Preacher’s Wife Teaching Life

My kitty disappeared and I asked God to give me peace that she was ok...she showed up on my front porch.  I bet if I asked you how you find peace that we would all have different answers. Some might say exercise, yoga, meditation, prayer, house chores (I wish I found peace this way!), being outdoors, etc. I would agree with you that there are some things in life that just calm us down or give us peace for a moment, but I'd also add that there is only one thing that brings lasting peace. This one thing brings peace that doesn't have to be reactivated by more miles, yoga poses, minutes meditating, or cleaning cabinets. This type of peace can be tapped into at any moment without having to get up and do anything. So maybe you like doing your activities...this peace can still be found while doing other stuff. At this point, you probably know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about God, relating to Him through Jesus and receiving peace through the Holy Spirit (they ma

Have you ever looked back at old pictures, watched old videos or read old Facebook posts and noticed yourself cringing a little bit? Come on, I know you have at least once. At the time, what you're doing feels so right and then looking back, with wisdom, you can see how misguided your decisions were. I know this is certainly true for me. I have changed so much in my young adulthood that sometimes I cringe at the younger me. With a little distance, maturity and wisdom I can see the error of my ways. However, I'd be lying if I said those were the only three ingredients in my recipe for finding my true self. The main ingredient, the flour of the recipe, is Christ in me. My time with him has broken off so many lies of my past, regret, blame, shame and generational curses. He alone has revealed my true identity...the person he created me to be and I'm still not done chipping away the junk. When I visualize this process I get an image of "Thing" in Fantastic Four (t

Thankful for Sergeant. The holiday season is always used to connect with family, have fun with friends, reflect on past times and look forward to future times. Focusing on the things we are grateful for is second nature and usually part of the THANKSgiving tradition. Maybe you posted something daily on Facebook, posted a picture a day on Instagram or went around the table during a meal and expressed the things you most enjoy in life. If you participated in something like this, did it make you realize how blessed you are? Did it lift your mood and brighten your day? Thankful for him. Reflecting on our daily blessings has a unique way of changing our mood and maybe even the atmosphere. Being thankful brings about a perspective that allows us to gaze in the right direction. Focusing on the good in our lives helps make us feel like the bad isn't so terrible. Thankful for my church family . I want to encourage you to continue the routine of reflecting on your blessings t

When Jarrod and I were dating for a little over a year, I was growing frustrated that he wasn't hinting at a proposal. When I confronted him on it, he acted like it might be something in the future to consider but nothing to jump into. I was furious! I was thinking that we were on the same page...that we both couldn't wait to get married and he was telling me that he might consider it. It turned out that he was fibbing because he already bought a ring and planned on proposing that weekend. I was ruining my own surprise without even knowing it because of my impatience. Luckily, I was so blinded by disappointment that I never even heard him tell me he was about to propose.  (Watch here)  or here: I do this a lot...grow impatient and jump the gun when God already has a plan in place for me. I think a lot of us do that. We get so blinded by what we want, what we don't have and how long we've been waiting that we can't even see the clues that God lays out for u

Negativity is a nasty thing. It creeps in and takes over our thought processes to a point that can be paralyzing. Being negative becomes a habit that is so hard to break that we don't even want to try. It's a comfortable rut that we sit in and complain about. We spread negativity around like a stomach bug and think it's normal. So how do we get out? How can we dig ourselves out of the rut and change our bad habit of being negative? I know one way: through Jesus. Here are four easy steps to being a more positive person: FIRST: You have to be alerted to your negative words and thoughts. Start each day asking Jesus to alert you when these thoughts develop and especially when those thoughts become words. SECOND: Ask Jesus to reveal the source of these thoughts and squash it like a bug! Get rid of it! You don't want a lying source sitting around in your thoughts. THIRD: Ask Jesus to be the source of your new thoughts: the truth that covers over the place where the

Driving down I-20, I couldn't help but notice how frustrated I was as I timed how long it took me to drive to my new job. I *get the privilege* of spending two days a week in a town 45 minutes from my home and all I felt was dread on the drive over there. Why would I feel dread when God led me here, gave me this opportunity and told me to find joy in the process? Because my heart wasn't on the same page as my mouth.  The car is parked during the making of this picture. When God gave me this opportunity, it came with the stipulation that I would have to commute twice a week. He asked me if I would be willing to do that and I said with my thoughts, "yes, Lord!" while my heart was saying, "I don't like this!" **insert stomping foot and pouting lip** God set up this perfect job  that I would thoroughly enjoy, not take up too much of my time in the ministry and allow me to reach more people. I took one small aspect that I didn't like about my n

