Life Right Now...

One thing I love about teaching school is the time we have off. Whether it be in the summer, Labor Day, or the Christmas holidays, it is so refreshing to have time to play with my boy, Price, and spend time with Lauren. Speaking of refreshing, I am listening to a sound outside that I have not heard in months...RAIN!!! The experts say to expect 3-6" of rain in our area, however I am just enjoying seeing a cloudy sky with rain drizziling down. Thank you, Jesus!

Here is what is going on with my family right now...

I have to give Price speeding tickets these days for crawling too fast. He finds something to grab onto and pulls himself up, then gazes around to see if we are watching. Now he is trying to take a couple of steps as he lunges toward his next target. All of our friends say, "Knock him down and keep him on the ground," but he refuses to stay on the ground. He is growing up quickly, and I am enjoying being at home in the afternoons to watch him grow.

Lauren and I are also in the process of trying to sell our house. It has been for sale for almost a year now, but we have constantly asked God to send us a buyer who will replace us as a Christian role model for our neighbors. We also took some time last night to cruise around on the west side of town and see what kind of houses are for sale. We saw a few, but nothing in our price range. That is where we are completely trusting God to do something IMMEASURABLY MORE than what we are asking or imagining. This is the part I love about being a child of God, the part where I know He is in control and there is nothing I can do about it. My job is to pray and seek His will, and know that He is going to provide for us. My mom always made us make out a list of things we wanted to see God do and then pray about it. I remember when we first moved to Cartersville we were living in a rental house and we were looking at different houses. My mom sat us down and we made a list of what we wanted in a house. Of course all of the things we wanted seemed out of reach, but God gave us every item on that list and more. That was the first time I saw the power of prayer, not that we asked and it was given to us, but that we asked, believed, and God provided in a powerful way. This time as Lauren and I have the chance to teach Price how to pray (when he is old enough to understand), we want to look back and show Price how we asked God to provide and He gave us so much more!

Fall is in full swing and we have several things going on and coming up. Lauren and I each do a Bible Study with high school students. I do a guys Bible Study on Monday afternoons right after school, and Lauren does her girls Bible Study later on Monday evenings. We are currently doing a study called "The Best Question Ever" by Andy Stanley. The question is, "What is the wise thing to do?" It is a great time to learn to ask this question for these high school students, especially when they are dealing with temptations and peer pressure to drink, smoke, and have sex daily. And just because you are a born-again believer does not mean that you are immune to any of these temptations. Satan usually finds that loop hole in our lives and shoves that temptation right in our path. We are teaching our students the importance of reading God's Word and praying DAILY. Not a few times a week, but EVERYDAY! Satan loves it when we think we are doing our "Christian duty" by reading the Bible for 5 minutes and saying a quick prayer just to check off the "Quiet Time" box on our "To Do List". But let me tell you that God HATES it when we do that! He wants us to be soaked up with Him everyday, but we cannot absorbed with Him when we do not devote ourselves to reading His Word and praying daily. Please pray for Lauren and myself, as well as these teenagers, as we memorize scripture, read God's Word, and get on our knees and beg God to work in and through us!

Another big event coming up this October is "Fields of Faith". Cartersville High School hosted "Fields of Faith" last year and there were about 2,000 people that came and over 300 decisions that were made for Christ. Some were renewing their commitment to Jesus, and others were asking Him to take total control of their life for the first time. This year we will have students represented from all Bartow & Polk county schools, and about 10 students will share what their life was like before they met Jesus, how they met Jesus, and how God is working in their life right now. This will be held on Wednesday, October 19th at the Cartersville High School football stadium. The gates will open at 6:30pm and the testimonies will start at 7:00pm. If you live around this area, this is something you do not want to miss! (All ages are invited)

Like I said, there is a lot going on in our life right now, but we constantly pray that God will keep us on track with His will. I encourage you to study, not just read, God's Word daily and to earnestly seek Him who can do all things!