Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Y'all!!!! We went to santa's village on Sunday night with some good friends, the Jacobs, and took some pre-Christmas pictures. It was cold, crazy and filled with Christmas cheer! Enjoy the pictures....

What has God called you to do with your cloak?

A couple of weeks ago, I was studying 1&2 Kings about Elisha and Elijah and their ministries, I love the symbolizm of the cloak. We were first introduced to the "cloak" in 1 Kings 19 when we saw the cloak on Elisha and how when Elijah asked him if he wanted to be a part of his ministry Elisha threw his cloak, (which then symbolized status, and wealth), around Elijah's shoulder's, meaning I am "all in", you can have everything of value to me because I want to follow you. In 2 Kings 2 Elijah was getting ready to ascend into heaven and he was ready to pass on his ministry or "cloak "to Elisha symbolizing that it was his turn to lead the charge. The cloak was used not only by both prophets to separate the body of water in 2 Kings 2:13-14 but also to show who was the prophet. It was God's way of showing the people around them that they believed and followed Him whole heartily. What does it look like for God to want us to throw our "cloak" around him and just be "all in?" How does that play out in our lives? How often has God given us the charge to hand over our "cloak" to be able to effectively serve Him with our whole hearts? What would your cloak look like? Anger, money, possessions, lust, laziness and the list goes on. I feel very challenged to daily check my heart and life for anything that would hinder me in my walk with my Savior. My passion with being a completer to my husband during this church planting season is that I would not only throw my "cloak" around his shoulders but that I would help him persevere to spur others on to believe in what God has laid on our hearts. I leave you with Elisha's charge, do you have it in YOU? "So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elisha went up to him and threw his cloak around him." 1 Kings 19

Are you a Jezebel?

Life is moving at a crazy pace right now. We are in full throttle of church planting, raising four precious babes and trying to manage the chaos! Two weekends ago Michael and I were able to getaway for a night at our churches marriage conference. It was such a blessed time for the both of us. It is so fun to "let your hair down" and enjoy reflecting on the good times and hard times to let God use those circumstances to grow you in your marriage. I helped out our good friend on Saturday do a "speaker/listener" demonstration who was teaching one of the breakouts on communication and I was blown away by the little tid-bits I learned. God must have been laughing at me because he revealed some interesting ways I sin during conflict with my loving spouse. I thought I knew how to effectively communicate with Michael in a conflict and for the most part I did, but it is funny how the little things can get you! One of the ways I get caught up is that Michael is forever telling me that I am not listening when in a fight, and of course I always rebuttal, but I learned that when someone else is speaking and you are only thinking of ways to negate EVERYTHING they are saying, then guess what? You aren't listening! Hello! It wasn't any major epiphanies, just practical stuff like that but it provoked some great conversations between us.


I am also convicted about the influence we have over our husbands. Do we daily use that influence to bring honor to them and glory to our Savior? In reading this past week in 1 Kings 21:5-25 I learned about a woman named Jezebel who was married to a powerful king, Ahab. Instead of being a helper or completer to King Ahab she was an ultimate manipulator. In fact she was so good at "fixing or meddling" in her husbands affairs that she had an innocent man killed. When times got tough she whipped out the pants and put them on instead of challenging her husband to lean on God. 1 Kings 21:25 says, "There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife." Wow if that is not convicting women, I don't know what is. How am I a completer to my spouse? Am I daily bathing in God's word and not just reading it but memorizing it and applying it to my life? Let me leave you today with this thought from Gods word, found in 1 Peter 3:1-4 "In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then, even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live, when they see your pure and reverent conduct. Let your beauty not just be external – the braiding of hair and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes – but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit, which is precious in God’s sight. "