What a weekend! Bobby and I, and ten of our high school leaders took over 70 students up to the mountains for our yearly winter retreat. It was a great time just hanging out with students, learning from God’s Word, worshiping together, playing games and making a hilarious home video. My favorite part about the weekend was the messages Bobby preached from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

For some the concept of 24/7 Christianity was revolutionary. I find this all too common as we think that being a Christian is something we do, not who we are. You never clock out from being a Christian, you are “on” 24/7.

This passage gives three ways that a Christian lives–always rejoicing, always praying and always giving thanks. You can’t do more than always. This is the heart and mindset that God wants us to have–one that has complete confidence in His Word and fully trusts Him all the time!

***To see a small album of pictures from this weekend, click HERE!

It’s so sweet to walk into the living room and have your almost-two-year-old son say to you, “How are you, Mommy?” I said, “That’s so sweet, Tyler! I’m doing great, how are you doing?” “I’m good” he replies. He’s just too much!

We’ve been having incredible days with Tyler. Since he recovered from all the flu a couple weeks back he has made huge leaps in being able to communicate and play so interactively. These days he’ll just ask me, “Daddy’s at the office?” and when I say “Yes” he says, “He’ll be back soon!” And the other day while at the store I picked up a scented jar candle and opened the lid. Tyler wanted to copy my by smelling it so I held it to his nose. He sniffed and said, “Smells so good!” Hilarious!

When we play cars we don’t just roll them across the coffee table to each other, he has certain cars that are the “bad guys” and the red cars are always the “good guys” and he makes them chase each other around. I guess these might seem just tiny steps of development, but I was skimming my archives of this time last year and wow, Tyler has grown so much!

Some of Tyler’s favorite things nowadays are…

-Alphabet cookies from Trader Jo’s. I am amazed how into them he is, we sit with a handful and he loves trying to name the letters and sometimes gets them right!

-Auntie, Uncle and his three cousins! My older sister Alicia (with him in the picture above) lives close by and is a part of our church family. Sunday they babysat Tyler for a meeting Bobby and I had and it was the highlight of his weekend!

-Reading, especially lift-the-flap books. Pastor Pete and his wife Val gave us a box of wonderful books that their boys used to read and it’s been like Christmas all over again going through them.

-The fact that our passes to Disneyland have been unblocked from the holidays! Yesterday we spent the afternoon there with my sister and her family and had such a great time. It didn’t rain, there were no lines and parking was free. That’s all from my perspective, though. From Tyler’s it’s–Winnie the Pooh Ride, a Mickey lollipop and all the Christmas decorations still up.

Tyler is such a joy! With all these sweet days I have been thinking, too, about the importance of training him. It’s not just all fun and games. Bobby and I have so much to teach him and there is plenty of discipline, especially fuss admonition that goes on 24/7. We want him to be obedient, to us and to God. Now that’s a task.

This weekend Bobby preached from 1 Peter 1:14-16 the call to “Be holy, for I am holy.” (I hope you’ll listen to the sermon by clicking here!)I noticed that at the start of the passage, Peter exhorts the readers to be holy, appealing to them as “obedient children”. As Christians, we’ve been reborn into God’s family He is our Father and now that we are saved from sin we can be obedient to Him.

It really hit me that one of the best examples Bobby and I can live for Tyler is one of holiness because that is God’s standard. He is calling us to live holy lives, without making excuses and without lowering the standard. I would love for Tyler to be like his earthly father, but what I want him most to exemplify is how his daddy is striving to be like his heavenly Father. I always need to be reminded that my words and actions can display the gospel. So many people are looking on wondering if Christianity really works. One of those people might someday be Tyler. One of the main things I hope he will know is that Mom and Dad are obedient to their Father.

Last weekend my husband preached from 1 Thessalonians 3:1-8 in a sermon called “Encouragement Required: Building Each Other Up In the Faith.” (To listen to or watch this sermon please click here.) Many Christians view encouraging others as something that the “extra credit” Christians do. People act like saying nice things or a smile and wave is enough of a pick-me-up to be called “encouragement”. But the idea of really considering others and praying for for them before we see them and concerning ourselves with their struggles and trials seems like a whole new level of encouragement and maybe a lot of us tell ourselves–”I’m not gifted like that”. But there is not some special category of Christians who don’t need to be built up in the faith by others encouragement. This is a common deception.

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Hebrews 3:12-13

Every Christian is called to to be considering his or her brothers and sisters in Christ to push them on in the faith. It’s not optional and it’s not going above and beyond the call of duty. Encouraging others is expected, commanded and vital in the Christian life.

I was really motivated by this call to encourage, so I called up a bunch of high school girls and took a few out to lunch almost every day last week. My goal was to see how they were doing so that I could have more specific ways to build them up in the faith.

One night I took two girls to coffee and we talked for a couple of hours about how they could encourage their Christian friends. I didn’t have any paper so I grabbed two napkins and had them each write down the name of each friend and then we went down the list and thought of a specific way that they could encourage each person on the list. This was a spontaneous idea that I thought would help them and now I’m excited about doing weekly!

All I’m doing is in my notebook taking one page each Monday and just taking a few minutes to sit down and consider the people I know I’m going to see that week–students, friends, ladies at Bible study, or a babysitter–I write their name and then a dash and next to that I write one specific thing I will do that week to build them up. Many of them are as simple as a phone call, text message, e-mail, sending a card, inviting to lunch or just remembering to ask “How can I pray for you this week?” For some people it might be more involved such as writing out an appropriate verse on a card for them, getting a small gift to show my appreciation for them or helping another mom by watching her little one or giving a student a ride somewhere.

