The Perks of being a Pastor's Wife

I just love being a Pastor's Wife. I love being a part of the ministry and seeing folks lives changed by the hand of God. It is so awesome to be able to minister alongside of my husband on a daily basis.

Yes, I can not deny the fact that there are many perks that come with the title of "Pastor's Wife".

I know that there are people constantly praying for my sweet husband and children on a consistent basis. Are they praying for them because they have to put up with me? Not so sure...but I am still grateful for the prayers.

Daddy's work is at church and the kids think that is way cool!

We get to go on lots of fun trips and sleep like we did when we went away to summer camp!

We get to be involved in people's lives...and I don't mean just snooping and gossiping. I LOVE our people and LOVE being involved in their lives.

We get lots of great food cooked for us...which means I don't have to cook and because of that we are getting an awesome meal.

Lots of hugs!

The chance to minister to people and share the Love of Christ!

Growing new Believers.

Friends that we can count on through it all.

And last but not least, waking up to this beautiful sight on a glorious Sunday Morning(when my mind should have been on the things of God):

What is that hanging at the end of the driveway, you ask? Take a good look below and see what those crazy kids wrote on a sheet!

Yes, it is a verse. That verse is Luke 23:34..."Father forgive them, for they know not what they do"

They even tried to be spiritual in the midst of tragedy. Tragedy, you say? Yes it was a tragedy, because this was the first in a long time that our yard actually looked REALLY good. We had been working all weekend in the yard and then those hooligans(from our church) had to come mess it up.

Well Boys, you just best be ready. When you least expect it, we are gonna get ya! We might be "old", but we still have a few tricks up our sleeve's!

So that my friends is one of the "perks" of being a pastor's wife!

Get After It...

Well it is finally here. Do you know what time is here? It's time to get busy!

Ric and I went today and met with our great friend, KJ. KJ owns a health and fitness club in Carrollton, GA called God-Built. This place makes me nervous for several reasons:

1. No more cookie dough
2. Sweat
3. No more junk food
4. More Sweat
5. I know I will be sore
6. KJ was my trainer after I had Shelby and he kicked my rear , so I know about the sweat and about being sore(the kind of sore where you can't walk sore!)

Well the list could go on. Ric and I have gotten sick of being out of shape and have decided to finally give in and get after it. We wanna get ripped y'all!

We went to get some flooring for our soon to be home gym in our garage and ended up talking with KJ for quite a while. He talked about how so many people have the mind frame of that if they get this work out plan, this certain diet, this certain machine, or this certain trainer that it is going to fix their issue. We all say that we will start tomorrow(how many times I have said that). KJ said that there is nothing that is going to "fix" your issues, and that there is no better time than now to get in shape. Just get after it. Just start and quit putting it off. Well, we are going to quit putting it off and get busy:)

On the way home from the gym, I started to think about what he said and I later told Ric that some of the things he said correlated with the Christian Life. So many times we think if we go out and get the new Beth Moore devotional, the new Book on being a "Godly Woman", find that perfect church, or that new study Bible that we will start walking with God. We put off our quiet times and tell ourselves that we will start on Monday. It made me realize that when we do go through tough times in our walk, and we will, that there is no time like the present to start walking with GOD and there is definitely no quick fix. All of those books aren't going to make us walk with God(although they can help us grow). It is sheer discipline...just doing it and sticking with it. Determining in our minds that we are sick of doing stuff halfway and just wanna get it done.

Same idea goes for us in the whole workout thing. I know it's gonna be tough. That there will be days I don't wanna workout. Days I don't wanna sweat. Days I wanna eat a whole tube of cookie dough, but I have determined that I am going to see it through to the end.

My prayer is, that I will see my walk with Christ grow more and more, that I never back down, and never quit in my service to him. I am ready to "get after it". I hope you are too!

Happy Birthday Sweet Shelby Jean

Today my sweet Shelby Jean turns 3 years old. She is so stoked to be 3. She thinks she can go to school at 3, fix her own food at 3, pick out her own clothes at 3, get a major credit card at 3, and finally take her 6 month old baby brother out his crib at 3. I just threw the credit card thing in there, but the others she has done....including the baby brother thing! Not sure how she did it...don't want to know. She knows not to do it again...I can assure you that. Happy Birthday my ray of sunshine, my laughter, my love. I have been blessed by your life!

