Preacher’s Wife Teaching Life

The day after Thanksgiving, Jarrod and I met up with his sister, mom, and step dad to have lunch. After lunch we took his sister and mom to see our land. His sister lives in Oregon and hadn't seen it in person yet. We stopped by Starbucks of course and made the 20 minute drive out there. Jarrod stopped to put the truck in 4 wheel drive so we could drive onto our untamed land and show his sister where we hope to build our home. As we rolled out of our land, Jarrod stopped to take the truck out of 4 wheel drive and we started the trek back home. We turn the corner of our one lane dirt road and see a vehicle of some kind hidden by 2 round bales of hay coming QUICKLY down the hill of the dirt road. The hay bales are so high that the driver clearly cannot see us. By the grace of God, Jarrod slams the truck into reverse and Lynde (his sister) is yelling, "honk the horn!!!!!" Jarrod drives in reverse going 30 mph on this curvy dirt road honking his horn and he still does not

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1 NLT) For we live by believing and not by seeing. (2 Corinthians 5:7 NLT) For some people, faith comes easily. Faith is a precious gift that some people are blessed with. Other people learn to have faith. I wish I could say I was the first person, but I'm not. By the way I live you might think that'd be the case but instead, my case is one of obedience. I have to pray for faith constantly and be reminded of the promises God has given us. In a world where we are able to see and get immediate results and see the products of our labor after hard work, it can sometimes be hard to believe in something we cannot see. Not that I feel believing in God is hard but sometimes believing his promises will happen is hard. For example, I get easily discouraged about our ministry not looking the way I thought it would (ridiculous, I know) and I start believin

When Jarrod and I FIRST started dating he said he liked it when I asked for his help with some things (like reaching the top shelf) because it meant I couldn't do some things without him. Which worked out nicely for me because I'm the baby of the family and I love to be helped :)  This is similar to how God feels for us. What would we need him for if our lives were perfect...without challenges. We are pushed outside our "boxes" so often on a daily basis and need Him to help us through it. If we weren't uncomfortable every now and then, we probably wouldn't give much credit to His glory.  I haven't shared the information I'm about to give you with many people (except close friends) because I'm a little embarrassed about it...given our current financial situation. On Wednesday, we signed papers to own 40 acres out in the country...WHAT?! You say. Yeah...me too. We don't have regular income and the somewhat regular income we have comes from Jar

One night when I was waiting for Jarrod to get home, I was searching on Amazon for a free book to download and couldn't find anything that suited my fancy. I realized that instead of wasting my time on yet another fictional novel that I should spend more of my free time with my Father. I went to our room and dusted off my "real" Bible (there's just something more reverent about turning the pages of a Bible than looking at an electronic screen for me) and turned straight to Proverbs - my favorite book. Every time I read a couple chapters of Proverbs, I feel a lot more connected to Him. Even though I've read Proverbs probably a hundred times, it feels brand new and genius every time. I ran across Proverbs 11:4 and it dawned on me the true meaning of it. (When Jarrod came home and I was discussing this with him, he lovingly laughed at me saying, "you realize it didn't "dawn" on you, right? God has revealed new wisdom to you." ....So tru

If you were at church a couple Sundays ago, this story about an anonymous person might sound a little familiar...but I'm going to tell it from my perspective...because it happened to me. I always go outside and pet the kittens. We have 6 baby kittens and 1 older kitten. I was sitting on the porch doing my usual thing, just thinking about life and enjoying God's creations and I started to see flashing lights. I thought, oh no! I hope I'm not getting a migraine! (I used to get migraines in junior high and that's how they started). I blinked and blinked and took deep breaths but it didn't stop so I went inside. I went to the restroom and prayed against the migraine and for healing over my body and head. It got worse. I then went to the medicine cabinet and started to look for anything for headaches. When I grabbed the bottle and tried to read it, I couldn't see anything. It was like I was going blind (or at least, what I think going blind would be like). Along

