1. Do what you say you will do
2. Follow Christ

3. Own it

Many times when we venture into something new or different we kind of half hearted go into it. In order to gain full support from your spouse in anything you need to own it. You need to spend time preparing, know details, have a plan and mostly, you must buy in!

If want a new shirt what do you do? You go to the store and buy the one you want. But before you go to the store, more than likely you probably have an idea of what kind or style of shirt you want to buy, you probably have a budget in mind and most likely you know what store(s) you will go to in order to buy the shirt.

What happens if you don't know these things before going to purchase the shirt? You go to a ton of stores, spend a ton of time, spend more money than you originally wanted to, and probably get more than one shirt- shirts that you didn't necessarily want.

To get the shirt that you want you have to own it before you ever get to the store. When you own it before you get there you know it when you see it. You will stay in your budget, you have spent less time and frustration. Overall your experience of getting a new shirt will have been lovely.

Same thing goes in any area of your life. You have to own it before you ever pursue it. You have to own it before you ever present it. You have to own it before you go for it. If not, you will never get it. And you certainly won't gain support from your spouse.

You spouse wants to see that you have taken all the appropriate steps in you plan. You spouse wants to see that you have a plan. How can you expect support from your spouse if you don't even fully support yourself?

Do what you say you will do. Follow Christ. Own it!

2. Follow Christ
Seek after God's heart every day, this will give your spouse assurance.

Following Christ is more than telling God what you want and asking Him to accommodate. To follow Christ is to seek Him, know Him and be obedient to everything He says.

Your spouse wants to see that your relationship with Him exists. Don't begin getting up early and waking your spouse to let them know of what you are doing. Allow Christ to consume you to the point where it is obvious.

Take your plans, visions and aspirations to God. Ask Him for clarity, ask Him to confirm to you that this too is His plan, ask Him to give you guidance.
This is more important than you may think. See, God holds the whole universe, nothing happens without Him knowing or being a part of it. If you shoot off into some new plan you have created and God is not in it, nor does He approve. This could mean devastation for you. This could also mean devastation for your relationship with your spouse.

On the other hand, if you seek God's heart on your plan, and He blesses it. Go for it!

In summation: Your spouse wants to see your intimate relationship with Christ, they want to know that you are having faith in Him not just in you. They want to know there is more behind this than just some idea you had.
If you're not following Christ yet, today is the best day to start. If you don't know how, shoot me a message I'd love to help you.

Support from your spouse is hinged on your obedience to Christ.

A few days of no blogging = well, I guess it = a few days of no blogs. Anyway, I am back.

We just came through the Thanksgiving holiday, what a great time! I got to smoke the turkey for my family this year - that was great. We had my sister and her family in from FL, everyone came to my house - wonderful!

We sat in a circle after lunch and and told what we were thankful for. Of course, all of us could have gone on and on but we kept them short and sweet. I mentioned my thankfulness for my wife who loves and supports me even in my wildest dreams and aspirations.

The most interesting thing about my wife, anyone for that matter...they have a choice, they don't have to support you.

Here are 3 ways to gain your spouses support:

1. Do what you say you are going to do.
"I'll take the trash out after dinner." "I'll take the kids to practice." "Yeah, I'll do a couples Bible study with you."
These comments barely touch the surface of different commitments we make to our spouse.

If you say you are going to do something, do it!
You said you would take the trash out after dinner and now it is the next day, the trash truck has already came and your trash is stacked up. Now, your spouse is mad. It is this kind of failed commitment that ruins your chance of the "bigger" ones.

When we get down to it on this taking the trash out issue. Not only did you fail on a commitment but you lied. You said you would do it and you didn't. That is a lie.

How can we expect support if the spouse doesn't even have a reason to beleive us?

In doing what we say we will we earn trust which in turn will give us support.

Next time your spouse doesn't support your absolutely crazy idea or plan, check the amount of trash stacked up in your garage.

As a Christian I have been called to represent Jesus. Is that it? Just represent Him? Nope. I have been called to something more than just representing Him. I will tell you that in a minute, first let me explain "representing Jesus".

Represent: "To present the likeness of" (dictionary.com).
As a Christ follower it is our job to represent Christ. To show Him through us. This can be very hard at times. Sometimes it is hard to represent Christ when someone says something rude to us or cuts us off in traffic. Sometimes we simply choose not to represent Christ because it may be easier the other way.

On the other hand, representing Christ can be made so much easier. Don't! Yup, that's what I said. Don't represent Him. I will explain: In John we are told that if we keep His words He will make His home in us. We see in this passage that Jesus lives in us and it is because of Him that we live. So, my statement comes from this thought. If Jesus makes His home in us then we don't need to try to represent Him. We need to live, and the only way we can live is through Him. He is our life.

Now I sound like some seminary graduate...confusing. Allow me to simplify: When you wake up, give you day to Jesus, remember that He lives in you, allow Him to be in control. You will naturally represent Jesus as He is living through you. How about that?!

Now, what is that other thing I have been called to do for Jesus? Rock and roll for Him! Nope, I'm not in a rock band. I just like that term. I have been called to rock and roll for Jesus- Abide in Him, allow Him to manifest Himself in me and rock for Him!

