Hijacked

For all of you out there following this blog, this post is NOT by Christy.

You see I, her Husband and Biggest fan, have been plagued by the fact that she was able to share all of her feelings on me, yet I could not reciprocate. After a little questioning I found out how to do this Blog thing. SO, I am taking this moment to share just how great SHE is.

She is God's best and most perfect gift to me. She is funny and smart and has a way of caring for people that convicts me daily. She is my personal cheerleader. She has brought me to places I could never get to alone and has come with me to places I could never handle by myself.

As she said, I had a "light" go on in my life with, or should I say without, Christ about 4 years ago. More like a 2x4 to the head! It was way hard but God was and is with us on this journey we're on. We are finally united "together in truth" with Christ as the head. I lived my whole life thinking I knew what it was to be a "Christian" . But through our trials I have seen God shower me with grace through Christy's love for me. When I deserved none, Christy gave me more. When it got tough, she dug in her heels and stuck it out.

She is My love. She is my Truth speaker. She tells me what I need to hear even when it hurts because she loves me. She is radiant and she sets my heart ablaze. I love her more and more each day. She captivates me in her mothering. She blows my mind daily at her ability handle life so gracefully. When I am ready to throw the towel in she is there to remind me that HE is always with us.

For most guys it may seem hard to verbalize this kind of stuff. You know most men wanna be all macho about being a "man". But the cold hard truth is that I was a self-centered, coward and jerk. I thought real men did what they want or were called "whipped". Now I realize that real men Love their wife sacrificially and put their wife's needs BEFORE their own. I am not saying i do it all the time but at least I know that I should be.

God sent the love of my life in Christy. I have known her for almost 27 years, been a couple for 15 years, 10 of which we've been married for. With all of the trials we have endured together and seperately, I would not change one moment for it has always been part of God's plan. I would never be the man I am now or the man Christy makes me want to be without all of it. She is one of the strongest women I know. She has endured many hurts but realized God's hand cradling her in each of them. Her faith has bolstered mine. She encourages me like no one and I mean no one ever has in my entire life. When I am uneasy she reminds me what God has brought us through. When I fail she reminds me that we all stumble.

She is just a great woman, wife, mother and friend. I am constantly confused by God's plan to bless us with the trials we both had to endure to bring us to the place we are. We have a marriage most only dream about. It is full of bad days, whining kids, poor attitudes and unmet expectations. But in the end it is centered on CHRIST the only way, the absolute truth and the everlasting life. Without His Love it would be nothing.

Christy I love you. Forever and always, beyond my dying breath.

AWW

Time

"Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping...into the future." This is a line from the song FLY LIKE AN EAGLE from the Steve Miller Band. It just kind of came into my head as I was sitting here thinking about time. My daughter is playing and I look at her and think, "where did the time go?". My son just turned 7 and we're already thinking about 2nd grade next year. When did that happen? My project of late has been transfering my mini-DV home movies to DVD so I have been watching a lot of time slipping away. Vacations come and gone, sweet little 2 year old voices are now 7, my once baby girl will be in pre-K next fall! Time flies and yet we don't seem to notice the subtle changes. Sometimes I find myself so focused on what's happening next that I forget about what's happening right now. I live for the next hour or the next day or the next weekend and I really can't wait for summer vacation. But what's happening in this moment? My children are precious. They make us laugh every day. We like them just as they are right now. We don't want them to get older...and yet, we do! We are supposed to grow. God made us that way. We teach the children so they can become educated adults. We make memories so we can have memories. We get mad when our time gets wasted. We hurry from one thing to the other. In December I can't wait for the snow, but by the time February is here I can't wait for the spring. I want to feel satisfied with right now. I want to appreciate the spring flowers. I need to notice the blossoming trees and the leaves that are about to burst out because by July I will have stopped noticing the leaves at all until October when they're about to fall off.

Today is not a means to an end. I shouldn't be making it through today so I can get to tomorrow. Just because tomorrow brings me one step closer to vacation doesn't mean I shouldn't appreciate today. So what's the point of realizing that time is slipping away and we're too busy to notice? Well, I guess I'm reminded to be thankful for every day, every moment spent with my husband & my children. I could intentionally notice the small things, like the flowers on my pink dogwood that are about to open and the smell of hyacinth in the air, and that my kids are growing and changing before my eyes. I could probably do a better job of making today meaningful in some way for myself, for my husband, for my kids, for a stranger. I could be excited for right now instead of for what's going to happen tomorrow. So time keeps on slipping into the future and I'm going to try to enjoy every minute of it!

A Weekend to Remember

Sometimes I look back at my posts and I think "boy, I talk a lot about God". I mean I think I've decided this blog is for me, not necessarily the reader. Although, I would like the reader to get something out of what I wrote. I just can't help it. God changed my life! Can you liken it to a near death experience? Or nearly losing someone you love? You would certainly appreciate life and those you love more intentionally after almost losing them, right? God turned my life around. He saved me from a mediocre life and now I can't think of anything I would rather do then thank Him for what He has done and share His amazing love and power with others.

Adam and I went away this weekend to Family Life's "Weekend to Remember". It is a marriage conference designed to encourage, renew, and save marriages. Some couples attend because their marriage is heading for divorce. Some couples attend because they want to learn and grow in their marriage. Some couples just need some reenergizing. Some couples just need to remember why they got married in the first place. There were couples there that had been married almost 50 years and couples that had only been married 3 months (even some pre-married couples). Talk about starting your marriage on the right foot! It was a great weekend and we are glad we went! Just an aside, on date night we ate at a yummy restaurant in Delaware Water Gap, PA called Antelao. A very quaint, intimate setting and delicious food. Highly recommend if you are ever up in that area!

"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church... Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church." (EPHESIANS 5:22, 23, 25, 28, 29)