Showing posts with label marriage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marriage. Show all posts

Friday, August 6, 2010

my life and wife (repost)

(This is a repost from January 2nd, 2008. my 2nd post ever.)
There is at least 1 good thing they taught me in college that I still remember – “happy wife, happy life.” (because “if momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”) I grew up hearing Bill Wyman sing “if you wanna be happy for the rest of your life never make a pretty woman your wife.” BUT that’s some horrible advice. God hooked me up with an amazingly beautiful wife (who’s the best cook I know) + I’m happy and have no doubt I will be for the rest of my life. Sorry, Bill, it’s just not true.

I am trying to honor God and spread His renown by my relationship with my smokin’ hot wife. God says that the way I love my wife is supposed to be a picture of the way Jesus loves the church. That’s a lot to live up to. She’s comes 2nd only to Jesus and before everything else including my job, ministry, wants, etc…
And that’s pretty easy because I’ve got the greatest wife in the world. She was designed specifically to be my wife and to be able to put up with me. I can pretty much be a pain to live with, but she does it gracefully and without complaining. She is the sweetest woman I know, but if you mess with me she will jack you up!

It’s pretty awesome that we get to have a date night every Friday night & Friday also doubles as our “rest in God day” (Sabbath). We usually just go out to dinner and see a movie or hit up a pumpkin patch or camp out by the fire and watch some old episodes of Friends.

My wife is definitely the coolest. I can be myself with her like with no one else. I’m free to just be me. I don’t need to put on a show or try to be someone I’m not. And she’s cool with that (except sometimes in public when my ADD kicks in). She is honestly my best friend in the whole world. It makes me happy to make her happy!

We’ve known each other since we were 12 when she moved here to Charlotte from NY. Here’s the romantic version: when she first moved here we each happened to be out shopping for Christmas trees with our families. I was carrying our tree and her dad was carrying their tree—and the two of them somehow got tied together! No joke. The rest is history. Well, sort of. We started dating like 5 years later in High School and through college and then were married 8/5/05.

She loves her new puppy Jack Bauer (that she begged me for a year to get and I finally caved in because… say it with me = “happy wife, happy life.”) She is a Nurse at Carolina’s Medical Center – University… after being downtown for over 2 years. (She’s actually received the Nurse of the Year award 2 years running… so what if I am the only judge? Did you guys know there’s actually such a thing as Nurse’s Day??! You learn fast when you’re married to one.) She loves to help people, give people gifts, and just love people… which I think is pretty cool. She’s a 24 fan like me, but also likes dumb shows like Grey’s Anatomy, ER, & Dr. Phil. (I don’t need hate mail from all the girls that love those shows… they’re just not for me.)
God has hooked us up in crazy ways. We’re blessed with a sweet house filled with free furniture. It’s like we should be on the ghetto poor version of MTV Cribs. We both have great families and God’s given us so much and we’re so thankful for it all. I feel like I could write a book on how good God has been to Crystal and me.

We’ve jumped in with a brand new church plant called Ridge Church (which I’ll write more about later). God birthed a passion in me to spread His fame a few years ago and I’ve never been able to shake it. I feel that He is leading us to eventually start a revolution among unreached people groups (probably in Sub-Saharan Africa). God can do whatever He wants but that’s where He's leading right now - hopefully to rock a region with a revolution for His renown! I know it probably sounds pretty audacious… but more on that another time too.

Basically, my wife and life are the best. I’m lovin’ it. I’ve found… SATISFACTION… God gets all the credit for that.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

happy 5 year anniversary!!! (to us)

5 years ago TODAY i married my best friend.

and she's still my best friend.

she is an amazing wife and i love her more than life itself. i thank God and i praise Him for hooking me up with a wife like Crystal that i don't deserve in a million years!

we've been married for 5 years today! i think this is the 1st big anniversary, right?

we're in the Caribbean right now celebrating and i actually got her a pimp "journey" ring as a 5 year anniversary gift. it's sweet and has 5 diamonds representing our journey so far. i'm hiding it under her pillow so she'll find it when she wakes up :) i hope she likes it.

