Celebrations...

Hi!

I am running behind this week as we have spent seven of the past 14 days gone from home and we leave tomorrow to go pick up Jon's mom who has been visiting her daughter the last two weeks.

This past weekend we were invited to two celebrations. The first one was a graduation celebration. Jon was asked by the graduating class at Heartland Christian School in Colby, KS to be their comencement speaker. It was so fun to see Hannah's friends who were just in grade school six years ago, graduate. Jon shared a powerful message on God gives us four gifts and with those four gifts we have responsabilities. The first gift is His word, the second is Salvation, the third is His prescence in the life of the believer and the fourth is the calling on a believer's life. The three responsabilites in response to these gifts are 1. Dedicate ourselves to God and His Word, 2. Dedicate ourselves to Godly Living, 3. Dedicate ourselves to Godly Ministry.

It was a good reminder for me. Sometimes I can get so caught up in the day to day things that keep me so busy that I don't take the time to think or even thank Him for the gifts He has given to me.

The second celebration was a 25th Wedding renewal of their vows ceremony of some of our dear friends. Their eldest son who is a Sr in Bible College preformed the ceremony. What a joyous occasion to see a couple who are still in love after all these years. The vows they wrote were different than the ones they wrote many years ago, but they were written about what they had learned about one another hrougout these past 25 years. I had tears streaming down my face because far to often today couples are selfish and walk out on this covenant relationship before God. Jon and I do alot of marital counseling in our ministry. We hear alot of he said she said ugly stuff. Very rarely do we hear the good stuff, the stuff that you overlook because you love the other person, the stuff that says I'm sorry or will you please forgive me. The stuff that can hold a marriage together even during the trials of life. That is the stuff we heard last Sunday afternoon. Jon and I will be married 20 years this summer and I can truly say that I love him more today than the day I said I do so long ago. That is the good stuff!

Hope you have a great week and that you will find Joy in your journey.

Blessings,

Deb