Someting is up in my....

Shelby gives me alot of material for writing. She does things that just completely amuse me and get me tickled to the point of no return.



Yesterday I was in the living room writing on the laptop and Shelby came into the room with an old gymnastics leotard on(that was WAY too small & on backwards), her pink high heels and the biggest smile you will ever find. She proceeded to announce to Jesse and I that "I am beautiful, look at me Mommy, how pretty I am". I then told her that "yes you are pretty Shelby. The prettiest little blonde haired girl ever!" She leaned in real close to me and in an almost whisper said "something is up in my but_....". You can put the last letter there.


This is a word that we do not say, maybe that is why she whispered..I don't know. I started to giggle and then turned my head as to not encourage that sort of language. I had to correct her and tell her that we don't use that word. I decided to investigate the situation and turned her around and this is what I found. I got several laughs throughout the day thinking about her! Hope you get a few!

Even when your all cracked up...keep smiling and telling yourself (and others if you want) that you are beautiful!

"HOLLERING" FOR JESUS

I had to write devotions for our youth group last week and God brought to my memory something my son had said 2 years ago. Yes...I do have a memory, it's just very select!


Psalm 98:4 Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.

Psalm 100:1 A Psalm of Thanksgiving. Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!

Psalm 95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

A few years ago Charlie started to come into “Big Church” on Sunday nights. The first year he slept through most of the sermons but on occasion he would stay awake. One evening we were especially excited about the evening service because Ric was preaching. I told Charlie that he was going to get to hear his daddy preach for the first time that night. Charlie had a puzzled look on his face and asked me really seriously, “Mommy, does Daddy "holler" for Jesus?” I kinda giggled and said “What?” He asked me again “Does Daddy "holler" for Jesus?” I once again giggled and said “Charlie, what do you mean?” He said “you know, like Bro Mike(our former pastor)…does he "HOLLER" (imagine him raising his voice really loud) for Jesus?” Well I about fell out. It was so funny. He knew Bro. Mike liked to get loud and he wanted to know if his daddy did that too. “I looked at Charlie and told him, “Yes son, your Daddy "hollers" for Jesus, but in a different way.” Well it got me thinking.. do I "holler" for Jesus? The scripture shows us that we are to SHOUT for Him. "Holler" is southern for shout right? I looked at my life and wondered if my son could ask me if I "hollered" for Jesus. I pray that my life would be one that did shout and sing praises. One that was unashamed at my allegiance to Christ. One of my favorite songs talks about Shouting, a.k.a. "Hollering"…

Shout to the Lord
All the Earth
Let us sing
Power and Majesty
Praise to the King
Mountains bow down
The sea will roar
At the sound of Your NAME

May our lives "Holler" for JESUS!!!!

What hurts the most...

So, being a mom has it's perks! I love my kids. They are so cute and do the funniest things. I love to see them smile, hear them laugh, and watch them play...but I so hate when they disobey!

Tonight at church they decided that the back row where we were sitting with their two friends, was going to be some kind of fun house. They weren't listening to anything, to A N Y T H I N G, that I said. I wanted to wring their necks and at one point snapped and told Charlie's little friend that I was going to crush him if he didn't hush. This was of course after he told me to quit crushing the airplanes that he and Charlie had constructed for their back pew runway. Yes, I later apologized to the little boy for being so harsh...okay, I lied...I later tapped him on the shoulder and made a crushing motion with my hands and than pointed at him. He got a chuckle out of that so I think we are all good now.

On the way home I told Ric about their carrying on up in the church house and he was a little upset with the kiddo's for not respecting number 1, God, and number 2, their Momma! We talked with both of them at length about their behavior and saw both of them genuinely(key word) broken by their bad behavior. Both of them begged me for my forgiveness and this time it wasn't to get out of a spanking. They knew that the hammer was gonna drop..no doubt!

My heart hurt so for them. I was so mad at them at church for acting up that I wanted to crush them...but then seeing their broken hearts(and bottoms)...it was tragic. I realized that my embarrassment will pass(they are preachers kids anyways), that I will get over it, but what hurts the most...seeing my sweet kiddo's broken to the point of tears and me, not wanting them to get a spanking. My mercy kicked in and I wished for once that they would have got off...scott free without a spanking. They were crying, I was crying, Shelby was even crying and she wasn't in trouble...don't worry she will be tomorrow. God showed me tonight that even when there is genuine repentance...there are still consequences. I pray that my children will know this and if it takes a night like tonight to teach them about the consequences of sin...I'll take it!

