The Preacher's Wife

Monday Morning (or Afternoon) Commentary

Its been quite a weekend!  We started off on Friday evening with a leadership commitment event.  400 of the leaders from our church gathered to give and pledge to our Kingdom Come campaign.  They really came through and lead the way in pledges and gifts that blew my mind!  Just the leaders pledged $1.5 million towards our first fruits offering this coming weekend.  Wow!

Then Saturday/Sunday we continued in our series with a practical and inspirational message by my husband.  I actually joined him on stage for a few minutes as he shared practically how to hear from God when trying to determine how and what to give.

I think many people think God will just magically give them a number out of the sky.  Practically, that's just not how it usually happens.  Each time my husband and I prepare a gift beyond our regular tithes and offerings, we sit down and look at our entire financial picture.

You can't make a pledge if you don't know how much is coming in and how much is going out.  If you desire to be generous, you must track every dollar that is spent.  You can make a pledge, but if you don't know practically if you have the money, all the good intentions in the world will not produce a gift.

After looking at our entire financial picture, my husband and I usually take our number, and increase it just a bit so that we give God room to provide in a special way and therefore increase our faith.

Each time it is equally difficult.  I shared yesterday that I often think about what I could buy if we weren't giving that check to the church.  The fact of the matter is, none of it is mine to begin with.  God has truly blessed me and my family and I have never given a penny that I wish I could have back.

I want to encourage each of you, whether you attend Elevation or not, to take an action step in saying no to the god of greed in your life.  Give, watch God increase you faith and multiply your gift to reach and help people who are far from Him.

You can listen to the message (Part 4 Kingdom Come) here later today.

Would you rather Christmas edition...

 
I love artificial Christmas trees.  There's something really soothing for me about the perfection of an artificial tree.  They are balanced.  Not too fat, not to skinny at the bottom.  No gaping holes with bare branches.  Their lights are perfectly spaced spaced out.  All of this comes together to make a tree that is very pleasing to my eye.  They also don't shed and you don't have to water them, bonus.

I know there are many of you out there that think it is an insult to Christmas to put up an artificial tree.  A downright crime.  Can it be Christmas without a real tree?  

Pictured left is my tree this year.  9 feet of black, red and silver perfection.  Most ornaments bought at (90% off but that's a totally different post).

Its your turn, I want to hear it... are you an artificial tree family or a real tree family?

The Joys of Boys

Its no secret that I am not a morning person.  Having babies really throws choice out the door so for the past 4 years, I have had to become slightly more of morning person by sheer force. 

However lately I have been getting spoiled as my babies are turning into boys.  The morning goes something like this... 6:45ish Elijah wakes up, gets in our bed and watches cartoons.  7:30ish, Graham starts calling so I send Elijah to get him.  They both join us in bed for cartoons/sleep.  Usually I drag myself out of bed and get the day started around 7:45-8.

Well today I had a rude awakening.  Literally.  I was quietly enjoying the bed all to myself (PF in ATL last night).  Our normal routine began around 6:45.  About an hour later, I awoke to Graham lunging towards me, trying to get away from  his brother.  He had a plastic dinosaur in his hand which made direct contact with my jaw. 

Good morning Mom.  Time to wake up.  Let me punch you in the jaw with a toy using all 30 lbs of my body weight.

Good morning children.  Time to get out of Mommy's bed.  The joys of boys.

Elijah's Cookie Exchange

Last week Elijah had a cookie exchange at his pre-school.   We made these.  They were super simple and really good.  They were really easy for him to help with too.  He was the sugar roller.

 

Here's the recipe I snagged somewhere online...

 

Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss Cookies

 

Ingredients

14 oz pack refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough

24 Hershey Kisses

¼ c sugar

 

Directions

Roll cookies into 24 balls

Roll each ball in sugar

Bake @350 for 8-10 minutes

Remove cookies from oven and immediately place one Hershey kiss in the middle of each cookie.

Enjoy!

Monday Afternoon Commentary

Yesterday we continued with our series, Kingdom Come.  My husband preached a challenging message on tithing and genersosity while eating a steak from Ruth's Chris (you'll have to watch it).  But let's just say, after preaching the message 4 times yesterday, I don't think he'll be asking for steaks for dinner tonight (or any night in the near future for that matter).

There were so many great points to the message.  Here were some of the highlights for me...

Throughout the scritpture, it is clear, God always gets the first and He always gets the best.  I  think in our culture, we give God our leftovers.  As if to say we don't trust that God will provide for all of our needs when we give to him first.  When we give what's leftover, we rob ourselves of the opportunity of allowing to meet our needs and grow our faith. 

Love will always take you farther than the law ever could.  Often people argue that tithing is Old Testament.  The funny thing is, these people are arguing that it is ok to give less than 10%.  When you love someone, you always go above and beyond the minimum requirement.

Giving is not a matter of scarcity, its a matter of priority and urgency.  So many people believe the lie that they do not have enough money to give to God.  God is not concerned about the amount of money that  you give.  He is concerned about the amount of priority that you place on your gift and the amount of scarifice it costs you whether that is $100 or $100,000.

When never ends and then never comes.  You will always have an excuse not to give.  Or as my husband said, you will always have an excuse for your apathy.

