Day 29 of the Husband Encouragement Challenge

The 3o day Husband Encouragement Challenge is almost over…

Personally, it has really challenged me to pay attention and have gratitude for all of the characteristics about Joe that I have come to admire and love about him.  I think we often take these for granted and don’t realize how many things our husbands do that bring joy and blessings to our homes.  It has also challenged me to set a guard over my mouth, watching more carefully the words I speak to Joe and about him to others.  In fact, I truly want people to know how much I love my husband and how amazing he is and share with you all, just a few of the things I love about him, which I have been reminded of this past month…

1. How he pursued me & continues to pursue me 
2. His spirit of excellence
3. His tender heart
4. His zeal and passion
5. How he constantly affirms me
6. His creativity
7. His generosity
8. His commitment and faithfulness to me
9. His desire for holiness
10. His ridiculously good looks! 
11. His humility
12. His amazing work ethic
13. His leadership in our family
14. His love for Jesus
15. His boldness
16. His honesty
17. His love for the Word
18. He’s a great kisser!
19. His faith
20. His vision for the future
21. His sense of humor
22. His strength
23. His kindness
24. He “gets” me
25. The way he loves our unborn baby
26. His passion for prayer
27. How he accepts & embraces me – the good & the bad
28. How he uses his gifts for God
29. He’s romantic
30. His wisdom
31. He’s a great listener

I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!

Happy 3rd Anniversary!!

Our actual anniversary isn’t until January 22nd, but I had a whole day’s worth of activities planned to celebrate our 3rd anniversary, so we celebrated yesterday already! 

 

Our day started off with Joe making us some wonderful pancakes for breakfast, after which I blindfolded him before taking him to our first activity of the day, which was a rousing game of BINGO! at the Club Regent Casino!  lol.  Neither of us had ever done this before, so we had lots of questions for the staff and were a little clueless at the beginning, but soon got a hold of things.  There was around 30+ rounds, but we played only 16 of them with the cards we had purchased.  The whole game took about 2 hours from start to finish and we had fun besides the whole not-winning thing!    I don’t expect we’ll be going back any time soon, but it was a fun, fairly inexpensive form of entertainment.

     

Next, I had planned to have the buffet lunch at the Royal Palms restaurant at the casino, but the line-up was ridiculous, so we watched the fish in the big tunnel aquarium for a bit and then went for some Chinese at the mall’s food court nearby.  Then, my plans were foiled again, because I had wanted to take Joe ice-skating at The Forks, but it was the coldest day EVER!!!  You just about wanted to cry every time you went outside – lol.  So, instead we went to a big baby furniture store called e-children and looked at diaper bags and strollers and rocking chairs and stuff.  We didn’t come away with any purchases, but it was good to get a better idea of what we wanted.

 

After that we went to The Forks anyway, but we stayed inside mostly and observed the big model train set-up they had on display, got some mini-donuts, and then took a very short walk outside to look at the rinks they had made on the river and slipped around on the ice a bit before running back inside.    We wouldn’t have been able to go ice-skating anyway since they had cancelled all their outdoor activities due to the windchill.

 

Next, I took Joe out for dinner to the Royal Crown revolving restaurant for a lovely meal with a beautiful view of our grand city of Winnipeg. 

 
 

After that, we came back home and watched two movies!  First was Amazing Grace, the story of the man who abolished slavery in Britain, which was really good!  Then, we also watched 3:10 to Yuma, a cowboy/outlaw type movie, which was also pretty good.  After this, we fell into an exhausted sleep – it was a FULL day, but lots of fun!  Everything didn’t go as planned, but in the end, it didn’t really matter what we were doing, just that we did it all together and enjoyed each other’s company.  I love my husband so much and love spending this time with just him before our baby arrives.  It has been an amazing three years just the two of us, and I have truly treasured it – and yet, much of our day was spent talking and dreaming about how incredible it’s going to be when Justice comes and we have a family of 3!  We have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to!

