These are words I find myself pausing and speaking in my mind, aloud to myself, or even in encouragement to Lou when times get crazy. It’s been such an amazing nine months to center and focus our kids’ attention and imagination to seeing Jesus the Creator.
Read MoreComing back to where we left off in 2019 feels like 30 years of troubled times in history, instead of just three, but honestly pre-2020 feels like yesterday to us. It’s SO easy to get mired into the giant mess that has been the last couple of years, but it’s even easier to dwell in the delightful moments and memories that exist in our heads and in front of our eyes. The one lesson that we cannot shake is that LIFE MOVES EXTREMELY FAST.
Read MoreHow do you name someone for life? The pressure is quite heavy-handed, and the wandering mind pictures scenario after scenario of said name in action. We named our son Tozer. Unique for sure. When we were doing our “searching” of names, not only did it come back with zero results, but we were asked if we made a mistake.
Read MoreWhat a perfect time to share this news. Just another example of thankfulness overflowing in your heart to worship God. He’s led us through many sleepless nights. He’s been our peace, our joy and our strength. In any and every circumstance that has come our way.
Read MoreI remember our baptisms. My wife was a new Christian and ready to make the public commitment to be baptized in Christ's death. I remember we drove around all day, going from the streams within Platte River State Park, to the banks of the Platte, then to the mud of the Missouri. I was soaking wet and muddy, searching for a place to baptize my wife. Honestly, we could've done it in a ditch and it would've meant the same because her heart was right.
Read MoreYou read that right! We've been really really busy. Who isn't busy though? We saw many houses we looked at sell within days of listing. We would not have this home today, but by the Hand of God.
Read MoreThe weight of a grain of rice is 0.029 grams. That's pretty minuscule in the grand scheme of any given day, not at all intimidating. Neither is a mustard seed, but Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed would be enough to move a mountain. So what about a grain of rice? What could it do?
Read MoreThe night before our baby girl was delivered, we had a big decision to make: to have a cesarean section the very next morning or wait longer, risking an emergency C-section. Paul and I had mere hours between the time we made the decision and the time we'd be meeting our little girl.
Read MoreGod will not meet us on the demands of how we want Him, who we want Him to be or how we want Him to be glorified. Etta has helped open our eyes deeper into the wealth of God's riches. A baby. That's how God came into the world. The God that hates and refuses the proud, but cannot resist the humble, modeled the utmost of humility by coming in the weakest form — as a baby!
Read MoreWhere do I start about my darling Lou? Where would I end? I'll warn you, this track's dripping with honey and there's no ejection button anywhere. I catch myself staring at Lou all the time. I'm addicted to her. For good reason: she's my beautiful bride, my priceless treasure, my very best friend.
Read MoreEarlier this year, I shared about our "fidelity fences" in my women's group. I knew that I had shared a particular link on Facebook before, so when I searched my page, I discovered the site, Hope Filled Marriage, no longer exists! You see, the fidelity fences Paul and I adopted after getting married were actually the fidelity fences of the late Ty and Terri Schenzel. This couple made a huge impact on thousands of lives (including mine). Most notably, for me, I surrendered my life to the Lord at their memorial in 2015.
Read MoreWe live in a tiny house. Not what's considered an actual "tiny house" today, but a small house nonetheless. Our plan was to stay for the first year of our marriage and here were are on our way to our third wedding anniversary! Because guess what? We've absolutely grown to love it!
Read MoreWhile we were trying to get pregnant, someone asked me when we were going to have kids. We were very private about being unsuccessful, so I remember saying something like, "Right now, I'm just too big to be pregnant." I have no clue why I blurted that out! Must've just been a bad day, because I definitely wasn't trying to shed any pounds, and as a plus-size woman, I am comfortable in my skin.
Read MoreWe were sitting in the waiting room today and sharing a Tozer book together, reading about Abraham and Isaac. Tozer talked about how God let the suffering old man go through with offering his son up to the point where He knew there would be no retreat, and then He forbade Abraham from laying a hand on Isaac.
Read MoreHolier than thou? How about worst of the worst? Better to clear this up sooner rather than later, and now seems as good a time as any. Before we get in too deep, we have to self-reflectively look at what we’re doing here. Nothing we write - absolutely nothing - is coming from the perspective of us superiorly pointing our finger at you...
Read MoreAll glory to God! We're pregnant! Baby Valla is coming this November. Almost everyone we've shared our news with has asked how it was announced to Dad-to-be, so we thought we'd take this opportunity to share more about worship. Because that's exactly what we did.
Read More…and I’m so grateful for my life. So grateful. Often in my “I don’t want to go into Forever 21” walk around the mall, I walk around and watch. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed with thankfulness for having a job, a life, a roof, water…and I look around at people frowning – who look like they’ve been forced to live.
Read MoreIf you ask my groom what he does for a living, he’ll respond, “I’m a janitor.” It used to bug me. Actually, when he first told me his profession, I seriously thought he was joking. That’s who I was.
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