My Handy Man

I thought that I knew what I was getting when I married Dave, but it just keeps getting better and better and I could not be more blessed than I am to have him as my husband.  One of the ways he blesses my life is through his giftedness as a "handy man".  People that have known Dave for some time definitely know this about him.  In fact, this last week at my new job, several guys asked me if Dave still did wood working and stuff...people know Dave as one of those guys.  I anticipate my life being full of projects that I can brag about my husband...to get us started...


Yesterday morning my car took a bit longer than it should to start and after work it took 2 times of turning the key to get her going.  Luckily it did start and I headed home.  Like I do everyday as soon as I get into the car, I called Dave to let him know I was on my way.  I told him about the car and he said just pull it into the garage half way...and within an hour of being home I had a new battery in my car and it was starting up good as new!!!  I feel like the luckiest wife in the world.  I love my handy man!


With in a few weeks of being married, Dave tackled my closet.   Check out the before and after photos below.  He did an amazing job and life is so much eaiser in the moring when I get up with my new closet!  I love my handy man!

 

Learning to embrace

For most of my life, my mind and heart have been filled with lies like “God forgot about me or got distracted when creating me”. As far as I can really think back, I remember thinking I wasn’t good at anything. After all I was never MVP on my little league teams, never received High Point on the swim team, I did not make the drill team in high school, I wasn’t going to be a good Architect so I changed my major to become a CPA, but I couldn’t pass the exam. And I am fairly certain I never got first prize in anything I entered (at least that I should have because I did it on my own).

About two years ago when I began Celebrate Recovery at Watermark, I started to really see how this thinking was keeping me down and only feeding bad choices and my unhappy life. But I still could not shake this thought process even though I began to experience God more and more and began having a daily walk with Him.

Fortunately, God does not give up and He keeps moving in our lives if we surrender. In just the last few weeks I have begun to see victory over this battle in my mind. And I can say that’s been my belief for way too long! What my thick head and heart and attitude for that matter have believed for all these years is just plain lies. Sure, are the statements about the things I did not accomplish true? Yes. But do those facts define me? Do they have to mean that I am not good at anything? Maybe in certain circles (like professional baseball players or Olympic swimmers) they do, but not under the realms of believing God! The truth to all those things above is that just because I am not the best, does not mean that I can take swimming or softball as a hobby or even participate just for fun. After all, if it was in God’s plan for me to be an Olympic athlete I am sure he would have made that happen.

So my question is: why is it that we so often struggle with what other people think about us? Why is it so hard to embrace who we are in Christ?

There is no doubt that over the last few years I have grown to understand more about myself and have been growing to a place where I can express what I am learning. But it was not until the last few weeks that I could even hear what God was saying was unique and beautiful about me. Now, I am beginning to see the ways that he created me and how those ways are like Him. As He intended - the more that we study His word and the more that we walk with Him, the more we begin to know are ourselves.

All I can say about that is there is abundant freedom in believing and embracing what our Father says about us!! Can I get an AMEN!
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

Making Connections

Dave and I recently decided to read through the book of John together. Each Sunday we read a chapter and talk about it. I am sad to admit that I have never read through John before and that I have never really studied the life of Jesus. Kind of important don’t you think? I am just excited to be getting started now and with my husband (that is so fun to say!).

It was just about two years ago that I started to really dive into the Bible. I had done many “bible studies” before, but often found my self struggling for connection and interest. The first time I got really excited about what I learned from His word was when I was in a small community group and we began working through a book called Understanding the Bible in 30 Days. I was hooked, however still not disciplined to finish it all (maybe I should go back and start over). Anyway, for the first time I began to connect with the people of the Bible. I began to understand how much I was like them and how not so different their lives were from mine. It was amazing. Over the next year I would continue to study the Old Testament and learn about the Israelites. If you have been blessed as I have by their story, you can say with me “I am an Israelite.” I have been rescued by God, trusted Him fully and then turned away in disbelief. I have wondered in more than one “desert” for way too long only to discover that if I had just realized my sin and deep need for God, that perhaps the suffering would have been so much less. But I am stubborn and chose to not remember. Thankfully, I have community to remind me and my times of wondering are much shorter!

In our first two chapters of reading John I was so curious to learn more John the Baptist. I knew a bit about his ministry: that he baptized Jesus and that he was killed because of what he preached, but that was about it. I was still having trouble connecting. It was this past Sunday that I made the connection that John the Baptist was the son of Zachariah & Elizabeth (the older couple who couldn’t have kids and then did). And this meant John the Baptist was Jesus’ relative (not exactly sure how). Elizabeth is the relative that Mary visited when she was pregnant. It was on that visit when Elizabeth’s baby “leaped in her womb” (Luke 1:41) upon Mary’s arrival. How cool is it that even in the womb, John the Baptist knew the Messiah! YES – I had made my connection!! All I can say is God is really into the details!
Oh wow, so this is why I write these posts...in this moment I am humbled to say and share with you that God revealed to me just now one way I am created in His image…I am detailed oriented.

Last night I was blessed to listen to a sweet friend share her story in front of hundreds of people. As she spoke, she shared about a community circle she was a part of that had learned to celebrate everything together, even the small stuff. For me, seeing my detailedness as a characteristic of Him is a small victory, well worth celebrating. Thank you Father for sticking by me, even when I doubt!