My mom, Kathie wrote this and I wanted to share it with you: When a man steps forward with a word from The Lord, we better pay attention.  That happened to me yesterday. Have you ever had a vision or dream of something that you would like to see happen?  I did, when I married David.  I really felt that God would take us to a place where there were beaches to pastor a church.  I learned early on that my vision was not the one that God had for us. We came to Dallas, Texas for seminary training, we thought we were going back to Pennsylvania in four years. That didn't happen. A little church in Stephenville, Texas needed a pastor.  There went the beach ministry, BUT God's vision for us was greater than ours. Looking back over the last 25 years, we can see His hand in the whole roller coaster ride.  That ride was both scary and exciting. The way we used to define our ministry was something like, who will come along side of us, believe in us, and support us financially.  In

I have to start this post with some background story. Please bear with me as I eventually make my way to the meat of the story. Jarrod and I first met in high school on a double date - but not with each other. He was with a girl he had been dating for a couple years and I was with his best friend (our first and last date). Jarrod graduated, went to the Air Force and continued to date his girlfriend for 3 more years. I finished high school and went to college in our home town. In March of 2007 (Jarrod and his girlfriend had been broken up for a while at this point) Jarrod "friended" me on MySpace, I accepted, and we messaged each other for about 2 months. We were like silly little school children, waiting impatiently for each others' next message. After messaging each other on MySpace for 2 months, we exchanged phone numbers and I text messaged him a couple days later with a simple message...testing the waters. We continued to text message for 2 weeks when he started

I died when I was 13. I was in an ATV accident that landed me with a fractured skull and bleeding brain that resulted in the miracle of a lifetime. When I woke up, I knew I had been given the gift of a second chance at life. It was the summer of 2000 that we celebrated our freedom from the school year by riding four-wheelers on my friend's dairy. We were excited about being freshman and feeling pretty mature by practicing our driving skills on the ATV in the field. I was slightly less mature in my driving than my friend and lost control of the machine. Before we knew it, I slammed my unprotected head into a pole and my friend broke her femur from the impact of sitting behind me. She waited on the ground and prayed for help (no cell phones) while I rocked back and forth, unconscious on the ground. We were found, my parents were called, the ambulance came and we were off to the hospital. My whole family met us there to find me bleeding and unrecognizable. The doctors lost me tw

If you're breathing then I imagine you struggle with or have struggled with one or more of the following: -worry -stress -fear -rejection -self loathing -feeling of inadequacy -self blame The list goes on, but those are just of few of the most common feelings that people have, sometimes on a daily basis. I know these feelings creep up on me more often than I'd like. When I start to feel any of the above, I remind myself that these feelings are NOT feelings from God. They are evil thoughts creeping their way into my mind and I refuse to agree with them. If I agree with these lies, then I'm denying that my Father is the King. On Sunday, my husband started doubting himself and he wanted me to make him feel better. I realized almost immediately that he was being attacked by lies not from God (I wish I could say I do this every time lies creep up, but I don't...this was divine intervention). Instead of trying to think of positive, uplifting, and encouraging thin

This post is actually inspired by and part of it has been stolen from my sister Jennifer. I am the last of 4 children in my family. I am 10 years younger than the oldest and almost 5 years younger than the 3rd child, Jennifer. My siblings and I always joke about how I was the "accident", the "hiccup", the "mistake" of the family but they only get away with not hurting my feelings because I know this is not true. Well, being an "accident" is technically true but I know I am not viewed as an "accident"; I'm viewed as a precious gift. A pleasant surprise. At my dad's birthday party this year, my family was reminiscing on good times at a summer camp. My parents were trying to remember how many kids they had at the time and came to the conclusion they only had 3. Somehow we got around to joking about me being the afterthought that wasn't alive or thought about yet. For a tiny split second the joking stings but then I remember

In the movie, Just Friends, one of the characters writes a song about forgiveness and its kind of silly but there’s a little truth to it. Jarrod and I always sing it when forgiveness is needed and it makes us laugh every time. I even have my 5 year old nephew singing it, which is hilarious. It goes something like this, “Forgiveness. It’s more than saying sorry. I’m sorry. To forgive is Devine so lets have a glass of wine....” And it goes into somewhat inappropriate material for a Christian blog. Often times when we say, “I forgive you”, we don’t really mean it. Its hard to forgive someone when our feelings are still hurt. Even if you don’t really mean it, the first step to forgiveness is saying it. Whether its to that person directly or to yourself, saying it out loud is the hardest. When I'm with my mom and I need to forgive, she prompts me by saying, “Father I forgive...” and she makes me finish it. I hate it when she makes me do this and I’m usually not ready to finish the s

