A Son's First Hero and A Daughter's First Love

"My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it"

—Clarence Budington Kelland

"A Father is a son's first Hero and a daughter's first Love" ♥

Happy Father's Day from the Preacher and I

Escape, But Don't Forgot Who You Are

In the Preacher's sermon last Sunday he spoke of a paralyzing fear. The kind that makes you not think correctly. The kind of fear that makes your body do things you know are not good — racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, queasy stomach. His sermon was not just directed to those seated in our church that day, it was directed to the Preacher and I as well.

That is the kind of week we had leading up to Sunday. A week of stress. A week of paralyzing fear. A week of wondering, over and over, "What do we do, what if the choices we make are wrong?" 

It never seems to fail that whatever the Lord leads the Preacher to teach, He leads us through it so that the lesson becomes even more clear.

When these trials come there is one thing that we enjoy doing -- escape! Of course we pray through our trials but after the storm settles we go and find something fun to do. Something to take our mind off of the hard decisions that we may be facing.

So this past weekend (our weekend consist of Sunday afternoon through Monday) we headed up to Estes Park. One of our favorite places in Colorado. We stayed at a local campground. We enjoyed eating at the restaurants. We enjoyed the beauty of the mountains. 

We sat on the porch swing and tried to relax and for a while we felt the tension leave our bodies.

But even when you try to escape the devil tends to find you. The devil came through a phone call and we tried really hard to continue to see the beauty all around us.

We since have come home and have gone back to work and that fear just seems to stay with us, the questions are still there. There are questions regarding personal issues and ministry issues.

Everyday we have been praying, asking the Lord to help show us how to work through these questions, and today, I believe, He sent me a song, "Remind Me Who I Am" by Jason Gray. 

When I lose my way, and I forget my name, remind me who I am

In the mirror all I see is who I don't wanna be

Remind me who I am

In the loneliest places when I cant remember what grace is

Tell me, once again

Who I am to You, who I am to You

Tell me, lest I forget

Who I am to You, that I belong to You

To You

This song helps to remind me that I am a child of God and He will not forsake us in our times of trouble. Yes it's good to escape to a quiet place in the mountains but don't forget that the Lord, who created those mountains, will be there too!

Love from the Preacher and I

Pinterest Success

I found this ecard on Pinterest and immediately pinned it to one of my boards! I feel like this is me. It just seems like I find things on Pinterest and then some one will start a conversation about that exact thing!

This past week I had a Pinterest success. You know that sometimes you try out one of the homemade cleaning solutions or some other homemade thing and it just doesn't work. Well this time it was a success. 

I had found this Pin from Buzzfeed. I actually had not pinned it to any of my boards at the time but it was still in the back of my mind, just waiting for the right moment to come back to the front.

One day the Preacher and I were doing some spring cleaning throughout the house and he had asked me if I knew where some cleaning solution was. Well my first thought was, "It's under the kitchen sink." So I opened the doors under the sink and I had to pull out just about everything until I found what he was needing.  I decided that I would clean out that space right then and there. Whatever I was doing would just have to wait because this was a mess.

This is when this pin came out of the back to the front of my mind. I knew I had an extra suspension curtain rod stored somewhere in the house. I hunted it down and I began to reorganize. 

It was a success! The only thing that I recommend, if you so choose to do this, is to place a block of wood under each end of the curtain rod. When placing this many bottles on it, no matter how tight I got it, it would fall. The Preacher helped me out with that project. Now it works perfect. 

 Here is a picture of the space below our sink. I now enjoy getting something out from under here because everything is organized!

Love from the Preacher and I

A Modern Day Good Samaritan

(flickr.com)

Yesterday the Preacher gave a sermon on the parable of The Good Samaritan. (Luke 10: 25-37)

During the sermon I couldn't help think that the Preacher is a modern day version of the Good Samaritan. He tries so hard to help people, even when there is no way to help, it doesn't stop him. He will try to find a way. 

Let me share a story of one of the many times he has been a Good Samaritan. This is one of our funny stories that I like to tell on him.

Many years ago the Preacher and I traveled from our home in south Florida to Cypress Gardens, which was located near Winter Haven, Florida. (It is now known as Legoland Florida Resort.) We were to meet my mother and a friend of hers at the Gardens and spend the day with them. We had decided to go to the Ski Show Bay to watch their famous water skiers. This was the last show of the day and we didn't want to miss it. We arrived early and were able to sit very close to the water. The Preacher had gone back up to get us some popcorn and drinks before the show was to start. 

While he was getting popcorn the "crew" was beginning to arrange row boats and other items on the beach near the boat dock, which was located right in front of our seats. 

The Preacher came back, sat down and while he was handing out the food, two crew members came out and began to pick up one of the row boats that was located upside down on the sandy beach. Each one picked up an end of the boat. One man picked up the bow of the boat but began to yell something like, "I can't lift it!" Then the boat began to come down on him, covering him up. As the people in the bleachers began to take notice of what was happening on the beach they laughed and pointed at what was taking place right in front of us. Did the Preacher laugh?

No, the Preacher threw his popcorn into my lap and began to run down to the sandy beach and upon reaching the crew member he reached under the boat and started to lift it up, trying so hard to save the man.  Just then the man who was trapped under the boat whispered to the Preacher, "Go away! This is all a part of the show!" Go away!"

The Preacher let go of the boat and slowly started back up to our seats.

I felt proud of my Preacher. Even though this was part of the show, unless you had seen the show before you would not have known this. All the people were just sitting there watching a man, who we thought, was getting crushed by a boat. There was only one person in all of the bleachers willing to help. That was the Preacher.

Sometimes we just have to go head first into a situation and help. Even if we don't know the why's or how's. We just have to help.

This week if you see someone, metaphorically or literally, laying on the side of the road, who is a true victim, don't hesitate to be a Good Samaritan.

Love from the Preacher and I