A fun part of my story! Free Cowboys tickets! Have you ever felt that sting of jealousy when you look at someone else? The sting of pain that happens when they have something you don't.You wonder why your life looks different and maybe even wonder what you did wrong. I feel this way sometimes when I look at people. I think, "they have 3 kids, she drives a new car, he has a bigger house, she's getting her master's degree, she's more creative than me..." I've been noticing that these thoughts lead to a dark place of depression and inferiority. Even though I know all about perspective and that people might look at my life the same way as I look at someone else's, I still can't help but compare myself. My love story with Jarrod is so cool! God has been talking to me a lot about this lately. He's been telling me that just because my story is different, that doesn't mean that my story is inferior to another person's story. Each one

It was a Friday when I got the call from the vet that we needed to make a decision on not IF to put Troop down, but when. I was devastated by having to make this decision and spent all night begging God to heal my dog. When I finally fell asleep, He gave me a dream. In my dream, I brought Troop home from the hospital and everything was very similar to real life. Our house looked the same, our land was the same but I could tell it was just different (lighting, weather, atmosphere). In this dream, Troop was healed, running around and playing with his ball. My parents came over to celebrate with me and showered me with gifts. Our air conditioning guy (random...?) was at the house replacing my air conditioner for free like he did every year...??? I woke up and assumed God was telling me He would heal Troop. We woke up early, went straight to the vet and expected Troop to be healed. He wasn’t. We ended up putting him down that day. Jarrod stood beside him and prayed over him as he took h

I bought a Chronological Bible at the beginning of the year with the hopes that I would read the allotted passage every day (a New Year's resolution). I have to admit that I got quite a bit ahead at the beginning, slowed down around Leviticus and picked it back up after that. I am currently on the correct day of the year in the Bible as I am in real life and am VERY excited to be starting the New Testament. As I wrapped up the OT, my husband asked me what I learned from it. In a short summary, it was a constant game of chase for God. The Israelites would betray Him time and again and every single time He would pour out His love on them. He provided food, water, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to guide them. He repeatedly defeated their enemies and how did they return His affections? By creating idols and worshiping other gods. Over and over and over again. So frustrating! At the end of the OT, God points out (I'm paraphrasing) that he brought them out of slavery,

There are plenty distractions to interrupt my day. If it’s not an actual person, it might be an email, an errant thought, a butterfly or exhaustion that distract me from what I’m supposed to be doing. When everyone is calling my name, texting me, emailing me are asking for help, it’s very hard to stay on track.  For example, when I try to clean my house, I work with such purpose on one thing and then…SQUIRREL! I see something else that needs to be worked on. Then, when I’m doing that I see a different thing that needs to be cleaned…and suddenly, I’m working on 3 or more things with divided effort. If I could just work with purpose on one thing and then move on to the next item, I could get a lot done and do it well.  FLOOD Youth Conference This is a worldly representation of my relationship with God and His purpose for me. It might range from being distracted during prayer to knowing my purpose, starting well and getting distracted in the process. Just yesterday, my husban

Anyone who has been to school, teaches school, going to school, or taking a kid to school can understand the adjustment it takes to start a new year. You certainly have to “get back into shape” for getting up early, going all day and catching up on chores/homework at night. We go from the super relaxed summer schedule straight into a very rigid schedule with little flexibility. Personally, it threw me off kilter a little bit and I was very thankful for the long weekend to make up for a tiring week. By the end of the week, I found myself getting agitated and frustrated in areas that I really shouldn’t have been. I was starting to get caught up in the politics around me when it was really not my problem. When Sunday rolled around and I listened to my husband preach, I realized I needed an attitude adjustment - a refocusing of my gaze. I got so bogged down with these nit picky things that don’t really matter and forgot the real reason I was there. My mission as a teacher is to help

As a full-time employee at a school , I received a laptop. I want to respect school property and protect the laptop from unnecessary damage so I ordered a sleeve for it to sleep in while I carry it to and fro in my teacher tote. Jarrod has Amazon Prime so I ordered it on his account for it to be delivered the Saturday before school starts. Saturday, I went to the mailbox and it wasn’t there. Jarrod says, “ohh yeah! I forgot…my credit card expired and you have to reorder it.” I was so disappointed! I thought I timed the delivery perfectly and I couldn’t wait to check out my new purple laptop sleeve! At this point, I was presented with two options in my mind and emotions: 1.        Get mad and blame a bunch of people for my misfortune, or 2.        Not be so dramatic because now it arrives on Monday and that’s not very far away (first world probs). I chose the first option. The thing is, in my mind, I knew there were two options! Both were waiting at an equal level to be c

