A Letter to Kimberly

Kimberly,

I don't say it nearly enough, but thank you so much for all that you do for me and our family! I am so thankful and blessed to be married to you. I'm sure that you feel taken for granted from time to time, and that's just not fair! And, it's 100% my fault.

When I am on the road, you're at home taking care of all the important stuff. I get to leave work at the end of the day. You, however, don't share the same luxury. You're job never ends!

I owe you so much gratitude that it's not even feasible to understand. I should take you out more, send you flowers (although they are expensive and have a short shelf life!) more often, write little love notes, or just take the kids away more often for an hour or two.

Maybe making it public for all of the world wide web to see will hold me more accountable to all of that. I know you are thinking, "Yeah, right! I've heard this song before!" And, I couldn't blame you for thinking that!

I do want you to know, though, that I am so incredibly blessed to share my life with you! I most certainly got the better end of the deal! When I look at you I see all that's right with and beautiful in the world! I don't know what the Big Man Upstairs was thinking when He put us together. You have some legitimate beef there. I'm glad He did!

I have everything I could ever want or need. A beautiful and loving wife, two amazing children, a great group of people around me, a great job and my health...just to name a few! However, I don't always see it. I'm sorry for that. Hopefully, you will still put up with me!

I love you!

Love,

Ray

Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life...

Let's face it...Life sucks sometimes! No reason to pull any punches or sugarcoat it, because sometimes it just sucks! Oddly enough, it was the Bible that reminded me of that today. It also reminded me that despite those "less than stellar" times, you can always find joy! I was leaving the Y this morning and grabbed a folded Bible verse, as I always do, on my way out the door. It just happened to be John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” A subtle punch in the face at 9:30 am.

Essentially, it tells us that the fight is over and has been over for a long long time! Jesus paid our debt and took all the worldly pain off of our shoulders on a cross a little over two-thousand years ago. All we have to do is accept it. You have the love of Christ! And that is all you need, really. As Matt Maher sings in Hold Us Together:

It don't have a job, don't pay your bills
Won't buy you a home in Beverly Hills
Won't fix your life in five easy steps
Ain't the law of the land or the government?
But it's [LOVE's] all you need

I also titled this post after the bridge of that song because he notes that "'Cause even in the dark you can still see the light, It's gonna be alright, it's gonna be alright..." There may be something going on in your life right now that doesn't seem all that great. And quite frankly, it's nowhere near great. However, there are plenty of things that He has provided for you in your life that you can look toward when you find yourself in one of the many valleys of your life. 

I have bad days. I have days where I just want to lay in the bed and feel bad for myself. I have days where I feel like it's me versus the rest of the world. I have days when I am mad at the world. And, I used to just shut out everything and everyone and hope that someone somewhere would take pity on me and make me feel better. Any happiness that came as a result was only temporary. 

It's joy that I now find and that, my friends, is what will stand the test of time. I can look at my kids and they just shed light on all the darkness! The smile on my wife's face when one of the little knuckleheads does something funny is so worth not wallowing in my sorrow. The sunshine, the deer in the field down from our house, the Andy Andrews' book that I found on clearance at LifeWay, a five minute conversation with my best friend Adam (Pook) Stephenson, and so much more that I would use all of cyberspace to list! Those are all things that he has placed in my life and they have always been there. I haven't always seen them, but as I found myself growing in my spiritual life I have learned that God's grace is sufficient and I don't need to rely on all of those things to get me by. It's amazing how much more I enjoy those things now that they don't control my life. When I do let them take control, which I do more often than I would like to admit, I don't enjoy them nearly as much as I do when I realize Who put those things in my life. 

As the interim pastor at my church, Kevin Ezell, so eloquently says, "Walk, don't wallow!" Sometimes I just have to get off my posterior and take a look at all the wonderful things around me and the love and grace of God to grab the JOY during the not-so-happy times!

Happy Labor Day and God Bless!

What I Have Learned from Duck Dynasty...

I must confess that I do not take time out of my nearly enough to pray. I could sit here and try to make excuses, but that would take entirely too long and nothing could justify it. Anyway, over the past twenty-four hours I have really put a lot of thought into this subject. Through that thought and some television watching, I have found four simple steps that could help me, and hopefully you, take those precious daily moments and make them count. 

First thing you need to do is focus on about 13 seconds of a popular reality by the name of Duck Dynasty on A&E. The show is funny, entertaining, touching, often ridiculous and always deeply rooted in the Robertson family's faith in Christ. It's that aforementioned 13 seconds that, to me at least, mean a lot more than the other 29 minutes and 47 seconds. The following are the three steps that I have identified to make daily prayer not only possible, but pretty easy as well!

Step 1: Recognize the greatness of God!
Start with a simple statement of God's greatness and the things that you know to be true. It's often manifested by Phil Robertson through words like, "Heavenly Father, Creator of the Cosmos," "The one who gave us life through His Son, Jesus Christ..."

It really is just that simple. All you have to do is recognize that He is first, that He is number one and that He comes before all else. All you have to do is make it your own, make it sincere and recognize Him and what He has done for you!

"Our Father who art in Heaven, halloweth be thy name..."

Step 2: Ask for the Basics

Usually, in the show, they are praying over their food and asking for God's blessings over it. Pretty simple, right? 

All you need to do is ask for the basics that He graciously provides you on a daily basis like the air you breath, the roof over your head, the food on your table, etc. and, if you're sitting there reading and saying, "He doesn't provide that, I do!" then you are fooling yourself! Who do you think provides you with the talent and ability to work at that job to provide for you and your family? 

"Give us this day, our daily bread..."

Step 3: Specifically Pray for What You Need

You don't have to be shy about asking for what you need. God is good, always. You may not have your prayer answered when you would like or at all. But, we live on His time and His dime, not our's. 

If you need something, or know someone who does, then you just simply ask for it! Got a friend with an illness? Ask for his healing. Your dad has fallen on hard times and is not handling it well? Ask for a little divine intervention on his behalf! 

"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespassed against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Sensing a pattern here?

Step 4: Wrap It Up With A Nod To God!

Simply restating God's greatness as you did in Step 1 will suffice for your prayer's end! One of the Robertson patriarchs will usually close with a statement like, "In Jesus' name we pray," or "We ask this in Your great name," with a collective "Amen" to fade into a humorous rant by the crazy Uncle Si. 

Whatever you feel, is what you should say. 

"Fore thine is the Kingdom, the power and glory, forever. Amen." 

In conclusion, we all fall incredibly short on a daily basis of being the person or Christian we want to be or feel that we should be. And, that's OK as long as you realize that and you continue to reach and climb toward that goal of being closer to God. That close relationship with you is what he desires most. With a simple start we can begin that ascent to being closer to God. Hey! There's prayer número uno, asking for some prayer insight in order to grow closer to Him. 

I must say that I didn't go and pull from any version of the Lord's Prayer, so the verbiage may be a little off or the versions may not match quite right. I was shooting straight from the hip as I watch the kids play by the pool. So, please excuse any errors and be more so impacted by the content! 

Thanks for stoping by and God Bless!

- Ray