Praying For My Man

I really think a BIG BIG part of my role as a wife,is to pray for my man.
 I believe this is the call of every wife.
  When I learned to pray for my man, I mean really pray, not just pray that he would have enough work, or that the Lord would keep him safe or that he would behave like a perfect husband or those kinds things, but to pray for his heart, it became a game changer.

Sadly, even knowing this, I get lazy at times.
 But, I DO KNOW THAT IT IS KEY to the health for our entire family.

You think about it, as wives, we have more insight into our man's lives than anyone else on earth, and if we neglect to pray for them, we  have missed our biggest mission.

The men are the spiritual leaders of our homes and we MUST bring them before the Lord and pray for them even more than we pray for our kids or anyone else. If we have a man with a heart for God, He will lead the family well.
 We must pray with the insight and the passion that the Lord has given us into their lives and their hearts.

Here's my TESTIMONY:

My man has had A LOT on his plate lately. 

 A LOT!

Today was a day that my wifely heart needed to really pray for him, but I was out of energy to do so. 
 I was tapped out and as  I prayed for him I felt a bit overwhelmed by it all.

I knew I needed to reach out to a couple of my man's men. 

*Charlie has been blessed ABUNDANTLY with brothers. 
 He has no family brothers ( other than brother in laws), but buddies that are closer than brothers.*

 I put out a battle cry (prayer request) to a few of these guys that are godly men, and they are like battle buddies to him.  

  These guys are loyal to the very end and will always point my man in the right WAY and they know how to get a hold of God.

They responded immediately and got their game on!

PRAYERS AND ENCOURAGEMENT!!!!

AND THEN GOD DID WHAT HE DOES BEST!!!!

HE WENT EVEN A STEP ABOVE AND BEYOND ANYTHING I COULD THINK TO ASK OR PRAY FOR!!!

As only our God can do, He also sent, to our house one of the most amazing prayer warriors I have ever known.

  Did you hear that ???? 
 On the day that I am too tapped out to pray much,

unexpectely and without  solicitation, God sent TUCKER, ya Ugandan Tucker, to our house on  other ministry business.

 Tucker, our friend who has the most amazing prayer life I have EVER witnessed.

As Tucker was in his pickup leaving today, he rolled his window down and asked how his brother Charlie is doing, because Charlie is working out of town for the day and so he didn't get to see him.

I felt I needed to be honest and told him that Charlie could use some extra prayers.

  I gave him a very brief download of some things on Charlie's heart.

Tucker was in his pickup ready to head to his next mission and sticks his hand out the window and prayed right then and there like I have never heard anyone pray for my man. 

 He had insight and love and words that could only come from the
 Holy Spirit.  

I already know that my man is blessed by these prayers because I am blown away by the goodness of God once again.  

Here's the best part of the whole thing, Charlie is totally out of any cell range today, and so the Lord was moving on his behalf without him even knowing about it.
I am as blessed by the prayers and the encouragement that God has sent our way on behalf of Charlie and I know that he is

 COVERED by the LOVE AND BLESSING of GOD!!!!!

Obedience Without Expectations

Part of living by faith is letting go of MY expectations. 

 Our pastor talked this weekend about obedience and when we attach expectation it's not really obedience. It's obedience with conditions and that is not the obedience God is looking for. 

 He is looking for our hearts not our checked off obedience list.

 OUCH!!!! 

 Let's just say I sat through 3 services of that message and I had to endure strong conviction with every one. 

The Lord knew I needed to hear it over and over to let it sink in.

I am not going to confess over blog world how I have miserably failed at this, but I am going to add what God has continued to teach me through this message and through some events going on in my life. 

Hebrews 12:1-3English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Part of running the race He set before us is to run until He comes back or we go home to be with Him. 

 I often want to set a limit to how many miles I will go.  I just want to know what I have ahead of me.  I want to KNOW how much further and what the course is going to be like.

When I have ran in marathons......I get tired and pretty soon my entire focus becomes how many miles I have to go before it is

O.V.E.R.

  I have this weird oxygen deprived sickness that hits my brain every single time and when I hit a mile marker it takes me the entire next mile to figure out if that mile marker meant I HAD ALREADY completed 20 miles or if I was CURRENTLY running mile 20 and then I see mile marker 21 and the whole thing starts all over again. 

 It happens every time and goes on for the next 6 miles.

  I also have been in labor a few times and seen other women in labor and there is something about that "number" the Dr. announces when he checks.  Because you know the magic number is 10, it's like all the focus is on the number.  Of course you don't know if the next 3 numbers are going to take 3 minutes or 3 hours or 3 days, but you can either be encouraged or discouraged based on the number.

To live in obedience I believe we just need to take things as they come and be faithful to what He gives us every single time for as long as HE gives us.