We have many different things we can be passionate about. When we are passionate about something we rock it! We need to get passionate about Jesus and rock and roll for Him. Or, as my favorite saying goes...we need to "shake and bake" for Jesus! How about we put them together and make it that much more serious? We need to rock and roll and shake and bake for Jesus!

Are you doing this? Today, let Jesus live through you. Live loud! Rock and roll!

I have been doing a few projects around the house these past few days. One that has made a pretty big impact in my life is a shelf I was to re-paint.

Let me tell you about this shelf. It is a basic shelf, maybe around 48" square. We keep it in our living room decorated neatly with books, pictures and toys. Very nice. Mindy has had this shelf for a long time...I have no idea how long, just a long time. Mindy painted the shelf brown about a year and a half ago, it looked nice. Now, we are transitioning to more black than brown, so that's right, time to go black.

We decided it would be best to strip it as it has been painted several times and wasn't looking as good as it could. Bad idea! I have been working on this for a few days in my spare time. It is very monotonous and tedious, sometimes I don't feel like I am getting anywhere. Thankfully, I think that I might have it done today! Hopefully!

Thinking about this shelf I am reminded of us...people, especially Christians. Like the shelf, in the beginning we looked good, we were smooth and new. After a few re-do's to fit in better we began to look old and used, maybe even a little sloppy.

This shelf has taken many applications to get all of the old paint off. It has taken a lot of scraping and sanding. It has taken a lot of patience and a lot of work. Does this sound familiar? This is us! As people, especially Christians we can get to the point where we need to be stripped. We need to get all of the old life off of us and start all over. This process hurts, it is monotonous, pain staking, and hard.

As I near the end of the stripping process and look forward to the painting process. I am reminded that we need too will have an end to the stripping time. It doesn't last forever!

Maybe you are in a season of life where God is "stripping" you of all of your old life and ways. Be comforted, you will soon be to the point where He can begin creating you again!

Maybe God is not stripping right now but needs to. Ask Him to, then prepare for it, He will do it. The process will not be fun, but the final product will!

Maybe you have been stripped and re-painted already. You should hold fast in this time, keep yourself clean, don't allow unnecessary coats of paint. Stop and remove them as they come. Maintenance is a lot easier than demo. Trust me!

Sitting on the edge of your seat. Palms sweating. Beads of sweat form on your forehead. Your heart beats increasingly faster. The time gets nearer. The excitement rises. The anticipation builds deep within your soul. Ah! You could almost scream with all of the pressure building within.

A new adventure. A new journey. A new challenge. Better than any high. I live for this!

Sitting in the same place or position for too long is boring. I have to move. Dressing a certain way, doing the hair a certain way...it has to be changed. Style cannot remain the same. Some may call this ADD, I have no clue. I just know that I love starting, changing and creating! I call all of this living!

Why do I speak of all of this? I am there. Itching for the next thing. Itching to re-create, itching to change, itching to be doing what I feel like God is telling me to do.

I don't call this ADD, I call this living! For me, being content and successful is being right in the middle of God's will at that very moment.

Are you in the center of God's will? Or are you sitting on the edge of the seat?

Every Monday morning after breakfast and before I leave for the office I would take the blue Rubbermaid trash can full of trash from my garage down to the street. After the trash was removed we would bring it back into the garage.

All was normal...until several Monday's ago. I took the can down and went about my routine. Later that day Mindy saw it turned over and empty but she was not able to bring it back in yet. As I returned home I did not see our trash can, I opened the garage door and still nothing. "It must have blown down the street" I thought. "But why aren't the neighbors cans blown over and around?" I looked down the street and saw nothing. I looked between houses, in my back yard and found it no where. So, I asked Scott (my boss who lives one street over) if he stole it. As you would probably expect, that was absolutely preposterous to him! He'd never thought of such a thing. I have even watched all of my neighbors cans to see if they snatched it. They didn't.

Now, several weeks have gone by and we have been without a trash can. It has been OK, we simply set our bags of trash by the curb for the trash men to pick up. It has worked. But every Monday I think about the mysterious disappearance of our trash can.

Until yesterday! Monday night Mindy said that she saw a can turned over that looked exactly like ours in our next door neighbors driveway. She was so suspicious she even went and looked at it. Sure enough, exactly like ours, only it was dirty, like it had been used for construction debris or something. Well, this aroused my curiosity! My neighbor doesn't even use a trash can and has not since ours went missing. She didn't even have one out that morning! I wanted to assume that it was our can and bring it home but I didn't.

Tuesday morning- early- I was in the garage on the treadmill and heard some bustling outside of my garage. I simply thought it was the wind- no big deal. After I got done with my work out I opened the garage door and there it was...that blue Rubbermaid trash can and lid leaning between the back of my car and my garage door.

It has been returned!!! Immediately I recognized this to be the craziest thing that has ever happened to me! Someone stole my trash can, used it for several weeks, and brought it back!! How crazy is that?! Will they steal it again? What made them steal it in the first place. It's not like it was expensive. Why that one? Why not a nicer one like my neighbors that has wheels? Who knows!

If I had the number for Shurlock Holmes I would call him. Most importantly, I can rest knowing that my trash can is back, safe and sound.