Adoption

Hello all! Well I have some exciting news to share. Neil and I have decided to adopt a baby! Let me start off with how this came around. When we worked at the campus ministry here in Russellville Arkansas we would take a large group of college kids to Panama City Beach, Florida for Gulf Coast Getaway. That is were it all started! Every year we would go, they would present something to do with adoption and every year Neil and I would just sit there and cry and cry. Every year we say we are going to do that one day. Well, years past and we talked about every now and then even after our daughter was born we still talked about it. It came crystal clear to us when my health was on the rocks and not knowing what was going on. Doctors advised me to wait and figure out what was wrong before I tried to have another baby...that was 3 years ago. During that I had the light bulb moment of,"I can still have the joys of having a baby WE NEED TO ADOPT!" So Neil and I did some research on agencies and God lead us to Christian Homes and Family Services in Texas.We decided to do domestic adoption because we both felt that we live in such a blessed country and thought is was just sad that there were children needing love and good families here! This agency is a blessing to so many and to my family. We took the long, long car drive down to orientation one weekend. I have to say that weekend has been a true highlight of my life. We met some amazing couples and to top it off some amazing birth moms. This agency we are working with is an open adoption agency. Many people have many worries about this but after talking to the birth moms I am 100% behind open adoptions. I have learned to truly love those women and give them my highest respect! Neil and I are still in the process of the mountain of paper work and getting a home study. I am actually starting to sell Arbonne to help make some extra money for the adoption. I will be doing a lot of stuff to make some extra money to pay for this...but it is well worth it! I know through this process I will grow in my relationship with God knowing He loves me and adopted me into His wonderful family. I am asking all that read this to please pray and pray hard for us. Everyday I need to always remind myself "God is bigger than my fears and my worries". I will keep you all posted and in the end share some joy of a new Reynolds baby!

Apathy... really stinks!

Being in the ministry you really get the side view of a church. Sometimes its a great view and sometimes I get so angry or so sad at it. I think today our problem in our churches is a bigger issue they what we think. We have a huge heart issue. And when I say a heart issue I mean apathy. Here is a definition of apathy I found:

• an absence of emotion or enthusiasm
• the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally

I think that hits the nail on the head!!! "Lacking the enthusiasm for or interest in things generally". Churches have the lack of interest in living a life of Christ. I just wonder if we have forgotten why we are here in the first place. I am so tired of playing church... maybe thats why in the back of my mind I wear my jeans in rebelling Sunday mornings. This is a quote from an awesome man here we go:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

-Jesus

I don't think He died for us so that we can pick and choose what we do as a church family. If we live by His words which are pretty wise (how could you argue with God) there is no room for apathy! I think we still have this picture of Jesus from the good ol' felt board that he was always clean, had clean clothes, smelt like roses and his friends had the best camel and rocked out in some ugg sandals. Well thats not quit right. We have to remember the people he LOVED to eat with, walk with, talk to and heal. I think we are stuck in a "well what's in it for me". If you think that way without apathy you can say a glorious day when I meet my King and He says well done good and faithful servant, that whats in it for me. That to me means more than going crazy about what I am going to wear Sunday morning... because goodness I don't want someone to question my heart when I come in jeans and a mystery baby spot on my shirt that doesn't smell all that great. It means more they what society thinks of me when I pull over and give a man a bag of Wendy's burgers and fries and tell him I am doing this because I love him and so does Jesus. I think Christians need to not care what the world thinks of us and really care what are Father is thinking of us.

I know the devil knows how to play us well and uses this toxic thing to hinder the growth of churches and followers of Christ. There should not be a day we live that we can't go back and say I did something or said something that gloried God.

Confession time! I get very apathetic with church. The devil knows where my heart is and what is important to me and when I see and hear things from the church a lot of the times I don't get excited and I don't get excited to be with people. But let me tell ya the best medicine that works for me is being with the kids at the church my husband and I work at. Those children have no concept of apathy and enjoy learning and singing and dancing for God. You know God says to have faith like a child and I believe if we could jump in our "I am 5 years old pants" I think our churches would be more anti-apathy. We need to think as children not Pharisees!!!

Challenge for the month of February: Pray everyday to be 5 again and start an anti-apathy campaign!

slash tires or hit knees

I don't how it is with other wives, but I am pretty protective of my husband! I my mind I am the only one that can give him a hard time about something no one else has the right to, which is a flaw of mine! I can probably say that is the case in many marriages. As a ministers wife it is hard to hear negative things said about my husband or things he is doing in his ministry.

When he comes home from work and just looks like he came in from a battle I feel like I am ready to break out some war paint and slash some tires. But as Christ is working on me and my heart I have to make the right decision to hit my knees and pray for him and the situation that knocked him in the knee caps. IT IS HARD TO DO.

Most of you know you do this and if you say "oh goodness I don't" your lying! But when someone hurts your family, you have this full length movie played out in your head of you pulling a Rambo on someone. Us in the south would love to just slap someone and say "bless you heart" and just gracefully walk away. Oh my, I have had some Oscar winning performances in my mind when my husband comes home and tells me about his day. Just like everyone else that is trying to live a life of Christ, has to love the unlovable and the people that hurt the ones we love. I have to pray a constant prayer of " Dear sweet Lord, how in the world do you love them and please give me your eyes to see them the way you see them.

I don't come to worship every Sunday with a smile on face like I just came from skipping in a field picking flowers or to be VERY honest there are times I don't want to see people. I have to tell myself what my mother told me when I was going though a hard time in high school. " You don't go to church for those people, you go to give praise to God" I will always remember that and remind myself that.

A note to those who may not think about this but my husband and so many other ministers are human, have wives that could spit some serious nails and have a heart for God that wants to please. So when they get trampled so do their wives. We must all speak in love... as Christ speaks to us in love.

The first!

Hello all!

Well here we go lets see if I can keep this up. When my husband and I talk about our day and some days we always say we should write our stories down because if we told them down the line no one would believe us! So here I am revealing the unknown life of a ministers wife.

I am not your typical ministers wife I guess. I look nothing like the "church lady" from SNL and I don't walk around in SAS shoes!! I am not the most outgoing of people and if some people are surprised by this you now know I pray hard about it and God is working on me! I don't care for fluffy christian music... sorry Sandy Patty I don't have you on our IPod! I love skinny jeans and shopping at Forever21 (and I am not 21). I love love wearing my ripped jean to Sunday morning worship but I would love even more if I wore my gym shorts, too! I am bad at making casserole dishes and thats like minister wife 101 and I failed that bad. I really stink at memorizing Bible verses and to be very honest, finding time to read the Bible! I am a real person. I don't have any special DNA in me that makes me different from anyone else. I struggle with a lot of stuff others struggle with, it being, cussing, getting a temper when my 2 year old throws something sharp at me, gossip and selfishness!

I hope this blog will make you see the life of a ministers wife that no one sees! I hope this will help you see wifes of this lifes journey as real people and not some super hero or Bible bowl pro. Because I am not either of those. I am a person that is trying hard to seek God out in all things and to love and live as Jesus does!!!