wasn't pretty. Actually it was down right evil and wrong and now I'm praying through that as well. Last night, or rather early this morning, some of that was being prayed over. Ever prayed some Deuteronomy 28 over anyone? I admit it. I have. I did. Shows me how much work God has to do on my heart. But I believe and please believe with me whatever your situation, God is in control of all that happens. If we are His, people do not have control over us. They may think they do. They may think that they can manipulate a situation for their good and our bad. They may think they hold all the cards. But know that nothing happens to us without God in perfect control of it. He's never caught off guard. If He closes a door it's only to open a better one. And then He will not let what others do to us go unnoticed or unpunished. It may seem that way but He never forgets and He never tarries. We can take people off of our hook and put them on God's hook. I promise that doesn't mean that they get by with it. It means we are released from it. He wastes nothing and He will work it all out for our good. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep waiting. That's some hard work right there I know but He ALWAYS come through. Live in obedience to Him so that we stay under that umbrella of His protection and watch Him work!!! You can trust Him with whatever weighs on you today. 

I know this is a different Monday post but I missed services yesterday. I got messages about how incredible it was. If you missed like I did, watch online!!