Preacher’s Wife Teaching Life

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...

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. Part of human nature is to get into messy situations, whether it be on purpose or by ...

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. I answered with something to the effect of, “what’s wrong with you? Just get out of the truck and go get our money’s worth.” He continued to flip out and I answered in the only way I know how to deal with anxiety and say, “Jarrod, just say the name.” He waited a few beats, warring with himself over the choice and resolved to run to the only one who can fix this crisis and says, “Jesus.” In that one word, that one name, we both felt the atmosphere change and his countenance switched over to his true self. He thanked me, got off the phone, ran his little...

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. I love Rory's success story. She went from being a literal street rat and rose up to be the Queen of them all. With love, care and acceptance, she's totally immersed herself with the others and...

Giving can be such a touchy subject when brought up at church. It's usually followed up by a tablespoon of guilt and a dash of shame. My hope is that in this post, you feel no guilt or shame but hope and gratitude and motivation. God has blessed you in more ways than you can count and I hope that this post is a reminder of those blessings. I have countless stories about how God has provided for us and more stories about him providing for other people around us. His provision is literally everywhere and sometimes we don't even see it. His love for us is so immense that our humanly brains can't even comprehend it. One way he shows his love is in his provision. Provision comes in many forms: jobs, houses, cars, food, family, time, money, resources, wisdom, creativity, etc. Like in any relationship we are familiar with, when something is received, usually you like to give back. It's a natural response that stems from a feeling that swells up inside our hearts called grati...

When you're waiting in line for something REALLY awesome, do you: a) push your way to the front to make sure you get what's yours? b) wait patiently in line while watching the crazies elbow each other for something we're all going to get anyway? c) wait until someone buys it for you so you don't have to deal with the effort? Joshua 14-19 tells a story of these three types of receivers as he lines out the allotment of the land. Again in these chapters, there are a lot of names and places that can make your head spin but Pastor Dad (David) was able, through God's revelation, to line up these chapters in a much more relevant way. We are to the point where Joshua is getting old and is losing a little steam. He still believes in the promise and wants to move on but is not as able to. Caleb came in with fresh energy and reminded Joshua to allot the land to its respective owners. So by Caleb's prodding, they explore the land, allot it to appropriate tribes, and...

Part of being a child of God is receiving a gift (or gifts) from him. We call these gifts, spiritual gifts. Not all denominations believe all gifts still exist and that's okay...our church does. We feel strongly about people knowing who they are, what their gift is, and for them to operate in their gifting. It's important to us (my husband and I) to find what you're passionate about (which usually is also your gifting) and to encourage you in that area. Some of these gifts can be found in 1 Corinthians 12: Spiritual Gifts 12 Now, dear brothers and sisters,[a] regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts...