Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

My Dad has been gone now for 12 years but I think about him a lot. He was such a good man - a Godly man who worked all his life to take care of his family. My Dad never had much - at least in worldly goods - while he was living, but what he did have, he worked hard for and was grateful. I miss my Dad, and now my Mom - but I believe they're together again. And happy and peaceful together!

Jody is a father to our four children - a father who loves his children and always wants the best for them. He worked, and still works hard to provide a good life for them. It doesn't matter how old they are, or how far away they are, he will always be their father and will always be there for them! He's a great Dad and I know the kids him and I love him, too.

My gift to Jody will be different this year - it cost me nothing. It did have a price, but our Lord and Savior paid it - on the cross! My gift to Jody is my re-dedication to the Lord and to his teachings. It may not be the gift that Jody was expecting - but I pray it will be a gift that will be well received!

Jody and I have been married 18 years and in all of those years I have not been the wife to him that God wanted - that He commanded me to be to my husband! I have always loved God and I have always believed in His Word and believed that I was living my life in a way that pleased God, but I wasn't . . . . . and my eyes have been opened and I have asked God's forgiveness. And when Jody and I are alone later today I will ask his forgiveness as well.

22) Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23) For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24) Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Ephesians 5

Annie has shared with me the name of a very powerful evangelist that she and Matt met after Izzy's accident and also gave me a cd of a sermon taught by another pastor who teaches alongside this powerful minister of The Lord's Word. Thurman Scrivner is a man of God and someone I wish I had met, through his teachings, many years ago.

I ordered more teachings, on cd, by Thurman and have been listening to them in the car, as I drive back and forth to work each day, and at home as I work around the house or spend time on the computer:) and am learning so much that, even though I have studied and attended church my entire life, I truly never learned before in my studies! As I said, my eyes have been opened to many things in my life that are in direct opposition to His teachings, either because I have not taken God's Word to heart as literal teaching or because I never knew that these teachings were so powerful, so important and so attainable as they are and as they apply to my life today!

I know that I have not been the submissive wife that God commanded me to be during my marriage to Jody. Oh, I always consulted Jody on the big things - the things that I thought God would want me to let Jody exhort his authority over in our household. And in so doing, thought I was putting forth enough effort towards submission that God would still be pleased with me. I wasn't . . . . and I, in all honesty, knew it then and I know it now!

I never allowed Jody to be the head of our household, not really. In the discipline of our children, I also took over in that area early on, because I thought Jody was too harsh with the kids - that he didn't allow them to express any individuality! As you know when Jody and I married, I brought into the marriage an 8-year-old daughter and he brought into the marriage a 9-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old daughter. Jody's usual method of discipline when correcting the behavior of his two girls was to spank them. My method of discipline with my daughter was much different and, honestly, I never wanted him to spank my daughter. Not because I thought he would hurt her, but just because - even though I believe there are times that spanking is necessary - it was not something I used as the usual discipline on my daughter.

The first time Jody wanted to spank one of his girls after we married, I was upset and told him that I didn't want him to spank his girls anymore. I asked him to try other means of discipline - the same things I used for my daughter. He agreed that we would try it, but then when he tried to discipline, he would yell at the girls, which of course I didn't like either! My first marriage was a life of being yelled at, cursed at, hit, kicked, choked and even threats of being killed - all by a man who had promised to love me for the rest of my life! That life taught me that anger and yelling were two things I never wanted in my life . . . ever again!

I wanted our children to have peace and for our home to be a place they could be themselves, happy and calm and never being afraid that they would be hurt in any way - not physically and not emotionally. Well, in deciding all of that - by myself - and just telling Jody that is how it was going to be, I took from him one of the duties the Lord gave him as husband and father in our family. I was wrong!

I have rededicated my life to God and today I will rededicate myself to Jody - as a new and believing, faithful, Godly wife to my husband. I pray that this gift will be, to Jody, the best gift he has received to this point other than the gift given by God - the sacrifice of His Son for all of us who in no way deserve such a gift!

I love the Lord and pray that each day will now be a gift not only to me, but to my husband! That he will awaken each morning glad that I am his wife and go to bed each night happy that I am beside him.

4) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Corinthians 13

Happy Father's Day, Jody. I love you.