Today We Celebrate You, Russell!

Tweaked and re-posted because I felt it needed repeated!  :-)

Today is that special day when we celebrate  Russell!  46 years ago, he came into this world with a passion and a purpose that has never stopped.  I'm told how his enthusiasm, his sense of humor and his love for our Lord began at a very young age.

How he would stand on the side of the road outside his house, with a Bible in his hand, and "preach" to the cars going by.  How he would carry his tape recorder around recording himself singing and telling jokes and then play them back, annoyingly, for his entire family - over and over AND over.

There are stories of catching the back yard on fire, while attempting to help his dad kill fire ants.  Stories of jumping off the roof with an umbrella like Mary Poppins, to see if it would slow down his fall.  (He says it worked!)  Stories of breaking the stained glass windows in his dad's church with a rock (on accident) and of sneaking off to downtown St. Augustine on his bike while his parents were at work, and being hit by a red tourist train! (Obviously he wasn't seriously injured).

I could go on and on - but I'm sure if you asked him, and got him started, he could tell you so many more.  I hear these stories and I laugh, but I also see how the Lord continues to use all that passion, enthusiasm and creativity in his life and the lives of those he ministers to today.

One thing that many do not know about my sweet husband is that he was born with a cleft pallet and had to have surgery when he was a baby.  Fortunately, it didn't extend to his upper lip, like most do, but did give him a hole in the roof of his mouth and caused a speech impediment which put him through years of speech therapy.  By the time he was nine, he was struggling in school, was tested and the teachers told his parents that they should find a trade school for him because he may not finish High School and he definitely wouldn't make it to college.

When he was 16 and at Youth Camp, he heard God's call on his life to ministry.  He came home, went back to school and asked the principal if he could have a room each morning before school for a Bible Study.  When I first met him, 28 years ago, he was sitting at a table, teaching through the book of John to his peers.  He has been leading ever since.  He finished High School, he not only finished four years of college, but three years of seminary to earn his Master's Degree.  He came back to the Jacksonville area, got his first full time ministry position and pursued me until I finally gave in.  

Oh how thankful I am for this man. I know that he was created just for me.  God creates all of us for a purpose and it's fun to look back over his life and see how everything has prepared him for where he is now.  He loves the Lord, loves his family and he loves the church.  He is kind and sensitive to others and he desires to lead them to a closer walk with Christ.  He is spontaneous, creative and did I mention enthusiastic and passionate?  He is human, he struggles with things like all of us, but he doesn't hide that.  He is real, he is honest and he is a man of great integrity.


I simply could not imagine my life without him!

I admired Russell's qualities long before we were ever serious.  I even told him one night on the phone, in an effort to encourage him, that he was going to make someone a wonderful husband someday.  And I really believed that!  I just had no idea it would be me!  Turns out that I'm the lucky one that got this man and all of his wonderful qualities.

I can't even begin to tell you what I like most about him.  He is everything I ever prayed for and more.  Even before he was born God knew he was my husband.  God has great plans.

Russell - today I celebrate you!

• I am so thankful that your parents were surprised by your presence because God had to add one more to  their family. 

• I'm thankful that you moved to Orange Park and had the passion to start a Bible Study in our High School where you and I would meet.  

• I'm thankful for the 10 years of solid friendship we shared before we ever began dating.  

• I'm thankful that I am that woman that benefits from all of your wonderful qualities. 

• I'm thankful for your passion, your sense of humor, your serious side, your sensitivity, your complexity, your easiness.  

• I'm thankful for you spontaneity, your sense of adventure and your desire to sit at home and do nothing.  

• I'm thankful for your leadership, for your quirks, for the way we can finish each others thoughts. 

• I'm thankful for the way you love people, for your compassion and your mercy. 

• I'm thankful for your doubts and your fears because I know you are real. 

• I'm thankful that you are always three steps ahead of me and are ever so patient while the Lord works in my life to get us back on the same page. 

• I'm thankful for the two beautiful children you have given me and for the way that you love and lead them. 

• I'm thankful that you love our Lord more than you do me because then you love me even better. 

• I'm thankful for your prayers, your faithfulness and your trustworthiness.

• I'm thankful for your restlessness and your desire to just be.

• I'm thankful for your tenderness, your listening ear and your desire to do whatever it takes to provide for us.

I'm just thankful for you.  Everything about you.  You were meant specifically for me.  I know this is your birthday - but many people have been blessed because you were born.  Thing is - I made out the best!


You have continued to use your gifts and talents that the Lord has given you for His glory.  Your desire to serve and obey our Lord is contagious.  You are my love, my husband and my best friend.  Apart from salvation - you are my greatest gift!   I love you more than you know.  Here's to celebrating many more years of "you".......

