The Shape of Your Impact: Every day I hear people wondering out loud if they are effective or having an impact in the world. We can't help but want to leave our mark on the world and impact people in a powerful way...{read more}

Philippians 2:5 "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus"

Relationships can be hard. Through Jesus, our relationships can be made stronger. Read about it in these posts:

The Shape of Your Impact: Every day I hear people wondering out loud if they are effective or having an impact in the world. We can't help but want to leave our mark on the world and impact people in a powerful way...{read more}

Your Destiny Revealed Here: A Jesus lover's destiny ultimately is to live eternity with him. In the meantime, we are often left wondering what our destiny is here on Earth (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). We ask ourselves what we were made for or where we are headed in life. This Sunday, God revealed through Pastor Jim three things about destiny. Your destiny is to...{read more}

An Expanding View of Family: It's quite common for our view of family to expand when we are thrown into situations where our blood families are not available. For example, military people form tight bonds with fellow soldiers because of the stories shared, time spent, and hard days lived together. Jarrod and I are quickly finding ...{read more}

Use Viral Love to Battle Acts of Hatred

I've talked about God's redeeming love in almost every one of my posts so I feel like I can talk shorthand with y'all on this one. The quick synopsis is:

No matter what you did, what you're going to do or what you're thinking about doing, God forgives. With his forgiveness, he brings love and generous redemption (Psalm 130). His love is all consuming and runs so deep that when he's truly allowed into your life, it changes you....{read more}

Spring Fever: By now you know I am a preacher's wife (thus the website name) and part of being a preacher's wife is taking on part of the ministry. As a preacher's wife, I know the burden my husband shoulders and that he deals with a lot more issues than ever come to my attention; he does an outstanding job of praying for people and checking on people. So much so that he's rarely off the phone, whether it be talking, texting, or Facebook messaging. I always joke and say I get the fun half of the job and he gets the hard part of the job. I get to do all the socializing, coffee dates, wedding/baby showers, and chit chatting while he deals with a lot of spiritual warfare and barely has any time for the fun stuff (although, I think he considers that fun...go figure)...{read more}

Training a Child...or Dog: We live on a beginner farm with a couple cows, mini goats, cats, and one dog. Our herds are growing and I always hoped my husband could have a dog by his side as he works the cows alone. Our dog, Sergeant, has been an “only child” for eight years so we’ve been hesitant to rock the boat and bring another dog into the equation. He’s pretty spoiled and a little territorial of me and his toys. Even though he’s never displayed aggressive behavior to any person, he has shown signs of fear in the presence of other dogs.....{read more}

Get a New Life! I know a teenager who got into drugs and alcohol pretty young (okay, I know a lot of teenagers like this but I'm talking about one in particular). He had a broken family life and sought acceptance at school with a crowd that had a bad influence on him. He found acceptance in the group of "friends" but found emptiness from the hole in his heart. He got snagged by a youth pastor who took him under his wing and he started to feel a pull at his heart to fill it with something more satisfying than the emptiness drugs offered. God met him when he was crying out for more and permeated his physical being with love. He found the acceptance he was seeking and filled the gaping hole with the infinite love of the Heavenly Father. He became a new version of himself that his friends no longer recognized and he no longer sought the numbness that came from the habits of his old life. The habits fell away as the love of God and the desire to do his filled his heart....{read more}

Embodying the Character of God
Last week we went to pick up our dry cleaning and drop off some different clothes (we have it down to a pretty good cycle so we aren’t ever out of clothes). Jarrod went in to pick them up but they were missing. They looked under all the “Jarrod’s”, found nothing and basically told us they weren't there. We asked what we needed to do to get them back and they said the manager would have to deal with it when she came in on Wednesday (two days from then). I was upset, to say the least, because I needed the pants for work the next day and Jarrod needed his dress shirts for meetings. Reluctantly we left the dry cleaners and as our day went on, I alternated between being overly upset and knowing God would fix the problem....{read more}

