After grieving the fact that I wouldn’t be able to play football, I was ready to start my last year of school. I was ready to graduate and move on with life, whatever that meant. In the fall of 2007 I met Erin. By this time I had pulled myself together and was headed in the right direction, or so I thought. Erin and I got engaged January 31st and married May 30th. I was super excited about life. I found the girl of my dreams, someone that I knew would come along wherever God would lead us. Little did I know that about a year and half after that would be leaving the country for a year of traveling around the world as missionaries. So here we are wrapping up our 7th month of The World Race. I wanted to tell you a little bit about my past and how I got here. Now that you’re here and you know where I am, I can tell you what I’ve learned.
There were a couple sermons that I watched that encouraged me to suck it up and be the man that God wants me to be. Both sermons were about marriage. The first one was geared towards women, and it just really encouraged and affirmed me of how my wife deserves to be treated. The second one was geared towards men, and it pretty much called me out for all the things I haven’t been doing. If any of you are thinking that I’m being too hard on myself I want you to know that I’m not. I prayed about all this and God has spoken and told me what I need to hear. 1 Peter 3:7 says, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers man not be hindered.” I realized that my disobedience has hindered my prayers. If I’m not obedient to instruction that God has already given me, he’s not going to give me new instruction. I don’t believe that my works will change God’s love for me, but I do believe that disobedience hinders God’s blessings. In the past I’ve looked for a quick fix, or whatever would be easiest to fix. That didn’t work. Apparently I’m not the quick learner that I thought I was either, because it’s taken me 2 years to figure that out.
So what do I do? How do I break so many bad habits? How do I become the man of God I want to be? I can tell you one thing, it doesn’t happen all at once. I have to take it one day at a time. Sometimes it’s even moment by moment, and what I’ve learned is that it’s still not easy. But that’s ok. It’s better than doing nothing, and now I’m actually making progress. I’m focusing on one thing, Jesus. It’s all about Jesus. The more I study about Jesus and the more time I spend with him, the more I become like him. I’m striving to be like Jesus. I just wanted to share with you what I’ve been learning, and I hope that it’s encouraged you in some way.
