Ok so forgive me: I'm trying this new App on my phone so I can do blog posts from my phone. However, I can't seem to figure out how to do more than 1 photo at a time. That sounds super basic, but there isn't an option for that anywhere! So on the one hand, I'm finally updating our blog, but on the other hand, it's not very organized! Anyhow, this is Joel and I on the Harley.
So this was probably the highlight of Joel's trip to AK. He finally got me on the back of a motorcycle! Dave & Debbie's daughter, Ashley, watched Mia while we went out with Dave, Debbie, Ed, and Heather on the Harley's. Joel & I rode Ed's Heritage Softtail. That lingo is like Greek to me, but maybe some of you will appreciate knowing that :).
We rode on some scenic highways and went to a supposedly nice restaurant. We waited there for 20 mins without even a greeting, so we went to another place to eat, but they were packed, so we wound up at a super nice restaurant downtown - after riding through the rain. So the Harley crew looked real classy, needless to say! Hahaha.
Anyways, I had planned on going through life perfectly happy without ever riding a motorcycle, but after going with Joel, I have to admit it was pretty fun. I will also admit that I prayed the entire time, but it was fun.
We have had an amazing time in Alaska. Thank you so much to Ed, Heather, Debbie, Dave, and Ashley for taking care of us. Wendy, Jason, Megan, Chris, Sabrina, and all the other friends that we got to go see, we love you all and had so much fun!
Whoa! I had these pictures all ready to post and forgot all about them. At long last, here's a look at our trip to Mexico:
We happened to be in the city where we got married on our 5 year anniversary! You would think we would have at least one photo of the two of us, but you'd be wrong. Ugh. Sorry.
Here's Mia during our layover in Houston. She thought these fast walkways were pretty cool. She's a little unsure of it at first though...
Ok. Stick with me on this. It's something we can't be ignorant to in our society or else corporate America will continue to feed us crap because it makes them more money. Even Monsanto (the corporate giant who created the first genetically engineered seeds, genetically modified corn, saccharin, etc.), advises their own employees to seek out organic corn and soybeans rather than consuming the GM versions. Genetically modified foods such as these are already banned in almost all other countries. The mighty dollar is just too strong for America's greed to stand up against it.
Ok so this video isn't actually fully about that rant I just went off on (again). It's about other stuff that I could rant about all day. It's a FAR shorter piece than the last (less than 4 minutes). So go to this website, and the "Wake-Up Call" video should pop up. Watch it. If it doesn't pop up, you'll see it somewhere on their home page.
http://www.healthychild.org/
Thank you!!!
I forgot something WAY back when...
For the weeks leading up to Christmas, our youth group put together gifts for people who had to work Christmas Eve night, and were not able to be with their families. They handmade different kinds of ornaments, they made peppermint hot cocoa mix to put in christmas mugs, and peppermint fudge mix for people to make in the microwave. They also printed verses on little decorative pieces of paper that they tied to the gifts.
Then Christmas Eve night, we set out to hand these gifts out. We went to 2 nursing homes, the sheriff's office, the grocery store, the Dollar Store, 2 gas stations, pizza hut, and a few small restaurants that were open (we closed our restaurant early that day). All in all I believe we gave gifts to nearly 80 people. We looked them each in the eye and told them "Thank you for working tonight". We had one lady in the nursing home follow us through the whole building thanking us, another lady at the gas station said, "you really brought me a gift? I don't know what to say!" with tears in her eyes. It was pretty awesome.
I hope that the kids got as much out of that as I did. I was very proud of them for sacrificing their family time that night to go out and do something nice for others. Hopefully projects like this will plant a desire to do good in their hearts, and as they become adults, hopefully they will plant those same seeds in their children and any others they come in contact with. Stuff like this makes the world a better place, every little bit helps.
I'm gonna preach for a minute: So Jesus didn't come to Earth and talk about "how" to worship him, what our worship services should look like, what songs we sing, or anything. In fact, it's very hard to get a sense of any worship service in Jesus' day that looks anything like what we call "church". But over, and over, and over, he talks about helping orphans, the poor, our neighbor, widows, those in prison, those who are lost. He never said, "you saw me hungry and gave me food... and a christian tract". He says, "you saw me hungry and you gave me bread." He is interested in relationships and bringing heaven to earth by being compassionate, having open eyes for opportunities to help others. THAT is the Good News of the Bible. By starting these relationships, others will want the joy that you have found in giving. It is THERE that they will see what Jesus was talking about, the Good News, and desire to be in His family.
That night taking thank you gifts to people, was a far more holy worship service to our awesome God and creator, than I've ever experienced in a church building. I 100% believe that it is beneficial for Christians to come together and learn and worship and grow together, and I believe it's crucial. But I think a lot of us use that as our scapegoat to not actually have to get out there and get our hands dirty and DO something to reflect what God really wants us to be like Monday thru Saturday.