The Force is in You

My husband told this story last Sunday about our house and how anyone is welcome inside it. We've got a nice big open kitchen/dining/living area that we keep picked up and clean and a beautiful guest suite where people can stay the night. But there's this other part of our house that we usually keep shut off. It's our master suite...which is a mirror image of the guest suite but it's ours. We keep it shut off because...{read more}

A Mobile Church:
I love the picture to the right, taken by a friend in the church. It's the perfect picture of God's light shining down on his church. The symbolism of it is perfect: the church is soaking up God's light and charging its people inside to do God's work. I don't know about you but I always feel refreshed and recharged after connecting with a body of believers. Our light gets "re-brightened" and we are energized to keep going....{read more}

Modern Day Temple
Back in the Bible times, temples were built as Holy places where people could go to find God. Since Jesus died on the cross for our sins and essentially our acceptance into God's family, we are now able to access God through the Holy Spirit within us. So basically, our bodies became a temple of God. Get it? It's still a place where people can go to find God...we are like little mobile temples. Isn't that cool?...{read more}

Ohana Means Family: We got this kitten a year or so ago. My mom found her on the side of the road in the rain on her way to our house and brought her to me. She's a beautiful calico kitten that looks malnourished, dirty, and sopping wet. Of course I adopted her! We fattened her up, kept her safe at night, and gave her lots of love. Later we got more kittens from my mom and dad's farm - they were all from the same litter and you could tell they were a family unit. Fast forward to current time...I was sitting on the porch, watching the cats interact with each other and I realize Rory, the calico, has assumed the role of queen bee of my little kitty family. She rules the roost and it's clear she does. All she has to do is LOOK at the others when they are misbehaving and they shrink away in fear...{read more}

United We Stand in Christ: I know this girl from high school who was...let's say less than nice to me. And I have to confess that maybe I wasn't very nice back to her. I think we resolved in our minds that we just didn't like each other (for who knows what reason 16 year old girls choose) and stayed away from each other as much as possible while trash talking each other at the same time. We graduated, went to college, graduated again (not at the same time), and guess what? Our paths crossed again...{read more}

Life Saver / Christ is Our Salvation

Why Get Married?

Our DNA as Christ Followers

I Love Love!

Honor = Love?

He Said, She Said (Gossip)

Seek Love, Not Revenge

Lust Becomes Love

Our Flock

A Love Story

Nemesis (Enemies)

Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Live your life with the purpose God intended. Learn how here:

On a Mission:
It’s my passion to share the word of God to anyone willing to listen. From the conception of this website, I’ve tried to focus on the teaching stand point of sharing how God can be present in YOUR life. After a couple months of barely posting, mostly praying and trying to catch up, I’ve decided to write the blog from a more personal stand point of what God is doing in my life: the “preacher’s wife” portion of who I am...{read more}

A Sneak Peek

I’m writing this post to offer you a sneak peek into a pastor and his wife’s life. There’s not exactly a job description lined out or a person that my husband has to answer daily like a normal boss so figuring a daily agenda out takes prayer and a little trial and error. I have to admit, at first we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing on a daily basis. And I have to admit that even now sometimes we wonder what we should be doing or if we should be doing more...{read more}

Leap of Faith:
This year we were awarded a whole extra day of the year to work/play/pray/sleep/whatever! It just so happened that this leap day was  a BEAUTIFUL day in Texas (see picture --->), so our extra day was quite a blessing. We wanted to use this extra day as an opportunity to take a LEAP of faith. We felt like a leap of faith entailed praying and asking God what he wanted us to do - a challenge of sorts - and then doing it! We wanted to get out of our boxes and allow God to ask anything of us...{read more}

Your Phone is Ringing. Will You Answer?
The text message from Jarrod said, “Can you call me?” which usually means something is going on. I immediately called him and asked what was going on. He replied with anxiety that he was in the parking lot of the gym, dressed ready to work out and he couldn't bring himself to get out of the truck. He was freaking out and talking about the dread he felt about working out with a bunch of young, in-the-best-shape-of-their-lives adults...{read more}

Christ is Our Entrance

Joshua in a Nushell

How to Live a Spiritual Life in a Physical World

How Do You Receive?