Horton Hears A Who

As you may know, the Dr. Seuss book “Horton Hears A Who” has been adapted into a computer-animated movie coming to theatres this March. If you’ve never read the story, you can read it here, but the general plot of the story is as follows (quoted from The Internet Movie Database)…

One day, Horton the elephant hears a cry for help coming from a speck of dust. Even though he can’t see anyone on the speck, he decides to help it. As it turns out, the speck of dust is home to the Whos, who live in their city of Whoville. Horton agrees to help protect the Whos and their home, but this gives him nothing but torment from his neighbors, who refuse to believe that anything could survive on the speck. Still, Horton stands by the motto that, “After all, a person is a person, no matter how small.”

In recent years, Horton’s motto has become a popular phrase adopted by pro-life groups to support their message that even the unborn have a voice, if you would only listen. Even though we cannot see them or hear them, they are alive and need people who, like Horton, are willing to protect them, even when others refuse to believe in their right to life. In some circles, there have also been some prophetic words linked to the release of this movie and it’s significance for the fight against abortion.

Now to go back several months to July 7, 2007, there was an event titled “The Call” where thousands of people gathered to fast and pray. Just one of the many issues they touched on that day was about praying for the ending of abortion and Lou Engle gave a riveting talk on the parallels between “Horton Hears A Who” and our call to stand for life. This was followed by an introduction of two young women who God called to be prophetic messengers by writing another children’s book that would teach this upcoming generation about praying for the unborn. Their book is titled “Justice Loves Babies” and they went on to describe how the Lord led and equipped them to write this book about a little boy named Justice who was praying for the safe entry of his sister Destiny into this world.

This event occurred just a few days before my husband and I discovered that we were pregnant, but it wasn’t until almost two months later that I was reminded of this story and I had the thought that Justice could be a good name for our coming baby. I mentioned it to my husband, who wasn’t convinced at first, but over the next few days, we both couldn’t shake the idea and separately, we were both being prompted by the Lord that this was the name we were supposed to give to our child, whether it was a girl or a boy. So, ever since then, we have been praying for our baby Justice and the destiny that God has given this little life, believing that he or she will be one who will be a prophetic messenger of their generation, standing up for those who cannot fight for themselves and speaking up for those who do not have a voice of their own. We believe there is much significance to this name of Justice, as there are many profound scriptures on this topic in the Bible, yet it will remain to be seen exactly how God unfolds this theme in the life of our child. However, here are 3 keys verses that God has highlighted to me…

“The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.” Psalm 33:5

“In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.” Isaiah 42:4

“And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” Luke 18:7-8

As you can see, Jesus loves justice and is very committed to establishing justice on the earth, yet he has ordained it to be connected to the unceasing prayers of the saints. This is just one of the many reasons why my husband and I have chosen to give our lives to worship and intercession at the house of prayer in our city that one day hopes to go 24/7.

But to go back to how I started this blog entry, with “Horton Hears A Who” – it was only this week that I found out the release date of this movie would be on March 14th, the same day our baby Justice is due to arrive! Some may find this a coincidence, but I believe it is only confirmation of our baby’s name and destiny, as well as an encouragement that the Lord will bring forth justice and defend the cause of the oppressed, including the unborn who are at risk of being killed before ever having a chance at life.

I believe that there are people whom God is calling to be prophetic messengers, both those who are already alive on this earth and those who are living in the womb. I desire to be used of God in this way and I hope our child will answer this call as well. Yet, I also have the conviction that these messengers will find themselves in much the same predicament as Horton, who was mocked, ridiculed, persecuted, and even imprisoned for his beliefs and his message. Answering this call will not come without a cost. Choosing to give yourself to a life of prayer and proclamation of God’s Word is not an easy one – there are risks, obstacles, and opposition in both the spiritual and natural realms. Yet I believe that the reward in the age to come will be more than worth the price we may pay now! As Paul put it…

“I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:8-11

Day 5 of the Husband Encouragement Challenge

Well, I’m not sure if anyone else took up the 30-day Husband Encouragement Challenge, but I’ve been following along with my cousin Tammy who has been posting the articles and prayer points each day (thanks Tammy!).  I haven’t been able to find the time to post every day, but I’ve been writing out my prayers for him each day and I think I will give it to him as a gift at the end of the 30 days.  It’s also been neat to see how already, on several days, the topic I was praying about lined up perfectly with something that happened that day. 