In Bobby’s sermon he reminded us that encouragement isn’t just a hug or a flowery Day Spring card. Encouragement is also coming alongside to admonish, keep accountable and sometimes give a needed “kick in the faith” for our brother or sister who is getting apathetic or is in sin. Bobby used the illustration of a spur and how when a cowboy gives his horse a nudge with a spur the horse gets going. Sometimes this is what people need. We need to make sure that we build others up with both sides of encouragement considering what their needs are.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Hebrews 10:24

We have so much opportunity to build up our brothers and sisters but we miss many of them because we don’t consider them ahead of time and think of tangible ways we can rise up to the call to encourage. I hope that you will take just a few minutes to think of specific ways to stir others up in the faith. Maybe this week you’ll even write down names of people you will see this week, consider what’s going on in their lives and how you can be a real encouragement to them as long as it is called Today!

Christian love…is not an impulse from the feelings, it does not always run with natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered…love seeks the opportunity to do good to all men…a practical love (one person to another).

W.E. Vine, quoted in The Excellent Wife, p. 83

In chapter 9 of Martha Peace’s The Excellent Wife she unpacks the meaning of godly love, presents three main hindrances to that love and compels Christian wives to heed the unmistakable command to love our husbands with a Biblical love. Martha has such a way of calling out the issues and excuses and then coming alongside with pointed Scriptures to get our focus on obeying God. It doesn’t always feel good as I’m reading it, but it almost always hits home with just what I need to work on in my role as wife.

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:34-35

We must love our husbands because all Christians are called to love others. There is an epidemic in marriages today where wives no longer feel “in love” with their husbands. No matter what he’s doing or how we feel we are still called to obey this command of love. As the first quote describes, godly love is not based on circumstances or feelings. Love is a choice and we need to make this choice every day toward our husbands. Choosing to love isn’t going to be easy and what hinders us usually falls into one of these three categories: selfishness, bitterness and fear. These three may be major struggles for some wives, but by God’s grace we can put off our sinful responses and choose to think and act like Christ.

In our hedonistic, narcissistic culture it is revolutionary to hear someone say, “Deny yourself.” “Put others first.” Yet, this is exactly what God tells us to do. It is a paradox. In other words, we have to do the opposite of what seems logical. Generally speaking, to have the happiness, joy and fulfillment you desire, you must put yourself aside and place God and others first. In regards to earthly relationships, you must put your husband first. In regards to your relationship with God, set your heart on glorifying God whether you ever have your way or not.

The Excellent Wife, p. 85

This quote was a major, much needed jab to the heart. I definitely get that I must deny myself and put others first. I grasp this Biblical command and strive for it daily. What really got me, though, was the last sentence. Peace’s admonition that my heart ought to be so set on glorifying God that it should not be an issue whether I get what I want or not.

Sometimes I find myself cycling through goals and prayers, wanting to be persistent and patient but always reaching a point where I start saying, “Lord, what is going on? Why hasn’t this changed? I don’t think I can go on like this!” Much like a two-year-old melt down, I reach a point where I stop obeying and instead of choosing to love I choose to sin, giving way to things like selfishness, bitterness or fear. But God does not want fickle ultimatums and prideful demands. He wants a selfless heart that is consumed with relentless devotion to His glory.

Choosing to love is not easy. We need prayer and accountability to change. At the conclusion of this chapter Peace encourages us to work on this diligently because learning to love will not just happen instantly. She urges us that, as the greatest commandment, putting on love “should be the character quality on which you work the hardest.” (p. 105) I hope this chapter recap has sparked some specific and concrete ways that you will work harder in your life to love your husband and others Biblically!

The sickness is over. The holidays are over. The blogging silence is over. I’m back!

After being sick for two weeks it’s hard to remember what it’s like to wake up feeling normal and have a productive day. The first day I did was amazing and today was the best yet. How fitting that it’s New Year’s Day! It feels like a fresh start all around!

Yesterday Compass had a New Year’s Eve service and it was an encouraging time to bring in the new year with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. During the service we shared communion together and Pastor Pete read from Romans 6. The passage focused my thoughts on communion because Paul talks about how we are no longer under the law but are now under grace, not slaves to sin anymore since we’ve been made slaves to righteousness.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:22-23

This passage and taking communion really struck something in my heart. I was thinking about how I was once a slave to sin, but because of Christ’s victory sin has no hold on me. I am bound to Christ and the pursuit of holiness. What a wonderful reality to consider on New Year’s Eve!

It’s so important to remember when you became a Christian and consider how we have grown spiritually since then. I find it beneficial to evaluate my growth at the end of the year and journaling or blogging can be so helpful for this!

If my almost-two-year-old had not gained any weight or gotten taller or developed any new skills since this time last year I would be terribly concerned. Why don’t we treat our spiritual growth that way? The Romans verses teach us that being a slave to God, being obedient to Him, reaps a benefit: holiness. The result of sin is death, but the result of being a slave to Christ is a life of righteousness. If we look back and see no growth in the year, we should be concerned.

In my husband’s sermon this weekend he compared saving faith to a gift that says on the box, “Some assembly required.” We love the idea that salvation is a gift from God, but sadly many people don’t realize that there is some assembly required…we are now slaves to God which means we obey Him. At the end of the year the Christian should be able to look back and see progression and growth in personal holiness.

Today I’ve been listening to a song by Matt Redman called “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.” The chorus reflects well my prayer going into this new year. I hope you’ve considered how you’ve grown spiritually last year and are renewed to keep living for His praise!

So what am I going to do with this life You gave me?
What could I do but live for Your praise?

You gave me this breath,
And You gave me this strength,
And every day I´ll live to obey You.
With all of my heart,
With all of my soul;
Let every breath I´m breathing display You God.