What's Your Superpower?

The Fall of Jericho

2-->1 Sided

Walking Into What God Wants

Unfinished Business

Wrecked (My personal testimony)

Oops! (You were NOT a mistake)

His Plans, Not Ours

My Journey

The Meaning

1 Corinthians 15:57: "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

We face challenges every day. With God, our challenges become victories. Read about how in these posts:

Reforming Undesirable Behavior: You know that thing you do that you don't wanna do but you keep doing it because you can't stop doing it? These behaviors might include: lying, cheating, raging, gossiping, pornography, drinking, drugs, eating, throwing up, etc. Reforming these behaviors on your own can prove to be a little tricky. I'd say reforming undesirable behavior might even be impossible on your own. But there is still hope for us. With the love of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and a renewed mind, you can reform your behavior...{read more}

More Peace Please: One of my favorite things to do to relax, besides sitting on the porch, is chilling out in our recliner with my PJ pants and a hot cup of coffee after a long day of teaching and tutoring and churching. It’s so nice to curl up with a warm cup in my hands and be able to just pause for a few minutes and enjoy the moment. The only issue is when my problems become bigger than a cup of coffee and a big, comfy recliner. At some point, a cup of coffee, an extra mile or two, a long drive, or another beef jerky just doesn’t cut it anymore. The peace I used to feel from my routines or hobbies is absent and I’m left searching for more...{read more}

Peace Out! In a world of social media, quick news reports and the web at our fingertips, a lot of bad news and negative information gets funneled into our minds. There’s not really a way around it and it would be stupid to shut yourself off from being aware of current events. Staying positive and encouraged becomes a rarity in a place crowded with negative thoughts. Being negative becomes a way of life, a habit, a mind-set; God wants us to be the light, the good, the hopeful, the encouraging in the midst of all the dark. He also wants us to be strategic about what we expose ourselves to as we shine our light from within. But we must also be conscious of being self-focused or self-centered in our strategies. To become rightfully aligned, we need to become people of peace, with a peace that comes from the Holy Spirit living inside us and being Christ-centered...{read more}

Suit Up:
I don't know if you've ever lived on a farm before or even with any kind of animal but surprises are to be expected. We have our cows enclosed in an electric fence; they get moved around every couple days for fresh grazing and we love the system. Either our cows are genius or stupidly hit the jack pot but last weekend, they rolled the hay bale over the electric fence and walked right off our property, down the road, and found greener grass on the other side of the fence (literally). We got a phone call that the cows were out so we put on some jeans, a work shirt, boots and picked up a bucket of feed to retrieve the cows. With help, we found them and Jarrod walked them 2 miles home with a bucket of food while I trailed behind in the truck to make sure they didn't escape. They are now safe at home with the hay bale far away from the electric fence. Suiting up is part of going into any battle. Soldiers, athletes, academic competitors, farmers, etc suit up to prepare for their task. Christians suit up too. We look unprotected but with thearmor of God, we are heavily protected and ready for battle....{read more}

Don't Pick Up Hitch Hikers

Angry Much?

Kick 'Em Out

Victory In the Community and Beyond

God Fights Your Battles

Don't Stuff It

Challenges We Face

Lies vs. Truth

Forgiveness

Let It Go! (Control Issues)

Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Find encouragement here:

God's Will for You

If I asked you what you think God's will for your life is, how would you answer? You might answer stating the purpose of your life or saying what drive's you or what your passion is. God's will is stated clearly in 1 Thessalonians 4: ...{read more}

Asking for More?

