Marriage is a Gift!

Today we witnessed two family friends becoming one! 
There’s something so special about being a witness to those publicly declaring their vows before God and man. I can’t help but grab Jamie’s hand and think, ‘Oh God, you’re so good to have walked with us not only through the victories but also through the defeat. You’ve been so faithful to bring us through the richer and poorer moments, and the for better or worse times.’ Oh God you’ve been so faithful.

Marriage is worth fighting for. It’s worth fighting for even when the feelings aren’t there. It’s worth fighting for when disappointment arises. It’s worth fighting for even when it feels like some things may never change. It’s worth it! 
God can do the miraculous in your relationship. How do I know? Because if He could do it through us, He can do it through you.

Philippians 1:6 #35to40

#thesmiths #marriageisagift

Relationships along our journey!

We’ve gleaned so much from the relationships we’ve encountered along our journey over the years, and in our home have tried to encourage forgiveness and ‘let it go, and move on’ example.

We can’t change people and situations, but we can change our outlook and response. 💛

Don’t complain, become jaded or point in judgement at those who have fallen along your journey. Instead, choose to give thanks in humility while receiving wisdom from watching examples of those who have both fallen and walked boldly before you. 💛

We can’t keep everyone in our little sphere forever, but we can value lessons learned and keep them a lifetime. 💛

#grace #humilty #teachable #36to40

Freedom!

Years ago I was in service and felt a heavy burden and desire to be free from gossip. I recalled a conversation my mom and I had had regarding a gentlemen in our church who would physically get up and leave the room if someone started talking about someone else in his presence.
My heart yearned to be like that. I wanted to be the one who was more concerned about being loyal than about getting the latest scoop. I sat in my pew feeling paralyzed with fear. Part of me was longing and desiring to ask him to pray for me, and the other part of me wondered what he would think when I shared with him about my ‘gossip issue.’
Finally I braved it, I went over to this gentleman and asked him to lay hands on me and pray that I’d be delivered from any unhealthy desire to know what wasn’t my business to know, or from gossip.
It says in James 5:16 ‘Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.’
There is POWER in confessing our sins to one another. That night the power of sin was broken in my life regarding gossip. And still to this day I don’t enjoy being around when people are trashing and bashing people. I don’t enjoy hearing someone talk about a friend behind their backs. Why? Because I learned quickly that those who gossip with you, gossip about you. Yeah, I know, let that sink in.

I’m not saying I’m perfect and I haven’t slipped, but I am saying when I do, I’m so thankful that the kindness of God leads me to repentance.

I want to be loyal.
I want to be a faithful friend.
I don’t want to be the bearer of other people’s news.
I want to be a defender of my friends.
I want to celebrate and cheer in others successes not laugh and revel in their faults.

I want to thank Brooke Helen Lori Gower Pat Win for creating one of the BEST environments I’ve ever worked in. We shared so many funny stories, all while celebrating our teams diversity and strengths. It’s a RARE find to have such a healthy team of women more concerned about spreading sunshine than stories! Miss you 💛

And thank youRod N Connie Brayy for laying hands on this blubbering mama that day, He who the Son sets free is free indeed! 💛
#37to40

If you don’t have the peace and presence of God with you concerning a situation DON’T MOVE one more step! Wait on The Lord. The peace of God surpasses all understanding. If God’s leading you, there will be an undeniable, unexplainable peace that resides inside of you ... even in the chaos. I love Moses’ heart in Exodus 33:15 God, if you’re not coming... I’m not going. #38til40

Be Faithful with the Little

He who is faithful in the little things, will also be faithful with much. Luke 16:10 . Preached by- Kevin Begley (circa 1994)

Most Friday nights I would wait for my farming friends to come into the city to pick me up. We’d pile in the van and head across town to LGT for youth, good Ol’ Vital Force!

I don’t recall specifically how Pastor Kevin conveyed it, but one week he spoke on ‘Being faithful in the Little’ and still to this day, anytime I try to take a short cut, that verse runs through my mind. It has and continues to shape my character. Whether it be cleaning out my car after a long day, picking a coin up from a gutter, returning a shopping cart to the PROPER shelter, no matter how big or small I want to be considered faithful. I know those examples may seem insignificant on some levels but I’m telling you, these are some of the ones specifically I get nudged on! This verse over the years has brought constant ownership and constant humility to my life. Seriously? The coin is in the mud, it’s only 10 cents!! Be faithful in the little.
It’s raining, my cart is fine in this empty spot, I have all the children with me, after all someone gets paid to put them back, right? Be faithful in the little.
There are hundreds, even thousands of scenarios like this. If I can’t be faithful with a coin, can I be faithful with a life?
You see it’s not about the coin, or the carts, it’s about being faithful with what we’ve been entrusted with. Whether we lead the biggest church or the smallest, whether we are the business owner or the employee, we need to give thanks and work in such a way that exemplifies we’re being faithful with what’s been put at our hands to do, and from there, our small seeds of faithfulness, will produce much. 💛 #39to40
Luke 16:10
Phil 1:11

