Shortly before my wedding day I asked the Holy Ghost was the young lady I was about to marry was she the one. It didn't take long, in fact the quickness of His reply startled me, but He let me know that Michelle Rene Rice was indeed the Fathers perfect will for my life.
She is an absolute manifestation of Prov. 31 and mere words can't communicate how much of the blessing she has been in my life.
Without her prayer and support I wouldn't be here.
Happy birthday!
15 years ago today I married this lovely lady and it was the seconded best decision that I ever made.
She is strong, supportive and anointed...I don't deserve her.
But again I don't deserve any of the blessings God has so richly poured out into my life.
photo by kevin n. murphy
You want to get married someday? Great. Now all you need is a man, right? Wrong. You need more than a man, a ring and a wedding. It takes more than a deep voice to make a man. It takes more than a ring to make a marriage. And it takes more than a wedding to create a beautiful lifetime. You don’t need a man, you need the right man. And he is worth the wait.
Having a substitute instead of what you really want can be devastating. When my husband and I were looking for our first car, I wanted to buy something that we could easily afford, he wanted to buy a car he liked. We went shopping and I found the perfect family car for a very good price. When we went for the test drive, the car would not start. When we finally got going, it had no pick-up and did not handle well. After the drive, he and I talked about it and agreed that we did not want that car. A few months later, we went shopping again and there it was, the car my husband wanted. To make a long story short, it was a great car, at a good price and we were both satisfied with the purchase. Sometimes I think back to the car we almost bought. It looked nice on the outside, and it was a good price. I almost overlooked the warning signs and bought a piece of junk. There were probably other things wrong that I didn’t know about. The money we would have spent on repairs would have made the low cost of the car insignificant.
A car is a major purchase for most people, and its selection should be conducted with care. Selecting a mate is even more serious. If you make a mistake, you can not send your mate back to the dealer or make a trade for new model. In the case of a mate, a substitute is even more dangerous because you become involved in the deception of your heart. When you lie to yourself and ignore your heart, or try to convince your heart that this is the man you have always been waiting for, and later realize that you made a mistake, you can no longer trust your heart. It takes a lot of healing to return your heart to a trustworthy condition.
The good news is that you do not have to worry about selecting the wrong mate or rushing off to marry a substitute. Not because it can not happen to you, but because you are opening your ears for understanding and instruction. You are seeking wisdom from the Word of God (the Bible) and the pages of this book. Proverbs 4:7 says, “Wisdom [is] the principal thing; [therefore] get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” That is what you are doing. You are seeking to get wisdom and you will be pleased with the results if you follow the Word of God in the area of dating and marriage.
Kayla Noel Mancha is 3 years old today. She is feisty, focused and a commanding presence in our household.
Kayla loves to helps her sister Eron clean the table off before dinner, but what I noticed about Kayla is that even after everyone else was done setting up the table she would still be there trying to clean up each and every stain on the table.
Her attention to detail is amazing.
I'm so excited about what God is going to be able to do in and through her life.
My wife went back to work this week after being on maternity for some time now. Because the Lord has blessed me with a job that I can work from home I'm now my 54 day old sons primary caregiver during the day.
James though very young is extremely serious and during those few hour a day that he's awake he'll spend most of that time staring at me like I owe him money.
Our first day alone together was rather intense, I found myself melting under the pressure to get his bottles to him in a timely fashion. His cries accused me, his steely gaze looked through me, I went to bed that night a broken and humbled man.
But after a few days I'm started to get in sync with him and learning to interpret his many facial expressions. Ok this one means I got gas, this one means I'm tired please rock me to sleep kind sir, this one means dude I'm hungry please insert bottle into my pie hole.
Of course being primarily a preacher, living with 54 day old gives one a wealth of preaching material. For example, when he is on level 3 crying because he's hungry and hasn't gotten his bottle yet, I'm in the kitchen working to meet his need, but because of the level of his maturity he can only focus on himself and how he feels. But if he would only stop crying and open his eyes he would see me working on his behalf.
Matthew 7:11 (Amplified Bible)
11If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and [b]advantageous things to those who [c]keep on asking Him!
Thinking about how much I love this boy and how important meeting his needs is to me, it always make me think of my heavenly Father and much greater His capacity to love is and how much greater His resources are.
It would be very interesting if we would focus less on our own need and more on Him...what would we see.
