Monday Morning Perspective

Yesterday the energy level was high in worship! I love those times and thankfully we have many of them at Fairview! Our band was ON and loved the music choices! My man was in the zone as we kicked off our study through the book of James, LIVE IT. This is gonna be sooooo good!! 

Eddie dissected the first 4 verses as we looked at how we are Transformed by Trials.

A few of my favorite quotes...

...James is known as old camel knees because of callouses on his knees from praying but his book tells us what to do when we get off of our knees. 

...God seldom uses someone greatly until they've been tested greatly, maybe even broken. 

...many times what we consider gain, Jesus considers loss and what Jesus considers gain, we count as a loss. 

I'm so excited about this series. It's so practical! It's definitely going to challenge us and convict us so get ready! Check it out online if you missed it. 

A Different Monday Morning Perspective

Normally MMP is a recap of my husband's message on Sunday. However,  he has been in Cuba all week so he had our student pastor, also our sweet son-n-law preach. I know I'm biased but he's wonderful and filled in perfectly! What an amazing message on God's love! It was extremely challenging as he made us think about what truly motivates us. The reminder that the Enemy is fine with our gathering together as a church, but true impact comes when our faith steps outside the church. When we begin to see people as Jesus does and love and serve, then we will make a difference. His mission wasn't to make us good, it was to make us alive. 

I left that early service and headed to a nearby church where my son Stephen had been invited to preach. I'm so thankful for pastors who are willing to give young ones opportunities! What an incredible blessing! Stephen preached a great message on living explicitly Christian lives and being intentional in our walk with Jesus! People should know who we are and who's we are. When we truly experience Jesus, we will tell others. Jesus positioned Himself for ministry opportunities and had honest conversations with people. We need to be about the same thing! 

I also got to go with Stephen later that day as he shared with some of our children at Fairview about his summer in Atlanta. I was amazed at two things. One, how well our kids listened and grasped all he told them as they responded back when prompted. Two, what an amazing job Stephen did at taking what he learned at presenting it on a level they could understand. He shared with them about what living intentionally for Jesus means and how they can invest in people even at their young age at school or on their teams or wherever. He also shared with them how important it is to invite their friends to church and their church activities and then they can see an increase not only in numbers but how Jesus is growing them in their faith. We could all use the four Is...intentional, invest, invite, increase, in our everyday journey. 

It was an incredibly full Sunday in every way. Actually, this Monday morning, I'm still full!! 

30 years

September 1st 2014! My man and I have been married 30 years. What a bunch we are 30 years later.  As my sweet daughter Chrissie said, "that's a long time!"  She is right!! It's a very long time. At times it seems like we just got married. Then I look at my kids and a granddaughter and reality hits that we've done a lot of life! We've been at this a long time!  It's somewhat overwhelming. I wonder how it happened so fast! I wonder why God has blessed so much! 

Marriage isn't easy, but it's more than worth the effort. It's been the greatest, most rewarding, thrilling, joy-giving, heart wrenching, worth every tear, worth every laugh kind of adventure I ever hoped it would be. We are so different now than we were at 19 and 25 when we made all those promises that I'm sure we thought we understood but really probably didn't have a clue. We've grown. We've changed. But no matter what, we kept loving. We kept believing. We kept trusting. Mostly in God, but also in each other. I tell young ones all the time who are dating, you need to date at least 2 years. Why? Because the 1st year is about concealing. We put our best out there. We are always on guard trying to impress and sometimes not really being honest about who we are and what we want. The 2nd year is about revealing. We let our guard down. We are more ourselves. We relax. That's the one you're going to marry. Be sure. He's not always kind and she's not always sweet. He has bad days and she can be moody. He gets stressed and it comes out in all sorts of ways. She gets aggravated and jealous and maybe even nags. Just be sure. There are worse things than waiting or being alone and that's being with the wrong one. Be very sure. 

I love my husband. Probably more importantly at times, I like him. We are different in some of our likes and we don't always agree. We react differently to things and our personalities differ in ways. But we have lots of things in common and we love hanging together. I love talking to him and I love being quiet with him. Mostly I love that he's led our kids to love Jesus and he's shown them what serving Jesus through serving His church looks like. And they all desire to do that. It's been said that if you raise your kids to just love the church then one day they'll want to run it and control it. If you raise them to love Jesus they'll love His church and want to serve it. 

30 years! Sounds like a long time! It is! And it's been good! Not perfect. But good!