At 6 years old, I knew in my heart that Jesus was real and I accepted him as my savior and God as my Father. At 11 years old, my dad taught me how to open my heart and hear from God. When I was faced with unanswered questions or problems we didn’t have a solution to, I would seek him and await a response. At that point in my life, my parents were hoping to buy a house sitting on a lot of land that seemed like a dream come true to me. I asked my dad if he thought we would get approved for the land and he wasn’t sure so he referred me to God. This was foreign to me at the time but he encouraged me through it and I was 90% sure I had heard from God. I was a beginner in hearing the voice of God and wasn’t positive if what I heard was God’s voice or my own hopes answering back. Not long after that, confirmation came when the contract went through on that house and we moved in shortly after. This was pivotal in learning the process of interacting with God. He has an opinion and wants to talk to me!...{read more}

Extravagant Celebrations:
The Shock of the Year… We were invited to a friend’s house for dinner last weekend. We pulled up promptly at 7, walked in the house and received instructions from my friend. She said that her son wanted to show me his new puppy in the backyard. I open up the door to the backyard and immediately see all my close church friends gathered around in expectation, and hear a loud “SURPRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!!!!!!” In that moment, my heart was flooded with emotion. Tears gathered in my eyes as memories and thoughts of great times spent together came rushing upon me in an instant. I was so excited and touched to know that they had been planning this for weeks and prepared a special party for me with all my favorite things. One of those favorite things included the art of celebration; I love to celebrate and mark moments in time with good memories and good friends. I love for each person to feel special and distinguished when good things come their way...{read more}

Discouragement Knocks...Don't Answer:
We have this yorkshire terrier named Sergeant that we've had for 8 years. He's part of the family and my best little buddy. He got very, very sick this weekend and by the grace of God we were able to get him to the animal hospital at a point when he could have died instead. He got sick over the weekend in the early morning hours of Sunday so we were unable to watch him like we would have liked because of church and couldn't take him in anyway because of the weekend. While we waited for Monday to roll around and prayed for him to pull through, we couldn't help but hear discouragement and worry knocking on the door....maybe a little guilt thrown in there too because hey, why not? It seems like discouragement is always lurking around the corner during hard times and it seems like the easiest most natural thing to do is to give in and open that door to let it in....{read more}

Peace Out!In a world of social media, quick news reports and the web at our fingertips, a lot of bad news and negative information gets funneled into our minds. There’s not really a way around it and it would be stupid to shut yourself off from being aware of current events. Staying positive and encouraged becomes a rarity in a place crowded with negative thoughts. Being negative becomes a way of life, a habit, a mind-set; God wants us to be the light, the good, the hopeful, the encouraging in the midst of all the dark. He also wants us to be strategic about what we expose ourselves to as we shine our light from within. But we must also be conscious of being self-focused or self-centered in our strategies. To become rightfully aligned, we need to become people of peace, with a peace that comes from the Holy Spirit living inside us and being Christ-centered....{read more}

Are You Salty Enough?

My friend left a gift for me and when I got home to open it I couldn't help my excitement (I love gifts). I saw the bag had my favorite coffee brand on it so I knew it had to be good. I picked it up and my arm almost fell off with how heavy it was. I wondered out loud what kind of coffee could be so heavy. I looked inside and saw what looked like a pink rock. I thought, "that's odd...is it...a rock?" Then I recalled a conversation we had earlier in the week about pink Himalayan salt and about how I should try it because I love salt. I touched my finger to the rock and tasted it...tastes like salt. I licked the entire rock...definitely salt. So I said to my husband, "oh! It's a pink Himalayan salt rock! How cool! How do I get it in my food? Do I grind it or something?" I started to pull the rock out and realize it has a...cord? Huh...strange. It's a salt light? I don't get it. My husband says, "aw I get it...salt and light. Very clever." I looked up the part of the Bible that talks about salt and light and found it in Matthew 5:13-16:...{read more}

A Butterfly Life for You: Almost every day I look back at my “on this day” page in Facebook. It’s fun to see what we were going through or how my life has developed since I got a Facebook account when it FIRST started in college. While some memories are fun to reminisce on (like when I bought my first car), most of the things I posted as my younger self are a bit painful to read. My old self was full of anxiety and negativity; I don’t know how anyone stood to be around me. Around 2011-2012, I started asking God to transform my attitude and I can clearly see the change begin in my Facebook posts. I love to look at my posts from 2007-2011 and compare them to the posts I’ve made from 2011-the present....{read more}

A BIIIIIIG LOVE

I originally hadn't planned on sharing this but I feel like it needs to be heard before I can write my post on the sermon from Sunday.

