Preacher’s Wife Teaching Life

I went to the store and bought some pants. When I got home and tried them on, they fit like I might be wearing my 10 year old nephew’s pants so I placed them in my car to exchange for a normal sized petite human being’s pants. I kept forgetting to return them for about a week or so until I finally took them back (with my receipt). I went to the customer service counter, returned the toddler pants, got cash back and went to find another pair in the size I needed. Apparently in the time I waited to return the pants, they had gone on sale so when I bought the new pair they were less expensive! Now that’s what I call a great exchange! Cha-ching! I came out on top in that blunder of forgetfulness and timing and sale times. The feeling associated with this exchange is similar to the exchange that happens in our lives when we hand over our vices for God’s love. Trading in bitterness for kindness is even better than the natural high you get from exchanging that too-tight pair of pants for...

This weekend was our church's annual progressive dinner/ ornament exchange Christmas party. It was fantastic. It was loads of fun, more people show up every year, and every single person I talked to had a good time. It's a time for the people in the church to celebrate Jesus as a body and bring friends outside the church to show them this love and celebration. My husband and I went home in good moods and crashed in bed after a night of what we call "herding cats". I guess I shouldn't be surprised that after such a joy filled, spiritually packed night of celebrating Jesus' birth together that we suffered from terrible dreams and bad thoughts. Not because I'm a pessimist (because I'm not) but because when the evil one witnesses something like this, he seeks to destroy what was built. I awoke suddenly at 4 am with a constant stream of bad thoughts about the party. All of a sudden I was plagued with worries about what we should have done, how we could have...