Who is Jericha?

So, every night that we are all home together we have one of the kids "preach" to us about a bible story they have learned and what it means to them. Charlie and Addie are really getting it and have delivered some great 3 point sermons. Shelby on the other hand...not so much. She likes to stand up there and have everyone look at her, she smiles real cute, and then begins to ramble about God and Jesus(remember she is not yet 3). When I say ramble, I mean ramble. It went on for a good 6 minutes last night and at one point I thought she was speaking in tongues...so could not understand her. She may not be able to preach but boy can she pray. She prayed for everyone that she knew, SEVERAL times and then she prayed for "our whole church", followed quickly by a peeking eye and the question, "Who else Mom?" She went so long that Charlie and Addie were like "okay Shelby, wrap it up!" Sometimes she prays for people that she doesn't even know ....like last night she prayed for Jericha and then asked me in her prayer "Mommy, who is Jericha?" Charlie proceeded to role his eyes and sigh "Shelby it's Jericho, not Jericha...Jericho is a city!" Shelby didn't care what he thought...she was going to pray for Jericha, so Jericha if you are out there girl, there were some prayers sent up for you last night! Shelby...you gotta love her heart! Such a special girl and such a ray of light! I truly believe that God has a great plan for her...she sees things most people don't(and I don't mean dead people, although she did she Jesus in our backyard wearing Ric's Crocs, but that is another story), and she has such a spiritual mind. I pray that this crazy world never stifles her passion for prayer!

WARNING....way too many pictures are below!!!!!!! I had way too many good ones and couldn't just pick 20 much less 5...only scroll down if you have a long time to look...it might take a while!!

So I haven't posted anything on here and like ages and I have been getting flack from my husband for not keeping it updated. I am not sure where to even start. I guess vacation....We went to Hilton Head Island with my family for a week and had a great time. The kids had the best time swimming, bike riding, ice cream eating, and just plain hanging out. Charlie and Addie went and played Golf with Ric one day and had a great time doing that. We all went on a "dolphin cruise"! It was raining and just plain wet but it was fun being on the boat and seeing the dolphins up close. The kids loved the pool and the ocean and were content with just doing that the entire week. SHelby fell in love with her cousin Ty(it's ok...we aren't from West Virginia) and they were just the cutest things ever. They danced and held hands and just had a ball. Jesse was sick the whole time...seems to be his thing right now...but he was still a sweet boy. He slept in a swing down at the beach and let the sound of the waves rock him to sleep. Pretty sweet I think. Addie had a ball with her cousin Gracie and loved having another girl around close to her age. Charlie just loved being with the boys and he and TY really got along and found a mutual love (aka...obsession) - playstation!!!! We ate too much, got too much sun, too much sand in our suits, and not enough sleep....perfect vacation.

Shelby and the love of her life...her cousin TY

The BOY'S

After Hilton Head the kids and I headed to Lynchburg for a week at Nana and Popa's. They swam a lot at their pool and we got to do lots of fun stuff. It was fun to be there during the summer time. It was a great time but being away from home for two whole weeks was exhausting. We were excited to get back but not excited for school to start.

The first day of school was really exciting. The kids loved their teachers and couldn't wait to see all of their friends again. They have both made some really good friends there and so have Ric and I. We love that school and couldn't be happier there. Ric had the honor of praying for the school at the Gym Dedication this week. We were super excited that they asked him and even more excited that our school still prays!!!! They still paddle too....yeah, yeah, I know it is a small school in the country but still!!!

Jesse has been diagnosed with asthma after a long battle with a serious cough. He had a cough ever since he was 6 weeks old and just couldn't shake it. After hundreds of dollars and about 10 different prescriptions they sent us to a pulmonologist. He changed his meds and got us on the right track. He was actually cough free for almost 3 weeks. He is sick again now but at least we can treat it. I am just praying that God will heal his little body and we won't have to keep doing all this junk. I feel so sorry for him.

Well, that is about all that we have had going on. I am sure we will have more interesting stories to tell later.