I've Forgotten

It’s June 9th today and tomorrow Dave and I will have been married a month! It goes by so fast. The wedding turned out just as we would have hoped with very few hang ups. Dave tells me to be proud of myself for all the hard work and how it turned out, but if you know me…that’s hard. I tend to pick at the things that were not just right instead of enjoying the beauty of it all. God, being our loving creator, knows this about me and thus blessed me with Dave who sees the beauty all around him. He notices the flowers, how green the trees are and when the birds start chirping again. He loves the creation we were given to be a part of and that’s good for me. I once mentioned to Dave that he always saw the glass as half full and he replied “not really, I’m just glad there is water in the glass”. That is joy. We want life to be happy, but God does not promise happiness, but joy. We are to be joyful because as believers our glasses will always have water in them…God. He’s always there, always cares, always listens, always loves, is always dependable, always trustworthy, and is all we need. John 4:14 says "but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Oh to realize and rest in the hope of eternal life each and every day. Is it possible for us to let go and let Him fill our glasses and keep them full? Do we doubt he is capable?

I’ve been discouraged lately with my lack of believing Him and my lack of letting go so that He can fill me. I still believe in Him, but I have been struggling to trust in His plan. I’ve been struggling to believe that if I would step out of my “comfort zone” (even that which is causing stress and pain) that He would hold my hand and not lead me astray. Like the Israelites that were rescued by God from the hands of captivity and almost immediately forgot, I sit here today nearly paralyzed by my own fear of failure having forgotten how faithful He was just a short while ago when I was in another “comfort zone” that kept me in depression and isolation. God rescued me. He parted the Red Sea in my life and rescued me from the captivity of guilt and shame. How could I forget?

At the end of my last post I quoted a dear friend..."Believe, it’s worth it". This past weekend my friend boldly shared her story with our church body. I am so proud of her. I know how she is so authentic in her life, yet I know it's very vulnerable to share your story with 3,000 people. As I would have expected, her story was titled Worth It. Her anthem is Life is a process! She reminds me of this often and like other things...I forget. I want to be "perfect" now. I want things to be "fixed now" and have “perfect” faith now. But life is a process and God intended it that way so that we would learn to depend whole heartedly on and in Him. There are so called successes and failures in life and growing pains associates with both. We must let go and believe God in the midst and not just once we think we have it all figured out. We need only to accept His Son once to receive eternal life, but we must drink of His water each and everyday so that we can receive the strength and faith He gives. Will we choose to believe that there is water for our thirst everyday?

Oh Lord, forgive me for forgetting. Thank you for your grace that I need each and every morning and give me a heart that believes you and loves you above all else! Help me to remember your faithfulness in my life and in the lives of those I share life with.

A Mighty Cleaning

We spent the last two Saturday's cleaning Dave's house and making it our home. It was exhausting, but very rewarding to sit back and see how far the house has come. If you were to ask his last two roommates, I am certain they would tell you that Dave is a clean guy. He had a cleaning rotation schedule that included dusting, vacuuming and cleaning the kitchen. Dave makes his bed everyday and keeps his room picked up. He also cares well for his yard; keeping it mowed and the leaves raked. From the outside and the inside surface, it seemed clean. No need for much more work. But if you were to look deep inside you would see all the traces of life (hard times and everyday activities) - from random splatters on the kitchen and living room shutters to the base boards covered in dust and dog hair. Life takes it tolls. But we cleaned and cleaned these last few weeks and it looks great! I am very thankful for the energy we were given to get so much done.

Through all this I was humbly reminded of life. How from the surface we often seem well maintained and groomed. We can have the appearance of keeping it all together and even if you were to look just inside, it might seem that way still. But if you had the privilege of digging deep in to someone's life, you would see all the effects of life. The effects of choices made, of messes left unattended, of people only passing through and so on...like the hands we used this weekend to scrub and wash clean, God dives into our lives to wash us clean. The beauty of His cleaning is that in the end we are as white as snow. Dave and I will never get our entire house as white as snow, but I bet we spend many years trying. There will always be something to clean, something that needs to be healed, and something that needs some loving attention to make it better than before. And we hope that people will enjoy the efforts we put in by coming to visit, but we realize many will not notice that the shutters are clean and the microwave vent is dust free. Thankfully, from experience I can say that when the Lord does a mighty work in our lives, others notice. It’s inviting, it’s welcoming and others want to know how to get it themselves. Not everyone will know the details of the cleaning, but it’s worth it. It takes work. Even though the house received the works of our hands alone, healing and change in our lives takes work on our part as well as God's. Work in our lives requires us to receive the work of His hands and ours at the same time. It is definitely worth all the efforts! Just like we feel when we sit down and enjoy our clean home, Our Father enjoys our cleansed heart through His partnership with us. And like the house, the work is never done. But joyful times are had in the midst, much like the small gathering of friends we had over to celebrate the upcoming events.

Through all this, I’m encouraged to keep pushing towards the goal to win the prize. And like Paul said in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Amen…keep pressing on. In the words of a dear, dear friend and mentor…“Believe, it’s worth it!”

Laughter

One of the things I look forward to most about my future with Dave is all the laughter. Together we have discovered that I have three distinct laughs...deep belly laugh that is quite funny itself, my normal laugh, and the giggles (mostly when I am tired). Dave likes the belly laugh and says he makes it one of his goals each day to hear it. I must admit that many days he succeeds. I just love it!!