Preacher’s Wife Teaching Life

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 suppor...

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 st...