You know that person that you can't stand to be around? That person that gets under your skin and upsets you so quickly? Yeah, most of us have had or do have one of those. It seems like everywhere you go, just when you think you've avoided that person that he/she shows up in a different form. Ugh! Doesn't it drive you crazy?! After a couple different encounters you have to wonder WHY you can't get away from this type of person. Well, have you ever thought about the fact that it may be you? That maybe there's something inside you that needs to be healed so that you can love this person...hmmm that's not where you thought this was going, huh? I get along really well with just about everyone. I'm accepting of many things and put up with a lot before it upsets me but I had nemesis at every single job I'd been in. I started to question why God kept putting these people in my path. After my third or fourth nemesis I asked God to help me examine myself. He re

A lot of times our lives don't turn out the way we hope. These times can be unsettling, if not a little bit depressing. The path you're on isn't anything like the way you envisioned it and you wonder why. Did you ever think that maybe God had a different plan for you? That maybe His plan was better than yours? That maybe, just maybe, He knows what's good for you and that He has your best interest at heart? Often times when my life doesn't look the way I wanted it to, I throw a big fit and get really mad that He can't just give me what I want. I know...I can't believe I act like such a brat especially to our Heavenly Father! After I throw my fit and move on, I soon realize that the path He has taken me on is way better than what I had planned and I thank God He didn't give me what I thought I wanted. I've gotten to the point where I don't want to make any decisions about my life...I want Him to tell me what to do. Usually when I ask what I shoul

It's hard to let go sometimes, isn't it? Maybe not for everyone but for a lot of people, it's easier to just do things yourself so you know it'll be done "right" (by right I mean done the way you want it). Or even the times when things are NOT getting done we think, "I'll just do it myself!" In the past year, God has been teaching me that I am not the one that controls my circumstances, He is. Quite frankly, He's teaching me how much easier it is if I just hand over the reins. What's funny is He had the reins the whole time! We just THINK we have control. God has revealed this to me through recent events and the quality of my life has greatly improved. Once we figure this out and let Him rule, everything else falls into place...everything seems to get easier...we start to feel real freedom. In reality, my circumstances, financially or physically or anything else I've been worried about, have not changed at all; my mind has been tran

A year ago, I "retired" from teaching high school math to join Jarrod in his ministry. I can't believe it's already been a year and am amazed how much our lives have changed since then. Quitting my job and losing my nice salary and benefits were not easy things. It was scary and not something I would normally do. The old me would NEVER quit a secure job without having another job lined up - logically, it just doesn't make any sense at all. The old me valued a post secondary education, having a salaried job, and doing the logical things in life. It just made sense. About 3 years ago, I began to grow very tired of driving 45 minutes to work everyday but REALLY liked the school I was teaching at. So you say, "what's the problem? Just move. Duh!" Well the problem was that we received words from our Father that Jarrod's ministry would be in our hometown and that we were to plant roots there...so you probably can see my dilemma. I began to ask God to

My name is Jessica and my husband's name is Jarrod. We believe in God. We also believe in the spiritual gifts. Jarrod is an associate pastor at a small church in our hometown. It is a non-denominational church; by this we mean we are Bible based, spirit filled people who just LOVE enjoying God. We each have very good and close knit families but we also view the church members as our family. We love them like sisters and brothers and really enjoy spending time with them. Everyone has their own passions; some of us share passions. My passions include my husband and dog, teaching math (even though I "retired" last year from the teaching field, I tutor students and use every chance I get to explain math to people), and a good, strong cup of coffee. :) My favorite spiritual gift to learn and practice and be practiced on is prophecy. Prophecies are when God's children ask their Father for a word and hear it through feelings, verses, maybe an audible voice, a thought appe