Rejuvenation

As I sit here tonight from my hotel in Dallas, I am in awe. Melissa and I have had a wonderful day. I have been watching her rest, and just cant seem to stop smiling. We have been by ourselves this weekend with no children for the first time this year. We do a trip to Dallas by ourselves once a year, and it is wonderful. It has been very blessed this year. It has made me look closely at my marriage, and see how blessed and thankful I am. I have been using the word "rejuvenating" a lot this trip. It seems to be a word God has put on my heart. Well I looked it up online, just to make sure I was using this word right, and to my amazement I found the definition to be - To restore to youthful vigor or appearance; make young again. I began to think of my marriage and how sometimes we tend to allow our marriages to just "flow along". After a while, if we are not careful we can allow it to gather "dust". We get content with just living day in and day out with our spouses the way life is, and don't worry about pursuing one another like we "used to". I know God never intended for our marriages to take on the rust, and to allow it to just collect eventually eroding. I believe that we are to never stop pursuing our spouses, but to continue to learn something new about them daily. When you do this I believe you are not only growing, but keeping a sense of newness or youthfulness inside your marriage. Think about the feelings that come on when you learn something new. When you find out you have something in common, or even when you find something you never new, it is amazing at how interesting it may be. I love Melissa and long for the things I have yet to learn about her. Pursuing is an adventurous thing to do and the fruit of it is a lasting marriage, something you don't see much in today's society. We have come up with our own idea that when we become bored, or stop pursuing, we just move to the next one and so on. I promise you will learn something new everyday about your wife/husband if you just try. Rejuvenate your marriage and continue seeking after her. No one said it is easily done, but the best things given are those we pursue at full speed. God will bless it. I love you Melissa!!!God Bless

Life In The Classroom

Well, I can now say its been a really long time since I last blogged. Time seems to be flying by quickly as each day passes. I am now nine months out from my surgery. I seem to be doing better at adjusting to the life of a back injury. I know it is something I will deal with the rest of my life. The doctor is concerned about my L3 disk, being in pretty rough shape, but I don't let it get me down like I did.
I started school in the fall of this year. I knew God had been calling me for over a year and a half. I went to sign up for classes at Southwestern Seminary in July, but God soon showed me otherwise. I immediately left the school and came home and continued to pray. On the way home he mentioned a school by the name Criswell College to me (I heard of it once or twice ever). I prayed and prayed and by Aug. 4 I was signing up for class. It is a very small school. with a huge heartbeat. The people there are amazing, and God's Word is truly being taught. I feel so at home with this place and know that is where God wanted me all along. I am now attending full time and able to go one day a week. God is so amazing! I love how I thought that other school was it, but God showed me he was just preparing me, by getting my feet wet. I know God has placed all these trials in our life to prepare us for his place in ministry.
My beautiful wife Melissa and I accepted a position teaching 3 year old Sunday School. Those children have just added on to what God is teaching me at school. Our God is sovereign! Anyway back to the books. I love you all and please begin to check back in here. I will make it a point to post more now that I can breathe a little. God Bless, Ben