Practicing what I preach!

I have what most people would call a fairly boring routine in the mornings. I start my day one of two ways. If the girls went to bed at a decent hour the night before then I will wake up at about 4:30 am., spend 20 minutes in the shower and then poor myself a cup of coffee on the way out the door headed to the gym. If the girls did not get to bed at a decent hour then I will get up about 4:45 am., read my bible and then wake the girls up at 6:00. While they are getting up then I will listen to 88.7 where Dr. David Jeremiah comes on at 6:30am. During this rather monotonous routine the other day, I heard Dr. Jeremiah say this, "As a preacher if you are going to preach about something then you better be ready to experience it."

Well I have been making quite a big deal about "counting it all joy" as the Apostle James tells us to do in the book of James. I know that I am not a great preacher but never the less I have been shucking it about being able to count it all joy when we find ourselves in a time of trial or testing; knowing that those trials will bring forth a perfect or mature Christian. Well let me just say that the last 5 months or so have been quite the trial for my family and I: learning to balance schedules and family time; trying to know when to agree to participating in something and knowing when to just spend the time as a family. We have also been learning our new roles in the youth group. None of this has been easy and I don't think that we have gotten it all right, all of the time. Never the less I think that we have been able to say that we count are counting it all joy. Well that is with the church. My day job is a totally different story.

The past 5 months for me have a been a failure in this area of "counting it all joy" at work. I find it physically exhausting to be at work, and that is after 5 minutes of being there. Well today I was told that the job that I was promised that would facilitate my transition to working full time at the church has been taken away. Let me tell you that when I heard that "counting it all joy" was the last thing on my mind. Then what Dr. Jeremiah said came to my mind. Wow! What a hit in the forehead by the hand of God. When I got home I told my family about the trial that I was now facing and my eight year old immediately reminded me that it was my job to "count it all joy". WOW! Sometimes even eight year olds get it. Even when thirty year olds don't.

I know that we as a youth group have gone through a lot of changes this summer. Some of you are just absolutely tore up over them. I know this. My hope for you is that your Advocate knows what it is like to be separated from His world and to be placed here where He lived a perfect and sinless life so that you could have hope. I am praying for everyone one of you and I hope that you know that. I, in no way feel that I am smart enough, talented enough, or spiritual enough to lead you. My only gift is that the Lord has truly given me a love for you, and a desire to see you grow into Godly adults.

May the Lord grant us all the grace and the faith that we need to "count it all joy"!