Obedience

Once a week I meet a young lady and we discuss life and we are going over the lineage of Jesus from Geneses to New Testament. This week was on Joseph and I told her that with the Old Testament stories so many I totally do not understand. Mainly because of culture and time, I think half the men were crazy and as my children would say, they would have shot you mom back in olden days because of your mouth.  I totally agree, I probably would have been one of the radical women of those days.
 I don't get the way they lived back then.  But I told Anderson, when I read over the different books and people I try to think of things that pertain to my life and way of living today. Joseph is one of my favorite people in the Bible, I know in the beginning he was a little cocky and maybe thought a little more of himself than the average boy. But, I like men who are confident (I raised one). I do believe that Joseph was humbled after being sold and put in prison and these things made him the man he became. I talked with Anderson about how Joseph was obedient to God and because of his obedience he was blessed in many ways. She asked me about what are ways we can be obedient to God these days. I was explaining that I have always told my children that even when we don't like something but we know that is exactly what God (the Bible)  would want us to do, doing it is obedience. For instance I shared Tithing as a example, I asked her if she tithed or believed in tithing. We had a great discussion on how its not that God needs our money, he wants to see if we are willing to be obedient, to give up control and trust him with the one thing that most people think they need.
I asked her to keep a watch this next month and see where she was spending her money, and as the verse goes, where your heart is at is where you put your treasure.  So if all her money is going to earthly pleasure then that is where her heart is and that is something that she needs to figure out. She is wanting things in life, new job, adventure, etc.  and she is waiting on answers from God I told her she might have her answers already but God will not use her in mighty ways if she is not obedient with the small stuff. He wants to know that he can trust us with the little things first before he puts us in situation where we need to know the big things. 

Stepping Out

Joey and I had a discussion the other morning after he got home from his breakfast with some men that he meets everyday at Cageys. They have all kinds of debates, talks, discussion whatever you want to call them. A comment was made about how we handle the money in the church. One fellow told Joey who's a elder that he should not have the right to make decisions for the church as a whole.
Joey said well if you don't have a group of people making decisions for the majority then no decisions will ever be made. In a meeting that Joey and the other elders had all but two were there, they decided to give away to a missionary family half their salary for the next 4 years. They decided to step out in faith and trust that the Lord would provide, to say a lot were very upset is a understatement. I even questioned Joey that day after he came home from a 4 hr Saturday morning meeting. He said that it was unanimous and that the Holy Spirit was working like he had never seen before in a large group of very different people. The only two not there later on said that they would have never voted for this, one now sees that is why he was not there, the other still is not happy.  The younger generation likes to give there money to people they know, not just give to the "man" to let them decided. We brought in the family that will be going with 4 kids to Burkina Faso, Africa. They were wonderful people. Josh, Abby & Harper had lunch with them with a few other young couples on Saturday, Then Sunday we took them and three other families to lunch and got to know them a little better. What a great family they are, they only brought their two older boys, Maxx & Miles. Harper was intrigued with them, they played ball with her on Saturday, so on Sunday she thought they were best friends and had to sit with them at everything. She even took their prayer card home and to Don Juans. So now when you say missionary, she thinks "my missionary". I see now how important it is to get to know who your money is going to. I still think the Great Commission Fund is important but I also get what the younger generation is thinking.   Getting back to the comment made on "our money" we  as Christians need to remember that God can use anyone's money to get what he wants done. First of all its his money to begin with and we can be blessed by being obedient or we can miss out by thinking we are in charge of "our stuff".  In saying this, Josh called and said "I don't want to be a prick or anything but did you notice that after we as a church decided to give that money away our old church finally sold after 4 years of trying, within the month.   God can do anything he wants and you and I can either get on the train or watch it go by.  Personally I like riding trains.

Happy 32

Little did I know 32 years ago what being married was all about. As you can see we were all smiles and ready for this great adventure. We had hope of great things, we thought that everything was going to be just romantic and fun and never have any worries. Life as a married couple was the only way to go. If I knew then what I know now would I have still gotten married. Definitely, yes would I have done some things differently, yes. You hear everyone say if I could do it over again I wouldn't change a thing. Well I would. I would not have worried so much about the little things. I would have laughed a lot more. I would have had more children and not worry that the house was to small or we didn't have enough money for them. But on the flip side, I am glad of some of the things we have gone through.  Joeys dad passing away after the first month brought about stresses that we never thought about, him running a company and making sure his mom and brother were taken care of. At the age of 25 it taught Joey a lot about himself. Then have two children back to back and losing a third brought us closer to each other. Disappointments, struggles, money issues and life issues everyone deals with. Whether you choose to do it together is what brings a couple closer. I will say that some years have been a blast and some have been pretty tough. But as I think about the man I married he has become in many ways a different man  from that April Fools Day. I was so attracted to his toughness, he still has it but there is a softer side to him now that is wonderful, you see it with Audrey and Harper. He is a  friend to his son and they run their mouth at each other but truly are best friends. He was always a hard worker when he was young and still is, I never had to worry about him providing for his family. Spiritually he has come so far that there days I listen to him and think this is not at all the man I married and I am so very thankful the Lord has brought him this far. He is still is as handsome to me as the first time I saw him, he makes me laugh a lot, and I have never worried that I am not loved by him and that in itself is peace.

So to Joey and myself, Happy Anniversary!!!