I think it's interesting that the verse following the one above that talks about "running the race," the very next one talks about "not growing weary".

Hebrews 12:3English Standard Version (ESV)

Do Not Grow Weary

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

What if........we just ran until the race was over or  labored until delivered.

Our Silver Anniversary - Years 1-5

 

In 5 months on December 2, 2014 we will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

I think it's called the Silver Anniversary because it has been refined, through trial, and a whole bunch of error.  All the refining has definitely made us stronger in the Lord and in our marriage.

Isaiah 48:10-11English Standard Version (ESV)

10 

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

    I have tried[a] you in the furnace of affliction.

11 

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

    for how should my name[b] be profaned?

    My glory I will not give to another.

I thought it would be fun for the next 5 months to break our last 25 years down into 5 year blog posts.  This post will be years 1-5.

This is THE LOVE PALACE.
 We only lived here for the first few months of our marriage and then we downgraded to a travel trailer for the next 9 months.
 I have no pictures of the trailer, we tried not to keep too many memories of the "trailer days".

This was our first house that we bought.  It was a brand new 2 bedroom mobile home and we were pumped.

We had our first baby, Lashae, in 1992.  

 

We had our second baby, Kole in 1994.  

 The picture above is Kole's 1st rodeo weekend on the 4th of July weekend when he was just one week old.

Yep, we were THOSE parents....nothing was going to slow us down from OUR LIVES.  

Charlie was working construction and still riding bulls in the PRCA.

I worked for the airlines for the first 5 years of our marriage. 

 I went from baggage gorilla, to flight attendant, to customer service agent.

We worked hard and played hard in those first 5 years.  

We loved each other a whole bunch, and we knew how to have a good time when we were together.

Even in those early days..we didn't spend much time together, we were often going different directions.

We were 2 VERY independent people that didn't know how to put anything before ourselves. 

We had a very narrow view of God and the world.

We knew the Jesus as our Savior and our marriage was started on THAT SOLID FOUNDATION, we were just gone a LOT and not standing on that FOUNDATION.

We knew Jesus should be the most important part of our lives...we just got kinda busy and self centered most times and made

 EVERYTHING

 else the priority.

If there was one thing I would do different in those first 5 years, it would be this:

I would have done what God said:

Mark 12:30English Standard Version (ESV)

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

I'm so thankful for the first 5 years, but OH LORD I would not want to do THAT again.

I'm so thankful for the years and the refining and the memories and the progress.

Even if the refining and progress has aged us to looking a bit rough...things tend to feel smoother.

I'm thankful that the Lord can use it ALL.  The good the bad and the ugly, He can use it all for His glory.

He Speaks to My Heart.

Romans 6:15-18

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,[a] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

There has been a situation weighing on my heart.  I have needed some clarity from the Lord on how to respond to this situation.  It's been confusing to me.

I have asked the Lord for clarification.  Not clarification on if the situation is right or wrong, He is clear in His Word about that, but rather my responsibility as to how to respond. 

God is so good  to speak to my heart in a way that I can understand. 

He brought an example to my mind as I was asking Him for direction. 

  As family members of this house there are different rules and expectations than for strangers or even new family members that come into our home.
  We would never expect a stranger or a guest to know how we do things, the way we do them, or why we do them the way we do.

I would not expect a stranger to know our internet password, or where we  keep the cleaning products, or what our morning routine and chores are.

It is same for God's family.  There are different rules and expectations for members of His family than to strangers or even new members of His family.  As for the strangers, there is no expectations. 

 They are strangers to the family.

As for new members there is a time of learning.   Here's an example:  when Mik came into our family, he did not have the same expectations put on him that the other kids in this family his same age.  He didn't know us and we didn't know him.

  But, we didn't throw all the rules and expectations OUT to make him feel welcome and loved and part of the family. 

 We lovingly showed him and taught him, and as he learned and came to know his family we expected more and NOW, it has been 15 months and he has the same expectations on him as the kids that have been here their whole lives.

God doesn't change because we don't want to play by His family rules anymore. 

 He doesn't want the other family members to compromise their obedience to the Lord in the name of LOVE. 

 This is not love.

  God is LOVE and He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sin, so I don't think He will EVER look lightly at our sin, it cost Him His Son's life.

  

1 John 4:16-17English Standard Version (ESV)

16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

I also know that when one of my kids messes up and doesn't follow the family rules or expectations.....I don't look at the rest of them and say forget all the rules, because one kid has messed up we are just going to quit all the rules around here and hope for the best. 

I mess up every single day MULTIPLE times, but that doesn't mean I can't have expectations for myself and everyone of these family memebers that I LOVE.

Leviticus 18:2-4English Standard Version (ESV)

2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. 3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.4 You shall follow my rules[a] and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lordyour God.