Tuesday, February 04, 2014

The Power of Words - From a PW (Pastor's Wife)

Our Mom's group at church is currently doing a Bible Study called "Can We Talk" by Priscilla Shirer.  It is set up very differently than most that I have done in the past and I am really liking it (not that I didn't like the others, I just like this one too) Each day you are given two - three specific scriptures to Pore over, Paraphrase, Pull Out a main point, Pose a series of Questions, and Make a Plan to follow through with a specific date Pinned.

This first week of Bible Study is about the Tongue - the Power of our Words!  Day one was about our words revealing our character, Day 2 was about words and your children, and Day 3 (which is today for me) is about Words and your Spouse.  The verse that was used is this:

"Likewise wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, whey they see your respectful and pure conduct" 1 Peter 3:1-2 

I am blessed to have a husband that believes, a husband that loves the Lord and serves the church.  So his belief is not the issue in our case (however I know so many wives who do struggle with unbelieving husbands and I hurt for them as they share their concerns).  As I look at this verse I found it to be very convicting as a Pastor's wife.  People at the church look to the pastor's for leadership and guidance, people outside the church look at Pastor's to see how they are living maybe to try to catch them stumbling but hopefully they are looking to them to see what it is about them that gives them such hope and joy!

That's where we as pastor's wives come in.... whether we signed up for it or not people are also watching us. They are watching how we treat our husbands, how we talk about them when then aren't in the room, and how "respect" others and live in "pure conduct".  We can win people for Christ just by modeling healthy relationships with our husbands - whether your husband is a pastor or not!  Just this past week - Pastor Aaron was talking about being a Fool for Christ and what that looks like to follow Christ Crucified.... and he challenged us to start at home - modeling a Godly marriage to our children - as pastors wives, our home is also the church so I believe we also have a responsibility to our church home to model the same!

How cool to think that just by loving, respecting and honoring your husband with words and actions you can be leading someone to know Christ!  

It is a little overwhelming to think about that, but I am reminded of the verse that says, "to those who are given much, much is expected!"  Go love on your husband today and with your respect and pure conduct show other Christ.
One of my favorites from our honeymoon (I looked so young)



Monday, February 03, 2014

A New Day - A New Start

This weekend has been a new start and new time of transition for our family.... no we didn't change jobs or get a new house, but instead we started a new journey...okay we started two new journeys... a debt reduction journey and a healthy lifestyle journey.  As we begin this journey we want to share some of struggles and victories along the way.  We are going to be transparent... which is challenging and humbling but we feel that it will give us accountability as well as invite others to be encouraged and start their own journeys.

Though most people begin changes like this at the new year mark we just didn't have the time to sit down and really work through what this would look like.  After our Frugal Vacation to Florida and back we had lots of time in the car to discuss, to set boundaries, and to read up on some of the beginning baby steps from Dave Ramsey.  Though we won't be following him exactly I am sure you will see many similarities.

The other journey is healthy eating and healthy choices for our bodies.... if you know my husband and I - you know that we love food - I mean really who doesn't.  And we have put our physical health second to just about everything in our lives and it shows.  I can make all the excuses I want and many of them are valid - having a baby, a autoimmune disease that doesn't allow me to exercise like I used to, a restaurant that sells fried food (which is so yummy) - the list could go on.  All that to say - when I step on the scale I cringe but more importantly when I look at my eating and exercise habits I know that I need to change.

So this weekend we made a few changes... budget for the month is ready and underway.... I am excited and already feel freedom - which seems a little weird because one of the reasons we didn't have a budget before was because we thought it would take our freedom away.  We know it is going to be tight and we know that 140,000 of student load and house debt isn't going to go away overnight but we need to start to make a dent in it.  For Joel the challenge will be not eating out - for me the challenge will be not wanting to stock up every time I see a sale and have a coupon.

As far as the healthy living part - today I exercised - volleyball - though I am rusty it felt so good to do something.  Also added more water to the list of things to drink, and the other change of the week - use smaller dinner plates and leave the food at the stove and not on the dinner table.  Small but mighty changes.

If you think of us - please pray that we would be faithful to reducing not only our debt but our unhealthy eating and exercising habits as well as our weight!