To understand how to pour out God's love on people, you have to first understand how much you are loved. It's such a huge topic that covers so many things but you need to know the immensity of it so you can understand the source of the love that you're supposed to pour out in my next post....{read more}

Be an Idiot for God

You know that kind of dirt that is just old and crusty and doesn't yield much growth? It takes patience, rain, plowing, love and care to change the chemistry of that soil. After it has been healed, the soil is moist, dark brown and smells like earth. But it didn't get to that point without a little work...{read more}

God Lives in Your Life
1) Just because everything is in chaos does not mean God left the scene. (Psalm 37:5and Psalm 55:22). Whenever you feel the most alone in this world, know that God is drawing nearer to you. Reach out and grab his presence (metaphorically of course...you probably won't make it out alive if you actually touched God. The power would be too much for you...like a light saber on steroids)...{read more}

Christ is Your Prayer

Moving Forward

Be the "Yes!" Man

God's Promise

Read Before Signing

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Shiny Objects

Have Faith

Faith Part 2

An Encouraging Word


1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

Our God is bigger than fear. Don't let it reign in your life:

Learning to Fail with a Flair: 

I've grown up thinking that failure is one of the worst outcomes. So much so that it cripples me in certain ways; for example, I used to not even start certain things because I was afraid I wouldn't be succeed. God has been showing me that failure isn't a reflection on WHO I am, it doesn't mean that God doesn't have my back and it isn't an opportunity to quit while I'm ahead. He's replacing that mindset with the concept that failure is a chance to become better, to learn more about God's character and helps eliminate options in life. I posted a few videos on my Facebook page (Preacher's Wife Teaching Life) so I'll share those with you now:...{read more}

Freedom as a Lifestyle

In Psalm 129, the Israelites express their frustration for being persecuted since youth and they ask God to cut the cords that tie them to the wicked.  For them, it's about slavery and the way they've been treated in the past; for us it's more about being slaves to the things that torment us - like depression, addictions, anxiety, etc. God is trying to teach us, in this day, that:...{read more}

The Only Healthy Fear

We know from reading the Bible about the concept of the fear of the Lord, and as Christians, we’ve mostly developed a healthy amount of fear for his greatness and holiness. Fear of the Lord in the simplest terms is a respect for God and what he is capable of in the areas of his greatness but also in the areas of his discipline. We hold a high reverence for him and know not to curse his name, stomp on a Bible or disrespect him or those who serve him in any way...{read more}

Begging For Mercy

It always surprises me how often God answers our cry for help. It's almost embarrassing how small he makes our troubles seem with his solutions; He's the God of creative answers and extravagant gifts. ...{read more}

Install and New Security System: A couple months ago, our agriculture exemption was in jeopardy because we didn’t have cows in the time frame that the state regulations require. At the time, cows were at an all time high buying cost so it was impossible for us to scrounge up money and get the 4 required cows for our acreage. We went nuts searching for some way to keep our exemption other than cows. We looked into planting stuff, a wildlife reserve and even a butterfly exhibit (no kidding…LOL). We exhausted every solution trying to find a way around not having cows. During this problem, my husband’s dad called and expressed he had too many cows for his land and needed a place to put them. He wondered if he could let us “borrow” them for an indefinite time. God has such an amazing way of working things out at the perfect time. We have cows, our land is ag exempt and we love the partnership that has developed with my father-in-law...{read more}

The Promise Land

Have No Fear Greater Than God

I am a Child of God




1 Timothy 6:17 "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."

God provides food and shelter for his animals so why wouldn't he provide for you, his beloved child? Read about the bountifulness of his provision in these posts:

ThanksGIVING - a lesson on tithing

God Uses Bad for Good

Treasures

Grace Like Rain

More on Provision