Upon The Rock

So yesterday was my 26th birthday. And a happy birthday it was! The day started out with church with husband (more on that later). We grabbed some KFC for lunch (we never eat fried chicken but we were both craving it. weird) then headed home. Chores for me and birthday shopping for husband was our afternoon plans then to round off a wonderful day, my parents, sister, best friend Abby, Josh and I grilled out, had lots of delicious food, and ate ourselves into a sugar coma from cake and ice cream. I was blessed with some wonderful gifts and wonderful time spent with family and friends. I can say that the highlight of my day was our church service yesterday morning.

I will say that included in all of my other daily prayers is one for husband to be the leader of our household. that’s not to say that he isn’t the leader but everyone can improve and I always pray for strength for him to make the best decisions and lead our family into the path that God wants for our life and our marriage together. It just so happened that the sermon yesterday was all about families, men stepping into their intended roles, and building a solid foundation for your family and home.

I left yesterday’s service craving more. I could have sat there for hours: learning, listening, praising, and worshiping. And I honestly think yesterday really spoke to Josh’s heart too. After we left he kept saying what an amazing service that was, such wonderful preaching. I just cannot say enough about it.

One thing that really drew me to our current church is the fact that our preacher doesn’t preach to win fans. he preaches what he believes to be the truth whether it offends people or not. and usually if I’m the one who is “offended” it’s because I’m not living my life the way I should be and him “calling me out” (not by name) but me knowing in my heart that I haven’t been living the way I should really keeps me accountable and I couldn’t ask for anything better.

I’d really like to share a few points that Pastor Phil shared with us yesterday:

>Outside all homes and families look very much the same but on the inside are so very different
>Every home faces problems and adversities, pressures from above (rain), below (flood), and around (wind)
>These storms will come against every home, Christian and non-Christian. Only one house survives the storm and it is the one with the foundation built on the Rock

How to ‘weatherproof’ your home:

>Communication: between husband and wife, between parents and children, between friends and family
>Moral Consistency: not just “do as I say, not as I do” – children (and I firmly believe adults also) would rather see a sermon lived out through someone’s life rather than hear one.
>Spiritual Foundation: it’s not material or financial, it’s spiritual. if a father is active within church the odds of staying in church as an adult is 80%. if it’s only the mother that’s active within the church that drops to 15%.

building the foundation of your home on the Rock is essential to a strong marriage and strong home to weather any storms that may come your way.

this message really spoke to Josh and I as we are always working to build a strong and stable home in which to bring children in to some day (next summer possibly? more on that in another post)