So far it has been really good for me, even to just remind myself of many of the reasons I love Joe and all the things about him that I am thankful for.  He is truly God’s perfect gift to me and he continually amazes me with the ways he loves me.  I am blessed beyond measure to have this incredible man of God as my husband!  It has also been challenging me to grow in my role as his wife and look for ways I can be a support and encouragement to him.  I want him to be confident in my love and know how much I appreciate him.  

Relentless

For the last year, a small group of us have been studying the book of Song of Songs as part of our devotional lives, but also as a part of our worship team as we have been singing and praying the passages at our house of prayer. Believe it or not, it’s taken us a year just to make it to the end of chapter 2!! But we were never in any rush and have been quite content to linger on certain verses for several weeks, seeking to discover the depths of what they contain. Recently, we’ve been looking at Song of Songs 2:15 which says,

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.”

Essentially, this verse is describing the cry of the young woman, who represents the bride of Christ, for her bridegroom (Jesus) to come and help her rid her life of the “little” sins and compromises that are ruining the garden of her heart. Last week, I found myself being convicted on a couple areas in my own life and the Lord began to speak to me about this topic and I thought I’d share a glimpse with you into my journey.

It all started after getting the IHOP Immersed CD and Misty’s Relentless CD, starting with David Brymer’s song “You Will Not Relent”…

You will not relent
Until my righteousness shines forth like the dawn
You will not relent
Until you have a bride pure and white

I wanna know the yearnings of your heart
I wanna feel you burn for me
I wanna know the yearnings of your heart
And feel your jealous jealousy

And then Misty’s “You Won’t Relent”…

You won’t relent until you have it all
My heart is yours

I’ll set you as a seal upon my heart
As a seal upon my arm
For there is love that is a strong as death
Jealousy demanding as the grave
Many waters cannot quench this love

Then today I was reading an exerpt from Dana Candler’s book “Entirety” that one of my team members sent to us, and it totally coincided with what I was experiencing…

“It is the point on love’s journey where sincerity must meet severity and be converted into entirety…Jesus wants all of us and not just a part. He is jealous that we would not remain in the place of immaturity, though our hearts are sincere, but move into the fullness of love, where our love is entire.”

In Song of Songs 2:15, the young Shulammite woman is sincere in her cry to her Bridegroom to “catch the little foxes”, yet she is not to the place where she is willing to completely let go of her sin and compromise and accept his earlier invitation (Song of Songs 2:10) to follow him on the mountains (in Song of Songs 2:17 she tells him to go without her). I sometimes find myself in a similar situation where I am crying out for deliverance, yet at the same time, struggling to actually deal aggressively with the darkness in my heart, either because I am reluctant to let go of the pleasure of that sin or because I feel incapable of knowing how to rid my heart of it. The other deception is that they aren’t really that big of a deal – it’s tempting to make excuses that they’re not hurting anyone or to look to the world’s standards which would justify our actions, instead of looking to his holiness as the standard. There’s a verse that often convicts me in Hebrews 12:4…

“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”

But as I listened to these two songs, I felt encouraged that even while I desire to be set free of these foxes, that His desire to set me free is even stronger. He is jealous to have my entire heart and will not relent or hold back until he has fully consumed me. He is the most persistent man and will not give up in his pursuit of my heart and his quest to form me into his perfect image. He is committed to my growth and maturity and is dedicated to completing the work he has begun in me.

Yet, I was struggling to find this comforting when I was in the midst of feeling him put his finger on certain areas! It felt like he was purposefully pushing my buttons in order to expose something within me that I really didn’t want to see. I was annoyed, frustrated and angry – it was painful and difficult! This was not how I imagined him answering my cry for rescuing! I desperately wanted to focus my anger on someone or something and blame them for the cause of my pain, yet I was being forced to recognize that my circumstances where not the source – it was him! Like it says in Hosea 6:1…

“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.”

He was both the cause and the solution. And yet I felt in the midst of it that I didn’t need to be ashamed, because he wasn’t exposing the little foxes in my heart out of anger with me or disappointment in me, it was because of his incredible, burning love for me that he was doing it. It’s his kindness and severity mixed together perfectly in order to produce the desired result in my heart, that my “sincerity…be converted to entirety”.

