Am I the only one bothered by this?

So I’m in the mall the other day and need to ask the sales associate a question.

“Excuse me, ma’am?”

“Yes?” She replies, as she turns around to me. Much to my horror, she is wearing a shirt, similar to the one above with only a bra underneath… a see through one.

“Ummmmm,” I mutter while trying to remember my question and overt my eyes to the floor. Glad that my hubby wasn’t with me I leave the store embarrassed by what I’ve just encountered.

This incident along with some of my teen girls asking about how to dress modestly (and my research into answering their question from a biblical aspect and not just a personal preference.) Has prompted me to start working on a blog post and a Sunday school lesson(s) about Dressing Like a Child of the King.

If you knew me before I was married you would know that the area of dress has never been my strong suit. I’ve always struggled with trying to fit it, be in style, and be attractive according to the world’s standards. I grew up in a good church that taught on dress and having appropriate standards of modesty but I guess it never sank in or maybe I was too consumed with the lie the devil feeds us about beauty and how to achieve it. It was not until I got married, to a very loving and forgiving man, who helped me see the lie I had bought and who has also encouraged me to change my dress for the glory of God.

It is not easy for me to write on this subject because I feel so inadequate. But at the same time I know that God uses the inadequate and the broken so He can gain all the glory. I hope that you will pray for me and with me as I work on this subject and if you have any suggestions that may be a help I hope you will e-mail them to me or leave a comment for all to see and gain help as well.

Thanks in advance,

Bex

We’re Moving!

Yes, you read the title right, Kenny and I are moving South… waaaaayyy down south… Near Miami, Florida to be exact! Kenny has taken an Assistant Pastor’s position at Bible Baptist Church in Pembroke Pines, FL and we are super excited to start a new work/ministry in the deep south and continue Our Life in the REAL Big City!

The Lord has blessed us SOOOO over abundantly more than we could ever ask or think while we were in the process of making this decision! We had some pretty specific prayer requests (besides the usual doctrine, standards, etc.) we wanted answered about where the Lord would have us go, like:

• The Pastor/Pastor’s Wife. When your going to be working closely with someone, like Kenny and I would be in the ministry, we wanted to have almost a family-like relationship. For me, especially, being so far away from my own family this was super important to have a couple who would not just be a boss but a friend. This was answered the moment we met with Pastor and Mrs. Brown, we fell easily into conversation and I felt they really cared about us as a couple and not just what we could do for them and their ministry.
• Travel expenses to visit the church. In case you haven’t noticed, traveling right now can be very expensive whether you drive or fly. Obviously, that was answered, we were able to fly down after Christmas and spend New Years in Florida with our new church family.
• Finding housing for $1000. a month or less. Under this prayer request I had some even more specific qualifications: I wanted a yard – it didn’t have to be big or fancy but something for Bella (our dog) to run around in. Also, I wanted to NOT have a neighbor right behind our home – there’s nothing more nerve racking to me than to be completely and totally surrounded by other houses. And lastly, a washer and dryer in the home. After Pastor Brown announced that Kenny had accepted the position at the church a couple came up to him and told him that they had a town house that they would rent to us for $1000. a month. We went to look at it the day before we left and it had everything I had been praying for: a small yard, the back yard has a lake behind it so no neighbors and a washer and dryer in the garage (the garage is something Kenny had been wanting). Also, if that wasn’t perfect enough, the couple were going to paint the inside and change the flooring before renting it out so they let us choose our colors for the wall and preference on flooring type! I can’t wait to see the finished product when we get back down there.
• The feeling of “Home.” I don’t know if you’ve ever felt out of place but let me tell you it is not fun. I have shed many tears over not feeling at “home.” I can’t even explain to you what home feels like but when you find it, its the most wonderful, fulfilling feeling there ever could be. Kenny and I were sitting in the Sunday Morning Service after having taught Sunday School and done the music for the Service when I leaned over to Kenny and asked him if he was home. His smile, when he asked me if I was, gave me my answer. I’m tearing up right now just thinking about how wonderful that moment was to know in my mind and heart that Bible Baptist Church is where God wanted us.

A lot of people have asked us how we are going to deal with living in Florida, the cultural differences, the language barrier we are bound to face at some point and just being so far away from our families. My answer is: when you’ve got specific answers to prayer like we have had, and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is where God is leading you, all of those things don’t really matter in comparison!

