Gratefulness

I woke up this morning and I feel an overwhelming sense of gratefulness. Gratefulness to God mostly.

I am grateful for so many things, my husband, my kids, my health, that I have a job that meets our needs and pays our bills, for a great church family that loves us and is mentoring Rob into becoming an even better pastor. I'm grateful for a wonderful group of pastor's wives that are so different, married to such different men, but still working together to meet the needs of our congregation. Thanks Ginny, for setting up our time together on Sat. It was wonderful!

I'm grateful for a great extended family in which we can be ourselves and spend great times together [some of which are coming up shortly :-) ]. I'm grateful for good friends near and far that love and support even when you don't know it.

I'm grateful to my husband for loving me even though I can't manage money to save my life and all my other faults that he simply overlooks each time he tells me " it's easy to love you". Because it definitely is NOT easy to love me. I know it takes a lot of work to love me, but he does it with such patience.

I'm grateful for my children that are not perfect, but have made my life a rich and interesting collage of stories, experiences, memories and adventures yet to come. I have found that being a parent is the hardest job I will ever, ever have...and there are days that I am still shocked that God has entrusted me with little people to raise...but I wouldn't trade it for all the world. My children have made me a better person, and for that I will always be grateful to them.

Most of all, I'm grateful to God for sending Jesus to die on the cross for me even though I in no way deserved it and can do absolutely nothing to ever deserve it. I am looking forward to heaven with such expectation. Eternity is going to be great - way, way beyond great!!

Thanks for sharing my day of gratefulness with me. Sometimes I tend to spend more time with my focus on the things I don't have or would like to change instead of placing my focus on what I do have and appreciate about my life.

Facebook

As you can see from the badge to the right, I have gone into the Facebook world. It is rather addicting really. There are SO many options....live chat, writing little comments, sending whole e-mails, adding pictures and I'm sure others I haven't quite figured out yet.

So, if you do Facebook and you haven't found me, look for me and we can connect over there.

I love technology.

Good Friends

We recently had some very good friends from Wisconsin visiting us for about a week. Chelsea and Ryan were just jr. high kids when we started youth pastoring in Wisconsin, now they are our friends. They drove 26 hours each way to see us! We had a wonderul time catching up and spending time together. I am so thankful for good friends that you can just be completely yourself with. Chelsea and Ryan, thanks for the visit. You guys mean the world to us.

We spent a great day in the mountains! More on that in a future post...

Several soccer games were played.

We played many games of Catan!
There were also many nice talks and one episode of frantically searching for Seth. [Thanks Chelsea for your help with that. You really kept me calm! :-/ ] All in all a great time with truly great people!

14 years

On Wednesday it was our 14th wedding anniversary. We were busy with company here from the U.S., so I didn't have the chance to hop on here and blog. As I look back on the last 14 years, I am really shocked that we have been married this long. It sounds like such a long time and yet feels very short. But, as I look at the ages of our children and I look back at all of the places we have lived and done ministry in, I can see that 14 whole years have gone by.

I sat for a while on Wednesday and spent some time thinking about my life. I have been so blessed! Being married to Rob has been a wonderful journey. To have someone who knows everything about you and still loves you, is a very special thing. People who have met Rob have often said to me, 'You must be a special person to be married to him. I could never do it.' Those comments always make me smile, because in so many ways Rob is so much easier to live with than I am. I just look nice and kind on the outside, but living with me is not always easy. For example, Rob is much more flexible than I am. He is very quick to forgive, and that is often difficult for me. He is spontaneous and a lot of fun. He pushes me to try new things. He is faithful. He trusts God without wavering. He does his best to spend time with the children and with me doing things that we enjoy. He is very often the last one to get anything new, putting the needs of the children and myself ahead of his own. He works hard and goes above and beyond providing for his family. Rob balances me perfectly. Our relationship works because we balance each other completely. His strengths are my weaknesses and his weaknesses are my strengths. Together we are better than we would be alone.

That does not mean that there are not times that we struggle. We definitely do. But at the end of it all, we recognize that God put us together to help each other. To bless each other. And yes, at times, to challenge each other and to help the other one look at our issues and deal with our stuff.

I recently heard someone say that their marriage ended because they just didn't have what it took to make it work. That saddened me. It saddened me because this individual didn't recognize that no couple, no matter how wealthy, healthy, committed or in love they are, just inherently have what it takes to make a marriage last a lifetime. I have discovered that at some point every couple comes to the place where they feel like they don't have what it takes to keep going. That's when you both have to roll up your sleeves and build what it takes. This is the work of marriage. It involves spending time together, doing things that matter to the other person. Talking about the real you...the you that is hard to share. It involves letting someone else point out your weaknesses and to challenge you to work on those things. It involves LOVE.

Thank you my darling for 14 great years, I am enthusiastically looking forward to 14 more. I am excited to walk this journey of life with you holding your hand and experiencing all that life has for us.