Ok. I'm off my soap box. I don't have good pictures of this event because I didn't want people to think we were just giving these gifts out to glorify ourselves and get to show off pictures. But here's some silly photos of the kids working on the project - every so diligently :)
“We shall finish up by looking forward.
Press into praying for your man's future; everything God has in store after this very minute. So many things that will happen for you and your man will be far greater than you can currently conjure up. We serve a God that does not have his hands tied. He is mighty!
Our focus:
-Protect him.
-Bless his health.
-Guard his mind.
-Hold fast to his heart.
-Go before him.
-Be his counselor, his confidante, his help and his refuge.
-Surround him with people who will speak life into him.
-Be his shield and his firm foundation.
-Light his way and give him hope.
Thank you, friends, for joining me on this journey; we made it! Way to be a faithful mate. You have also helped hold me accountable to doing what God called me to do. I can almost guarantee that I would have weaseled my way out early, if not for you. Gracias!"
"Anyone still trucking with me? When you say pray for ten days, it seems a small feat. Yet, when you put ten days of hard-core praying to the test, it doesn't seem so small does it? I am confident that our dudes will reap from our diligent, loving efforts.
On the first day of our journey, we prayed for our man's worship. Now, here we are back to Wednesday and I just cannot get away from the fact that this is a day in which most of us take our worship public {at Elevate tonight!}. So let us focus on his Jesus time today.
Spending time with the Lord. A statement, a question, a request....
Whether or not you know that your husband spends daily, quality time with the Lord or not, let's seek this for him. Now, don't you start judging your man. What does your time with the Lord look like? Yeah. That's what I thought...I kid, I kid.
As we go through our day today, let us really just press into this topic for our man. Pray for your future husband, that God would do these things in his heart this very day and that God would develop discipline in him now, rather than later. May we all step closer to the Lord as we take this cry of our heart to Him.
Our focus:
-Draw him into an intimate time of worship.
-Call him away to a quiet place.
-Drown out life.
-Speak with clarity.
-Reveal yourself.
-Love him.
-Give life to your Word.
-Pour out revelation.
-Grant him accountability in his journey of following Christ.
-Shape him into a man of integrity, character and self-discipline."
"Long before you knew your man and even early on in your relationship, there were many events and much life that took place. Just as our past has much responsibility for determining who we are on this day, so does our man's.
Let's pray for our guys life, before today. We want life before today to be an encouragement for his present and his future. Though we cannot change the past, we can learn from it, grow through it and become mature because of it. When our man may not think to pray for his past, let us take that responsibility on ourselves. As we pray for his past, let us ask Jesus to reconcile it. May we also thank the Lord for developing him into the man he is today.
Our focus:
-Seek forgiveness for yourself if there are any areas in his past that you have yet
to forgive or have developed bitter roots.
-Ask that he would have full forgiveness of himself for who he used to be.
-Allow his past to be used to encourage him in his future.
-May he learn from past triumphs, successes, failures, and sins.
-Would he be able to use each part of who he is as a testimony to Christ and his
faithfulness.
-Pray that his past is not where his thoughts dwell.
-Give him eyes to see that you are doing a new thing.
-Reveal yourself faithful in the past, giving the promise of being faithful in the
present and the hope of being faithful in the future."
"Onto day seven...
I really think it would be meaningful to spend one day focused on your husband's family. If you are married, this is now your family as well, but these are the people that knew him & loved him long before you did.
I realize that families can be a very 'sticky' situation in some cases. I ask you to put opinions, disagreements and past hurts aside today. No matter the family circumstance, the Lord used family blessings & trials in your man's life to develop him into the guy you are so crazy about. As easy or difficult as it may be, spend today focused on your man's family, taking them before the Lord.
Our focus:
-Thank Jesus for a family that brought such a wonderful man into the world.
-Pray for mended family relationships (if needed).
-Petition that Jesus would make himself real & known to his family; call each
person out by name.
-Ask for protection to surround his family members.
-Pray for the health of family.
-Give wisdom to family members.
-Pray that your husband would be quick to honor his family.
-Seek out wisdom so that both you, & your man may know & agree on what
family legacies to pass along & what God desires to break & rebuild in your family"
Ouch. I don't like this one because it hits too close to home :(. I REALLY struggle with this because I'm so jealous of Joel's free time. He doens't get much free time and I feel entitled to every minute he does get. The second he mentions "guy time" my hackles go up. I've REALLY been working on this lately and I'm proud to say that I'm getting better. My initial gut feeling isn't any better but the words that actually come out of my mouth are more encouraging and positive ;) So I guess I better pray for this one double time!