So let the “Flor-idiot” jokes begin because this little family is headed South!

Special Blessing

I wanted to share this real quick. I ran across a blog called “The Better Mom” while I was looking at things on Pinterest that I’ve done to show you (tomorrow). Anyways, I decided to follow it for a while to check it out and see if it was something I’d be interested in staying with – my disclaimer – I have not read all the content on this blog, and therefore by sharing this one post I read I am not necessarily endorsing or recommending this blog as a “Good Read” quite yet. – disclaimer finished! :) whew now on to what I wanted to share.

Some of you know that Kenny and I have had a rough couple of weeks. Its been an emotional time of testing and uncertainty for both of us and I would ask your prayers on our behalf as we have some big decisions to make in the coming weeks. (If you do not already know our situation I would like to politely request that you not ask questions but rather keep us in your prayers knowing that God knows what we need. Thank you in advance.) As I was saying before, I ran across this blog and read one of the posts for today. if you would like to read the whole thing you can follow this link. It was a very good, and to the point post that was worth reading.

The writer of the post was quoting a paragraph from a book she was reading called “Dancing With My Father” by Sally Clarkson (Again, I have not read this book myself but merely received a piece of comfort from this excerpt).

To dance in the midst of terrible suffering is to resolve, “I will not be a victim. I will not allow this situation to determine the response of my heart, because I have this life, this chance to trust God, to show his reality through my circumstances. I resolve to remain strong and faithful because of the loving God who holds my hand.” ~Sally Clarkson, Dancing With my Father

That thought “I resolve to remain strong and faithful because of the loving God who holds my hand.” it makes me continually think “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” – Hebrews 13:5. God has not left us to go through this trial alone, He’s been there all the time and will continue to be here, with us.

The other encouragement from this; my role in the situation at hand and the ones that will come in the future is to resolve “…not to be a victim. I will not allow this situation to determine the response of my heart, because I have… this chance to trust God.”

Bex

Thankful Thursday – Laugh-a-ble Moments

We’ve been rather busy this week with the teens and getting ready for RU Sunday, I’ll tell you more about that later. Today I’m thankful to be married to a man who will do silly things if it will bring a teenager to church.

Kenny, recently has started growing a “goatee” just for something different.

Here he is with his brother Wesley, so you get the basic picture of what that looks like.

Kenny has started going on Tuesdays and Thursdays to the high school during their lunch period to sit with our teens, meet their friends, check up on what they’re doing, how their day is going, etc. Brandon, one of our teens we hadn’t seen in a while came over and started joking about Kenny’s goatee, telling him he should shave it all off and just leave a “soul patch” – a small triangle patch of hair under the bottom lip. Kenny told Brandon that he would do it IF Brandon came to church Wednesday night.

Well… Brandon came to church :)

it took a couple tries to get a “good” picture…

It also took A LOT of begging to get him to let me publish the pictures on here :)

Kenny is going to see the teens for lunch today and show Brandon his soul patch. Then, he said, he was “shaving the rest of it right off!”

I know this is kinda silly but we love our teens and we’ll do silly things sometimes if it means they come to church and hear God’s word.

*If you think about it, some of our teens don’t have the best home life. Please pray for them to be faithful so Kenny and I, along with the Church can show them the love of Jesus and hopefully give them a safe place to get away from the stresses of everyday life for them. Thank you.* 

Thankful Thursday - Kenny

  Today I am very thankful for my hubby, Kenny, but I am even more thankful for what God is doing in him right now. Kenny just got back from a Bible Conference in California with a new energy for God that has encouraged and inspired me as well.

Yesterday our pastor went with  another man from our church, Jay, to witness to Jay’s dad. On their way back the car broke down and Kenny got the phone call that he needed to preach the main service. (By the way, Jay’s dad got saved!!!) Kenny had already prepared a message for the teens called “Stand up for Christ, or Shut up for Satan.” With our teens getting ready to start back to school in just 3 weeks Kenny has started a series to encourage them to do right and to stand for Christ when  temptations come. Since we were in with the adults Kenny also talked to the parents about being an example to their kids by reading their Bibles and making church a priority.

Kenny’s new passion for our teens has spurred even more fervent prayers on my part for camp next week and for the weeks to follow that we would be able to see more teens come to know Christ as their personal Savior and follow Him with all their hearts.

I hope you’ll be praying for us!