Relationships

The one thing that took me a long time to truly grasp the complete concept of is relationships. Sure, I have/ had plenty of relationships in my life that matter to me. Some relationships were just for a season and others have been for longer periods, and I know that there are some that will be for a lifetime.

 But one thing that I have been learning that there is one relationship that is the most important. And if I don't learn how to have a healthy relationship with that one, then I will never make it with any of the others. That is my relationship with God. His relationship characterizes how I treat every other person in my life. It's funny how I often put Him behind others, or downplay Him.

But one thing I know, the stronger my relationship is with Him, the stronger my relationships are with my wife, my sons, my mom & dad, my brother and sisters, my friends. If I continually make Him first the easier it is to communicate, the easier it is to love, the more patience I have. It is amazing how He is so powerful that my relationship with Him can have a positive affect on all of the other relationships in my life.

I am excited to make him priority #1 in my life. Without Him, I know that I wouldn't have as many positive relationships in my life.

What's my Motivation

It was the spring/ summer of  2005 that I finally knew what it meant to have a true relationship with God. After a couple of years of trying to live life "my own way" which basically meant ,on my own without God, I finally got to a point where I was telling myself that this is not the way life is meant to be lived, alone. I mean I wasn't alone by the world's standards I was alone without God. I was surrounded by friends and family and people all the time. That was part of my problem, and my wife to this day will stay say that I need to have some "me" time. Which is a real hard thing for me to do. It seems like I have been wired to make sure that I am surrounded by someone at all times, I do not do good by myself, but that is probably another post. Anyway, I got to this pivotal point in my life that I realized I needed Him. God. And I could not stand to do things on my own anymore. And since I made that decision things have not been the same. I could only imagine where I would have been if I never would have came to that revelation. Thank God that He is a God that chases us, right? There was a lot of things in me that I needed to change. The biggest thing I needed to do was put all of things that I was trying to do by myself on the back burner. I needed to focus on God. And I knew that he would have my back and make sure that I was going to be alright. So that is what I did. After a few months I was at church on a Wednesday night I received a word. Matthew 6:33: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." I knew right then and there that I was doing exactly what He wanted me to do. I was putting Him first and He was reminding me that He has my back. What an awesome feeling. I was so excited after that. Fast forward a few more months and God was doing big things in my life. Through the help of my Pastor I was leading a young adults group. One of the first things that God had placed on my heart was to focus on young adults like me that were caught in the world and needed some help to find their place in the world as Christians. This wasn't that big of step for me as far as leadership goes. I have always had a leader quality.  I learned a lot putting that group together! Good times! Fast forward a little farther and I hit a milestone. A huge milestone. I met my wife, Emily. June 2, 2006. We met after one of my softball games, Spent a weekend together hanging out, went to a Tigers game, to a movie. It was an awesome week. I knew that after that weekend God was adding more into my life. He gave me a wife. Fast forward a few years later and here I am. A Husband. and a Father of (2) remarkable boys.  So basically after all that I am sitting here writing my first blog. When starting this, Emily told me that I needed to have a motivation for blogging. So I thought about it and decided that my motivation was to expand upon my communication skills, which is an area I struggle in a lot. And hopefully I can write down some thoughts that God is speaking to me and inspirations. And maybe some of my experiences will help someone that may be going through the same things. One thing I know is that the things that we are going through are never anything new. There is always someone, somewhere that may be going through the same kind of experience. So here it is. And I thought what better way to start, then to explain a lot about me in as little words as possible. It may have turned out a little longer than I planned but that's OK.