In the moment, I felt a little overwhelmed and discouraged by what I was seeing in me, and I wanted to try and cover it up again and pretend it wasn’t there. Yet I could feel his gentle and persistent encouragement to say, “Yes” to what he was doing and not turn him away. I also felt that even if I said “No” like the Shulammite and told him to turn and go on without me, that he would not give up on me. He is merciful and full of compassion for us in our weakness and struggle to rid our hearts of the little foxes and he will set us free, no matter how long it takes. He is patient and relentless. He is not discouraged by my weakness. In fact, when he does turn and leave to leap upon the mountains without me, he’s not abandoning me or leaving me to be ruined by the little foxes – it’s actually all part of his plan to capture my heart, for in his absence, I see how much I need and desire him (see Song of Songs 3:1-4).

I hope you will find this encouraging and challenge you to pray this same prayer – ask the Lord to set you free of the areas of sin and compromise that still remain in your heart and take courage that He will not give up until He has made your “righteousness shine forth like the dawn”.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Yes, I know – I’m a little late with the seasonal greetings, but better late then never, right?? 

Joe and I and baby all had a really great Christmas, spending time with family and friends.  We were blessed with several gifts for our coming little one and I’m especially excited to start using my new coffee/espresso maker and my new recipes organizing software!  Joe was also very happy to recieve his new drill set, which he has very quickly put to good use in our house renovations.

Over the holidays, I was also blessed by the Lord with a laptop, given to me by an anonymous donor!    This was quite a surprise and totally unexpected, as I have been wanting a laptop for over a year now.  I was actually considering converting to Mac, as I know several people who sing it’s praises, so this was part of the delay in purchasing a laptop, but the Lord decided to bless me with a PC, so I guess He likes PCs better – lol!  (Hopefully my Mac-loving friends don’t hate me for that little remark) 

Lastly,  I thought I would reflect a little on some of the events of 2007:

1.  We celebrated our 2nd anniversary on January 22nd
2.  I took a trip to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri
3.  We sold a house
4.  We bought a house
5.  We sent off my brother & his girlfriend on an 8-month vacation overseas
6.  We got pregnant!!!
7.  We went camping with my sister & her husband
8.  We renovated our house
9.  We took a trip to Calgary & Canmore
10.  We gave away our car & bought a van
11.  We welcomed my brother & his girlfriend back home
12.  We took a trip to Edmonton & Lacombe

So what will the next year hold for us???  Many exciting and scary “firsts” I’m sure, as we venture into a whole new world of becoming parents!  We cannot wait for our little one to arrive and yet it feels like it is coming soooo quickly!  I feel completely unprepared, mostly because I have absolutely no idea what to expect!  What will our baby be like?  How will I adjust to being a mom?  What will it be like to not work for a season?  So many questions without answers, because you just don’t know until you experience it!  Thankfully I have the Lord, who I will be leaning on A LOT!  I have to trust that He will help me and guide me to be the best mom I can be.  Here we come 2008!!

A New Year

Thirsty
To bring in the new year, my husband and I were listening to a live worship service at a large prayer gathering being broadcast on the internet. Truly, what better way to start the year than with prayer and worship? As I was meditating on what I desired for the upcoming year, I watched the images of my screensaver flashing by on my computer and an image came up of a fresh mountain lake, fed by the rivers flowing from the snowy peaks. I immediately felt a deep thirst within my soul – I yearned to take a long refreshing drink of those cool waters!

Come and Drink
I was reminded of when Jesus stood up at a feast and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink“! (John 7:37) I believe that call is still ringing loudly today, for those who are listening. I felt his invitation for this upcoming year – come and take a deep drink from the river of my delights (Psalm 36:8). I want to taste and see that He is good. I want to savor and enjoy the depths of who He is and allow all that He is to completely satisfy my thirst. I want to accept the invitation to receive from Him all that my heart is longing for.

Planted by the River of Life
I want my life to be like a tree planted by the river of life, with my roots going deep into His love (Ephesians 3:17-18), fed by the Spirit that my life may yield fruit that remains (Psalm 1:3; Revelation 22:1-2). I pray that as I learn to daily drink deep of this crystal-clear water that flows from the very throne of God, that the garden of my heart will flourish and grow in beauty and maturity in such a way that it brings pleasure to Him and nourishment to those around me.