Generosity is not something God wants from you, its something God wants for you.  I can honestly say that we have been tithing since the day we got married and we have never a day where all of our needs were not met.  God has grown my faith through our giving.  I am continually reminding myself it all comes from him anyway.  And what better place to be obedient in giving than at our church where the money is going to reach people who are far from God.

You can listen to the message (Part 3 of Kingdom Come) here later today.  Hope you are having a great Monday!
 

A little marraige math

Confession:  I am a talker and I know it.

Anyone who knows me, knows this.

Sometimes I hear myself talking and I think to myself "Wrap it up, Furtick, you're dominating this conversation."

Sometimes I'm talking to my husband and I see this look on his face that says, "Man, I love her, I want to listen, but she just keeps going."  Poor guy.

Sometimes I start and I just can't stop.  Its like once I really get going, I have more and more to say.

Last night, on our date night, we ended up at Borders after dinner.  I picked up a book by Kevin Leman called Have a New Husband by Friday.  I am familiar with his parenting books and the title struck me as a bit insulting to the husband, so I picked it up.

He had a chapter on how to get your husband to listen to you.  He made this statement which really made sense to me...
    Think about what you want to say, and divide it by ten.

Now that's some great communication advice.

In summary, I'll leave you with this image...

Family Pictures

A few weeks ago, Cheyenne Schultz took our family pictures.  Here's a sneak peek...

 

A new system

Sometimes you just have to change it up, you know?  A few weeks ago, you saw Elijah describe our allowance-type system at our house (click here if you don't remember).  We started this system so that we could teach him about tithing. 

Recently he caught onto the concept of saving his money for a specific toy that he saw at a store.  He saw a toy at a store that cost $8.  He went home and together we counted his money.  He had $3.  For the next 5 days he was my star cleaner.  He was so motivated to get that toy.

I decided that $1 for cleaning up was too much for a 4 year old (although necessary to begin with).  I decided to create a chart that incorporated some of the other problem issues in our house, like having a good attitude or getting dressed with out help or whining (no whiners in your house, I'm sure).

So yesterday the teacher in me, aided by Microsoft Excel, created this nice little chart for Elijah.  At the end of the week, he gets a dime for every sticker he has.  And so far, there was a lot less cleaning on my part, coupled with a lot less whining and complaining on his part.

I know you can't see the picture very good but I created 10 opportunities for Elijah to earn a dime every day... Make bed, clean room, clean sun room, clean playroom, clear table, kind to others, good attitude, Bible verse (all he has to do is work on this, currently John 3:16, with his dad), hands to self, and get dressed.  Yesterday was his first day and as you can see, he did not score a perfect 10.  I even let him evaluate himself on hands to self, and he said he did not do that (Graham and I agree).

He won't always get a dime for making his bed, but we'll do that until it becomes habit then move on to something else.  I think change in systems is a good thing.  It gives everyone a new motivation. A few months ago, we were doing this.  Ask me in two months, and we may have abandoned this system altogether but for now this is what we're doing. 

How about you?  What are you doing, or have you been doing with your kids that works?

Book Review- Miracle at Tenwek

I picked up this book the last time I was at the Billy Graham Library.  I have this odd love for biographies, especially ones about missionaries.  Something about reading of the sacrifice of other Christians who made a huge impact on their world inspires me and encourages me in my own calling.

I happened to be reading this book while our team from Elevation was in Africa.  No coincidence I am sure.

Its a story about the life of Dr. Ernie Steury.  A man who served as a doctor at Tenwek hospital in Kenya for over 30 years.  While meeting the physical needs of the people in his area, Dr. Steury led thousands of people to Christ.  Each person who stayed at the hospital heard the gospel.  Under Dr. Steury's leadership, Tenwek hospital grew to become a huge facility with many programs to train and teach the Kenyan people about preventative health and wellness.  The ministry eventually became supported by Samaritan's Purse, the organization we are partnering with as a church.

This is a book about a man who surrendered his life to God, and was used greatly to impact an entire people group in a region of Kenya.  Their mission statement is "We treat, Jesus heals."  It is full of stories of sacrifice, disappointment, exhaustion, miracles and life change.  Now who wouldn't like that?

You can read more about Tenwek hospital here.

Monday Morning (or Afternoon) Commentary

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  We did. Since my husband did all the work for his message in Africa, we got to be a normal family this weekend.  We watched football on Saturday, went on a date, and then we got to go church together (in separate cars of course!) and for only one service on Sunday! 

The message was incredible.  Our video crew at Elevation could go up against any crew any day!  The footage they captured and then edited together was stellar!  It felt almost as if I had made the trip to Africa myself (minus the 2 full days of flying and coming home with a dusty suitcase)!

My favorite part of the message was when my husband talked about our response to what we have seen.  He said we can respond out of greed, out of guilt or out of generosity.  God has blessed us and I don't need to sit around and feel guilty that I was born in America.  I simply need to respond with generosity from the blessing God has given me.

And what better place to give my money than to the work of God at Elevation Church?  I know that my money will be spent wisely and given generously to those in need in Charlotte and across the world in Africa.

You can actually catch the entire service all this week, December 1-4 at 12 pm, 6 pm, and 8pm at Elevationchurchlive.com or you can watch the just the message here at our archives (Part 2 of Kingdom Come).