How does a girl with a B.S. in Mathematics get a full-time job at a junior college? For someone like me - someone that dreamed of becoming a teacher her whole life, taught high school and didn’t really like it - this is a dream come true. I get to teach a subject I love to students I adore in an environment that suits my personality. I’ll tell you how I moved into a full-time position: it was all God. Sure, I used the tools He gave me, but He provided the timing, circumstances and open positions to make my dream possible.  As an adjunct math instructor for developmental classes (that’s a part-time position), I began mixing my skills, experience and training with my passion and what I found was pure joy everyday. My co-workers started asking me if I’d considered a master’s degree and working full time since I enjoyed my job so much. To be honest, these things hadn’t really even crossed my mind; I was so busy enjoying every day in each moment that I wasn’t looking to change an alr

Do you know what I like best about conflict? I like the moment conflict gets resolved. I love that feeling of relief. I love the sense of pressure being released that comes after a problem is solved. The only hard part is the path leading up to resolution. The difficulty lies in the fog that surrounds disagreement, false information or confusion. We found a way to clear the fog and I’m going to share that with you, today! I’ve had several year long conflicts and a few moment long conflicts, but each one has the same result: a compromise or agreement that leads to resolution. I’ve had conflicts with other people, conflicts with myself and conflicts with something evil working against me. Each one requires a laying down of something on my part, but the end result is worth the compromise. Now I can almost hear what you are thinking… In most of these instances we have learned, or have been taught NOT to compromise. To put your mind at ease, I’m talking about agreement with Jesus rathe

I wrote in an earlier post about our dog, Troop . He went to live with Jesus and we were devastated by the loss. He was my little buddy and we did everything together. Because of that, I’m still getting over missing him. Every day gets easier, but I can’t help but notice his absence when just a month ago he was so present. We have an 8 by 8 chain link fence in the shade with a dog house that we used for him when we went to work (otherwise, he was running around or in the house). Our good friend has Troop’s brother and would like for him to breed a female so we can have another puppy. She innocently asked if she could borrow our cage so that she could have a place for the dogs to do their thing. Jarrod and I were discussing this and I quickly responded with a harsh “NO.” If she had been standing there, she would have walked away with a nub. I had lots of excuses to justify my “no,” but my reaction was a sign of where my heart was.  My sweet husband noticed something was obviously o

IVSO keyboard for iPad For my birthday, I got a new iPad…so awesome! My mother-in-love bought me a keyboard to go with it, but for some reason it shipped from Tonga. Yeah, I had to google that, but I am geographically challenged so I google everything. We waited patiently and with perfect timing, it “arrived” on my actual birthday…except it didn’t. No big deal; I can wait…I’m a big girl after all. But alas, it never showed up. I text messaged my mother-in-love and she emailed the company to check on it. The company sent another keyboard free of charge, and we waited patiently again. However, this time she sent me the tracking number and I tracked that baby every step of the way. I also kept checking her mail box and PO box just to make sure the other one never showed up. Two weeks after the second one shipped, it arrived at a post office I wasn’t checking (she uses two post offices…long story - I’ll spare you). I called the post office ahead of time (having learned my lesson the f

I love superhero shows…pretty much all of them. I was late to the party in the sense that I didn’t read all the comics first, but I love to watch all the movies and TV shows. That being said, I don’t have all the tid-bits of background information that is sometimes useful when characters makes references I don’t understand. To avoid spoiler alerts, I won’t mention which show I was watching today, but suddenly the main dude ends up in some other dimension and he’s talking to people who aren’t people that resemble people he knows that call themselves Watchmen. If that’s not confusing, I don’t know what is. I rant to Jarrod that they can’t just suddenly introduce this notion of another dimension with beings that watch over everything. I have a hard time believing it and I’m wondering how everyone in the show knows about it except me…how do you know there is another dimension? How do you know when you’re actually there? And it dawns on me that this must be how some people feel when I talk

As I read through my Beginner’s Bible at age 6, I first believed that Jesus is real and God is the King. I could feel in my heart that the stories in the Bible were truth and I knew without a doubt that Jesus lived. I grew up going to Sunday school, VBS, reading the Bible and praying before meals. I learned how to live a life that was pleasing to God and I tried to be good. As I got older I started having questions that no one could answer; I had questions that were best answered by someone with higher knowledge. That was when my dad encouraged me to ask God those unanswerable questions. That notion was foreign to me. If I asked, how would he answer? How would I know it’s God speaking? Will I hear a voice? Will I see Him? My dad prompted me to just ask and I would know.  Once I learned what He sounded like (a gut feeling, a new genius thought, a Bible passage or a physical sign), I began regularly asking Him questions about my direction in life and things that caused anxiety. I a