Learn to Encourage Yourself in The Lord

This morning before Jamie headed out he gave me a gift bag and said. ‘I love you, this is not an Anniversary gift but a 40 Days until you’re 40 gift.’ Then he died laughing and said let the countdown begin! Inside was a beautiful black dress that I wore today for our church’s 8th Anniversary. The beauty wasn’t in the dress or in the hysteria of his laugh, it was in his words.

Two months ago I’d felt to I write some sort of encouragement for the 40 days leading up to my 40th birthday. About two weeks after I’d felt to do this, I had a friend Paula Morand start a ‘50 days until 50’ memory challenge (which is great) but similar!! Not, wanting to appear as a clone, I shrugged off what I felt to do, until Jamie’s words hit me as he handed me the gift this morning. As I heard ‘40 days until 40’ I felt it was a word for me to get at it and not to let the opportunity to share pass me by. So my friends as I prayed about it today, this one thing kept coming back to me. - Learn To Encourage Yourself - it’s something I HAD to learn early ministry or I would have tapped out. When our friend Pastor Roger Matzke preached on it in our house years later my spirit lept because it was something I knew the value of. It’s a lesson you’ll hear and have to put into practice time and time again through many seasons of your life.
‘Learn to Encourage Yourself!’ There have been seasons in my life where people have failed, disappointed, or abandoned me. There are seasons in my friends lives where I’m sure I have unknowingly done the same thing. So when we learn to encourage OURSELVES in the Lord it changes everything!
We no longer throw unhealthy expectations on leaders or friends because we know our value and strength comes from the Lord.
We no longer need mans stamp of approval or have time to wallow in self pity because we’ve learned to encourage ourselves when no one is there to encourage us. Its great and it’s important to have those who will rally around us and cheer us on, I think it’s valuable. But when no one is cheering you on, knowing how to encourage yourself in the Lord is VITAL! He will refresh, encourage and strengthen you unlike any man, women or leader ever could.

1 Samuel 30:6 David was greatly distressed... but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

When you’re distressed, down, or needing encouragement, there’s only one place to find it. In the Lord!

YIELD!

(Don't give up on the journey!) 

On my drive through the states on the weekend The Lord started showing me some things through trees. First there were so many hills filled with intense bright, beautiful trees! Honestly they were breathtaking! Next there were bare trees, the ones that had already yielded their leaves to the fall process. Both examples of trees were submitting to their individual journeys and seasons. As I continued to drive I saw a tree with a very long branch that was holding on to heaps of dead, brown, crusty leaves. This tree at one time had had an abundance of bright, full leaves but clearly didn't submit to the full process and season it was in. Although the leaves were dead, Im sure the tree must have taken comfort in knowing it still had leaves. I began meditating on these three examples. One was in fullness. At one time this tree had many buds, then small leaves, then big green leaves and now was at a point of complete fullness and beauty. The next one would have gone through the similar process but when the time was right it submitted to the next season, it shed its leaves and is now waiting patiently for the next season of growth and beauty. The last tree went through the first process of having buds, green leaves and beauty but got stale and refused to submit to the full process. Clearly making it not only an ugly eye sore but also unproductive. You see, trees need to shed their leaves in order to conserve water and energy. The trees that had shed their leaves aren't dead, in fact they're very much alive but relatively inactive externally. As believers we are so quick to try to look as bright and beautiful as others forgetting that none of our seasons are the same. We miss out on being bright and colourful when it's our time, because we didn't yield to the full process and transformation. We hold on to seasons we are to let go of because we fear man, or don't trust the process God has for us. 

There are some that will have their season of brightness and beauty when we are gearing up to yield our leaves. There are some that will be displaying their beauty when we are very much alive on the inside but we are waiting patiently on God for his perfect timing in allowing us to release another incredible crop. But there will also be times when we will be shining brightly and beautifully because we submitted tonGod and trusted the process. All three of these stages are vital in producing something beautiful!  

1. When we are in what may feel like an externally dormant season we need to stay focused and alive in Christ regardless of what people perceive on the outside. 
2. When He asks us to yield to the process...we need to do it, trusting He's ordaining our next steps.
3. We need to shine bright and beautifully! 

(The pictures of the children were taken from a Thanksgiving
Hike)

(Want to study more on this. Read over John 15 is an awesome parallel to this... than take a walk tonight down trees path and ask Him to speak to you about the season you're in.)