Crystal, i love you more today than i did that flippin' hot day 5 years ago out in that grass field with all our closest friends and family... and at this rate i know i'll love you more next year too... if that's even possible.
thanks for being my best friend and the love of my life. thanks for being my amazing wife.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

my FINAL 2010 reading list!

I finally completed my 2010 reading list! (the books I'm going to read this year.) I have been working on it for 2 months and have been extremely strategic and intentional in compiling this list!
*I divided the books I'll read into 5 categories:

1 - Theology - which is actually broken into 3 "sub-categories":
  General - just current books on God, theology, and the Church & what I'm trying to learn
  Classics by dead guys - I realized a few years ago I was reading all new books. This is my attempt to learn from all the great dead guys!
  Mission - One of the things I'm most passionate about = God's Mission (Global & local).
2 - Leadership - I desperately want to be a better leader... a great leader in fact. That's my audacious goal. So, I am trying to learn from the best.
3 - Culture - I'm reading these in an attempt to be in tune with current Western and Global culture, + read some fun books, + keep in touch with the books "everyone" has read/is reading, etc...
4 - Sex & Marriage - just like I want to be a better leader, I want to be a better husband and better at sex! I want to be great in fact, so I'm going to keep learning.
5 - Spirituality and Personal Development - These are some of my favorite types of books to read! Very practical and life changing. For my spiritual development and relationship with God + personal development to make me better at what I do.

*Below I simply list the title of the book and the author's name. (No links because that would take forever. If you're interested you can just google the book or author yourself!)

THEOLOGY
General
A New Kind of Christianity: 10 Qs That Are Transforming the Faith – Brian McLaren
God Is the Gospel – John Piper
Emerging Churches – Gibbs & Bolger
Grasping God’s Word - Duvall & Hays
Religion Saves: And 9 Other Misconceptions - Mark Driscoll
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches – Driscoll, Kimball, Pagitt, etc...
Adventures in Missing the Point – Tony Campolo & Brian McLaren

Classics (by dead guys)
He Is There and He Is Not Silent – Francis Schaeffer
The Pursuit of God – A.W. Tozer
The Humanity of God – Karl Barth
The End for Which God Created the World – Jonathan Edwards
The Imitation of Christ – Thomas A’Kempis
The Autobiography of George Muller – George Muller
Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis

Mission
The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative – Christopher J. H. Wright
The Poor Will Be Glad – Greer & Smith
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society – Lesslie Newbigin
Believing in the Future – David J. Bosch
The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity - Philip Jenkins
The Emerging Church – Dan Kimball
 
LEADERSHIP
Developing the Leaders Around You – John Maxwell
Leadership – Rudolph Guiliani
Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
Made to Stick – Chap Heath
Influencer: The Power to Change Anything - Kerry Patterson
Killing Cockroaches – Tony Morgan
10 Stupid Things that keep Churches from Growing – Geoff Surratt
Microtrends – Mark Penn
CULTURE
How Soccer Explains the World – Franklin Foer
The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 – Steve Stockman
Memoirs of a Boy soldier – Ishmael Beah
The Gospel According to Lost - Chris Seay
The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Das Kapital - Karl Marx
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Kite Runner - Khaled Housseni

SEX and MARRIAGE
Satisfaction: The Art of… – Kim Cattrall
The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Kama Sutra – Ron Louis
The Love Dare - Stephen and Alex Kendrick

SPIRITUALITY and PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ – John Piper
ReUnderstanding Prayer: A Fresh Approach to Conversation with God – Kyle Lake
Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
Taste and See – Piper
The Money Answer Book – Dave Ramsey
7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
Freakanomics – Levitt & Dubner
also a few "Re-reads"
I forgot to mention these. I took notes on them in my infamous "red notebook" that was lost so I'm going to re-read them and take notes again!
Good to Great - Jim Collins
Developing the Leader Within You - John Maxwell
Don't Waste Your Life - John Piper

All in all there are over 50 books and well over 10,000 pages I hope to read this year! I better get started!

I would love to hear if YOU have read any of these AND what's on YOUR 2010 reading list!