A few years ago my mom and dad gave us a book on parenting. In it, Mom had marked a chapter on celebrating and written a note about how they loved celebrating things with us kids when we were growing up. They also gave us a plate that says celebrate that we use at birthdays and other special celebrations. A couple years later when we were in the midst of some really hard things, a friend was talking about the importance of celebrating when through those valleys. Last year when we celebrated 10 years of marriage we celebrated much! We celebrated the anniversary and each other and our friendship. More importantly though, we celebrated all God had done (and continues to do) in reshaping us to be less of our own individuals and more like Jesus. The journey he has brought us on in our marriage, in our parenting, and in our ministry is what we really celebrate. For through that journey, we have come face to face with Jesus in an entirely new way and we have been forever changed. That is cause to celebrate! This morning over coffee we reflected on this again. Ty just returned from a weekend with some of his best friends and in the course of that we were reminded of reasons to celebrate in our family and marriage. Those friends will probably always be tied to celebrating for us as they walked through some of the darkest most foreboding valleys we've had to face. We love doing life together and they are a reminder of the hard and the overcoming in Jesus. So while we sat drinking the amazing coffee Ty brought me back, we looked back and remembered. We paused, like we see the Israelites do throughout the Old Testament, and we looked back on what God had brought us through. Then we celebrated and rejoiced together in God's amazing provision not just of tangible things but of the regeneration he does in our old mean and nasty hearts. Today, in our house we are rejoicing in God and we celebrate!
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AuthorsCarolyn & (sometimes) Ty Archives
March 2016
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