Here is the post I got from Meagan's blog for day 6:
We have completed half of our ten-day, focused prayer time for your man. I just want to encourage you to stay strong in your commitment. I am great at starting tasks, but stink at finishing strong. I do not want this to happen to me, nor you. Really commit to disciplining yourself over the next few days to finish strong in your prayer journey.
Friendship. A word my man knows so, so well. I am ashamed to admit, but I am not always gun hoe when Brad wants to spend time with friends. I have been known to feel that they are competing for my quality time. I rarely take the time to acknowledge how beneficial Brad's quality friend-time can be, nor do I give thanks for the great friends that my husband has. Maybe some of you are on the opposite end of the spectrum, you desire for your husband to develop more friendships. If so, spend today requesting this from the Lord.
If your husband has many friends or few, let us be thankful for all of the men in his life whom he can be 'real' around. Be thankful if he returns home refreshed and a better husband and father after being around his friends.
Our focus:
-Give him wisdom in choosing men worthy of honest friendship.
-Thank Jesus for the friends that he has been given.
-Be specific, thank Jesus for each friend that comes to mind. Call them out by
name.
-Ask that he would be vulnerable with his friends.
-Pray that the vulnerability would grow to true accountability.
-Develop him into an authentic, giving, approachable friend.
-Increase integrity in friendships, making him worthy of great friends, in return.
Maybe he should get a guys night soon, away from the stresses of a job, the demands of a family, the requests of a wife and the expectations of those he leads. Just a thought...
If your man is already a daddy, this is a prayer that is probably constantly on your heart. I know that it is for me. If you do not yet have children, this is the perfect time to start praying for them, by praying for their daddy.
I love my husband ten-fold after watching him become a daddy. Amen? There's something amazing about Mia being in my arms and giving me kisses, but it's almost more magical to watch her crawl up in Joel's arms and give him kisses. He's such a sweet father, and she loves her daddy so much. They say that the relationship between child and father is every bit as important to development as the child and its mother. That's why when Joel exercises a different parenting style or disciplines her differently or doesn't discipline her over something, basically does anything I wouldn't have done, I try to bite my tongue and let him be the dad God created him to be. He's never doing anythine WRONG to her, just different from my instinct. But I think that the two parenting styles are very important for a child to get. It creates balance for the kid as well.
Our Focus:
-Teach him to train his children up in godliness.
-May his time with his children be increased.
-Grant him wisdom, patience and endless love.
-Grow his children up to always bring joy to their daddy.
-Prepare him to use 'life' as a teacher for his children.
-Inspire him through his offspring.
-May he always see the wonders of the Lord in his children.
God has been doing some good things in my heart as I've put much time and focus on the spiritual well-being of my husband. Anyone else?
Today, let's focus on our husbands as just that, a husband. If you are not yet married, pray for your guy as he steps into the role of husband. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Your husband, my husband, is the leader. Already. It's settled. You don't have to negotiate it or loose sleep over it, they are the head of the home. Christ appointed them to that role.
In thinking about praying for this role, it was hard for me to strip this roll from the other rolls he fulfills. Yet, it is the one role that is solely created for me. Funny, isn't it?
Our focus:
-Encourage him in his leadership of me, his wife.
-Continue to develop him into a man that always makes marriage a priority.
-Give him a deep love for me, his spouse.
-Give him new revelation into your heart for marriage.
-Guard his eyes from Satan's attempts to steal his affection from me.
-May he be a model of submission as he submits to the Lord.
-Give him wisdom in leadership.
Whatever it is that he does to 'bring home the bacon,' let's ask that Jesus meet him there today.
We all know our husband's jobs well, so spend some time today personalizing your prayer in the way your husband needs them most. Try to take yourself out of the prayers. Don't pray for what you would be pleased to see happen, but rather things that would bring growth to your man.
Our focus:
-May his workplace be/become a place where he has freedom show his
creativity and use his gifts.
-That he would gain encouragement, specifically today, from his co-workers.
-That he would be effective.
-A thankful heart for a job that provides.
-Give clarity to any callings that the Lord may be placing in his heart.
-Professional growth.
Take a few extra moments to thank Jesus for giving your husband a job. For those of you who have the joy of staying at home with your kids make sure you have your heart right. Rather than comparing your life to the lives of others or wishing you had more to "show" for your life or sulking in the career you used to have, give thanks for a man who works so hard so that you can be a full-time mommy.
Let us all make a noticeable effort today to show our gratitude for our husbands when he enters the doors of his home at five or six or seven o'clock in the evening.
One of the most applicable pieces of advice I have ever heard is this:
"When your husband comes home from a long day at work, you and all of your children should go to the door to greet him, showing him how thankful you are that he has come home to you. A man who comes home with no one to greet him, feels as though no one notices his presence. If his presence is not noticed, he will start to pull away. Make a conscious effort to greet your husband today. And have your children or pets or make believe friends do the same thing. It will make him feel loved. That is our goal!"