Happy Birthday, my love!   ~ Me

Big Lessons in Little Air Conditioners

It's been an interesting few days.  Russ and Jarod are out of town on a Youth Retreat and they took my van.  I've been driving around town in his car and of course, the day before he left, his A/C went out.  I mean out.  Nothing but HOT air!

I had to run errands yesterday and found myself with a short fuse and a grumpy attitude.  I was angry because I had to drive around town with no air conditioning in my car - in July!

Really?

God quickly reminded me of my friends in Haiti.  A/C is a complete luxury - even for the wealthier living there.  Electricity is so expensive and they are lucky if it even comes on part of the day.  The rest of the time, everything is run on batteries and an A/C pulls too much energy for that.  When the batteries die, you go to generator power and diesel is high priced as well.  Of course, the Haitians living in the villages, don't have electricity at all.

When I am in Haiti - the heat doesn't bother me so much.  I will say that I haven't been there during their hottest months but, yes - it's hot.  It's like July/August in Florida all year 'round.  This last time, I purposely wore long sleeved shirts and long pants the entire time, trying to protect myself from mosquitoes and the ChikV.  If the city power comes on at night, I do have A/C in my bedroom at the Guesthouse.  But the rest of the time, I just sweat glisten.

I spent an hour and a half sitting in this traffic in Haiti.  With no A/C - and I didn't get upset.  Because this kind of stuff is considered normal there.  If this happened here - I would have been on my phone - complaining to my closest friends about this nastiness!

So I had to ask myself - why can I spend a whole week without the luxury of A/C in Haiti and have a perfectly fine attitude about it but here in the U.S., I get angry because I have to drive around in a hot car?  We don't even have the dirt and dust here to contend with when the windows are rolled down.  Ok - so I did get behind a livestock truck on the interstate yesterday.  Being on the backside of several cows going down the highway at 65 is not pleasant.  But still - only temporary.  I was coming home to a completely cool and comfortable house.

I have to tell you - I did not like my answer.  What a dose of perspective.

There is something about going to Haiti.  You know it's going to be hard.  It's going to be hot.  That's just the way that it is and there is nothing you can do to change it.  And when you look around at the artisans and their homes.  How little they have and yet how content they are to simply have a sturdy shelter and food.  Being hot is the least of my concerns.  It's hard to be grumpy when people around you are in much worse conditions.


What it really boils down to is choice.  I choose not to complain or be angry.  I choose to accept it for what it is.  That choice is made before I even step foot off the plane and I don't really think about it again.  I go there knowing I will be "sacrificing" for the week and I just deal. 

I guess I can say the same thing about why I get angry here.

It's a choice.


I hate what that means. 

I hate what that looks like.

A mirror is held up and I have this ugly attitude of entitlement staring back at me.  I am inconvenienced.  I have to be hot.  I have to roll the windows down.  I NEVER roll the windows down.  I don't like the noise of other cars. I don't like how loud everything is.  I can't hear the radio.   I have to call the mechanic and take the car in.  I have so many other things to do with my time AND my money!  Who knows how much this will cost!  A/C repairs are NOT what I want to spend my money on.  Did I mention that I am hot?  I am sweaty.  I will not smell very nice when I arrive at my destination.

What a big, entitled, selfish, brat.

Now I am heart broken.

I've always been thankful that I live in America.  But sometimes, I wonder if it is a bigger curse than it is a blessing.  Many no longer understand what it is like to sacrifice - nor or we willing to learn. Everything is right at our fingertips.  We really do have more money than we know what to do with - or at least more "things."  What most people don't realize is that America really is the minority when it comes to the rest of the world and their living conditions.  Living in our culture only makes us crave more and more and more.  We are never content.  Always wanting the next thing.  And we want it NOW.  And when things don't go exactly as we think they should, and we are  inconvenienced - we throw temper tantrums.

What it boils down to is choice.  We can choose to make the most of the situation God has given us - no matter what happens.  Knowing that everything that comes our way passes through His hands first and has a purpose.   If we truly believe that then aren't our complaints really directed at Him?  How sinful and presumptuous is that? 

He sent me to Haiti.  Four times.  Without A/C.  I chose to deal.  I chose to ignore my lack of "comfort" and focus on those around me.

He sent me down Blanding Blvd yesterday.  Without A/C.  I chose to only see me.  I chose to focus on my comfort and ignore everything else around me.

I pray that He will continue to break my heart.  That He will empty it of "me" so that He can shine through more and more. That I will really see others around me everywhere I go - not just in Haiti.  That He will always increase and I decrease.  I pray that I will always be teachable.  Willing to look in the mirror and see the ugly thoughts, opinions and attitudes that need broken down and built back up by Him.

I am so thankful for big lessons in little air conditioners.  And for His constant grace and mercy on my life when I fail.

Until next time........