I titled my blog Living by Grace as a Woman, Wife, and Mommy; so how fitting to talk about being a wife with Father’s Day coming up.

My husband and I have been married for 12 years. We have been blessed with two amazing sons and suffered a miscarriage during these 12 years. We have had incredible highs, and some lowest of lows; but one thing I know for certain, is that I have a great man of faith as the leader of our household.

Jason, did not sign up for this blog, and he did not sign up for the journey God is taking me on. He has had some hesitation and some valid concerns; ones that I did not consider when diving into this. I am being transparent about my life, my struggles, and joys and all those thing involve my husband and our family; and yet, he is stepping out in faith and being the husband Ephesians 5:25-28 says he should be:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”

I hit rock bottom a few years ago, and Jason refused to leave my side. He leaned on Jesus during that time, and prayed diligently for me and our marriage. He  forgave me over and over and extended more grace to me than I deserved. He modeled what true forgiveness and unconditional love was, and made me a stronger woman, wife, and mother in doing so.

“If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent-not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.” -2 Corinthians 2:5-7

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.'” -Matthew 18:21-22

This is the forgiveness that Jason extended to me. He became my rock, and God used him to lead me back to Him and my marriage.

I could not ask for a better father for our children. I thank his parents for that. His parents have been married for over 50 years and have raised 8 children, Jason being the youngest. The amount of love and respect he shows his parents is one of the many things that attracted me to Jason 16 years ago. I came from a divorced family and with that came a different perspective on marriage and family unity.

Jason is an ever present father. He loves his boys and shows affection to them daily. He has the right balance between fun and discipline. He currently is working two jobs to provide for them and me. Our boys respect their daddy, and think he is the funniest and goofiest man on the planet! The best way to describe what type of son and father Jason is, is through scripture:

“Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’-which is the first commandment with a promise-‘that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’ Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” – Ephesians 6:1-4

Jason, thank you. I don’t say that often enough. I sometimes feel that you don’t give yourself the credit you deserve; and I realize that is because you are a man of humility and incredibly selfless. You are like your father in that way. I know sometimes you doubt your faith and if you are “living up” to expectations. That is why I am dedicating this post to you. You are being the man God is calling you to be by your actions, support, unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace that you extend to all of us. Thank you for showing me what family means, thank you for modeling what a man of strength, faith, and character looks like to our boys, and thank you for making me a better woman by your leadership.

I love you. Happy Father’s Day.

By His Grace,

Your wife, Misty

I’ve been sitting at my computer since I woke up this morning. I have made several posts in my FB women’s Bible study group regarding our current study, and I was still being lead to share a video. A video about the recent events in Orlando; and now I am still being lead to share here at my blog.

I keep asking myself “Why does this keep happening in our country?”, “How can someone have that much hate in their heart?” My heart aches for Orlando, those whose lives were taken by this murderous act of hate, and their families who are mourning the loss of their loved ones taken by this senseless act. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

My heart also aches for our country. I can not go through my news feed on social media without seeing the negative rhetoric between “friends” and “family” regarding the upcoming election.

Is this one of the reasons acts of hate keep happening? Are we too focused on being right and having all the answers that we forget that we are all human beings. No one is better than the other, we all are flawed…what happened to respect?

I am a Christian and I believe that we are all children of God…ALL children of God. That is hard to accept in light of recent events. I believe that those who deny God, those that commit these heinous crimes, those of every faith and religion, those of every color, those who live a lifestyle different from mine…are all children of God and our loved by God. Our Father wants nothing more for each of us to desire a relationship with Him and there is nothing we can ever do to cause God to not love us.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 8:38-39

When is enough….enough? Do we, as a nation, have to continue to see day after day murder, terrorist attacks, hate crimes before we “get it”?? Do we have to continue to tear each other apart based on religion, lifestyle, race, gender and create another civil war before we stop? If you say you are a Christian, then I strongly encourage you to take a good look at what you  type before clicking that post button..take a good look at your heart before speaking those words to your loved one.

God commands us to love one another. We, as a nation, have to learn how to forgive those who do these acts of hate, we must learn to pray for our enemies. We must remember that we are all His children. We must start looking to the one who created us in His image and start showing His love in actions. Stop with the faith/religion bashing, stop the lifestyle/gender hate, stop with the political hate spewing that isn’t helping our country…JUST STOP! Remember the two greatest commandments…

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ “-Matthew 22: 37-39

By His grace,

Misty

My day started off fantastic. This week is our church’s Vacation Bible School. I have been leading the music portion of it and the kids were amazing today! Especially the younger children. I am amazed at how tuned in they are and how joyful they become when they sing songs about Jesus.

I come home to start my grocery list, but first I thought I should check my bank account….$48.oo…that’s it?! I immediately start to panic. “I thought we had at least $200!” “How am I going to feed my family of four for over a week on $48?? I then call my husband and he reminds me of some cash we hadn’t deposited yet; I start a sigh of relief but that is cut off when I realized the water bill is due in a couple days. Oh…and lets not forget that we just had to buy a vehicle because ours went on us and we now have that payment to prepare for…

This has been our life for the last year and a half. We start to get ahead and then life happens. We try to establish a savings and then our a/c goes out…on and on and on. The biggest problem isn’t because we are one income; our problem is our habits…we go off emotions. We see families taking their children on these amazing vacations and we somehow convince ourselves that our children will resent us when they are adults because we didn’t take them on an extravagant vacation. We choose to go out with friends, knowing we don’t really have the money that week, because we are afraid they will stop inviting us. Then, when we hit rock bottom financially, we ask “How did this happen?”

It happens because we allow ourselves to believe that “more stuff” is what will make us happy. It happens when we don’t seek God before making huge financial decisions. It happens when we start believing that what God has blessed us with…isn’t enough.

The truth of the matter is that we have lived like this for a year and a half, and yet, God has provided. That provision has come in many forms: family who had abundance and wanted to share, reimbursement check we weren’t expecting, a commission that was bigger than expected. During these times I need to focus on Jesus. Release my burdens to Him and remember that he can take what little we have and multiply that in a way I can’t even imagine. As I was typing this, I started thinking about when Jesus fed the five thousand. All they had were 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Jesus blessed what they had and they fed 5,000 men, besides women and children, and had leftovers!! (Matthew 14:13-21)

Jesus, I lift up my $48.00. I pray for your blessing over what you have given my family. May I trust in you Lord, that you will provide. In Your name, Amen.

ByHisgrace,

Misty