Love is Less Screen

It's midwinter now, but I wrote this in late April and never hit the Publish button for fear of being honest, and for my overwhelming aversion of leaving issues open-ended.  But I think I'm ready to peel back the Band-Aid and let you see how things have been slowly healing since then (which I'll talk about in later posts).  So, wincing, here's a close-hearted journal entry...

Today was a full, mostly lovely day with the kiddos while Todd is away.  We had playdates/meetups planned all day long from 9am until sundown just for the sake of getting out and enjoying the company of friends on our first spring day in short sleeves.  The boys and I played with friends in St. Paul and walked to their neighborhood playground, met Lauren and her sister Cara for an all-afternoon tour of the Mill City Museum, explored and walked around Boom Island Park, met Betsy, Lauren and Cara for a sunset picnic, and had mudpies with leaf sprinkles for dessert.

It was ideal…minus my lack of patience and general happiness.  Why?  I read news articles online last night until well into the wee hours, and I was paying for it in mental absence and a physical lapse of love.  I wasn’t web-surfing for anything perverse, nothing outright wrong, just the news going on that the media thinks I should know about…that I thought I should know about.  At least, that’s what kept me clicking without recognition of the time ticking.  

When Doe woke up to be fed at 1am, I looked up from my laptop, and although I wasn’t sleeping, I did wake up—from the web-zombie state that I was in.  Picking her up, feeling her soft hair and smelling her sweetness gave me a touch of reality that was more like a cold splash of water to my face:  "what am I doing? I’m wasting my life. I’m losing the sleep I need so badly. I’m setting myself up for failure with a full day ahead.  There are four little lives sleeping peacefully who will need me in the morning…and I’m up thinking I need to know about 'The Top Three Rated International Airlines' and 'Why Nuclear Downsizing is Coincidental to Russian Uprising.'"  Sigh.

Why?  Is it a desire for mental stimulation after a long day with little people?  Why then don’t I read a good book? I just don’t get what keeps me up and web-browsing.  Granted, just last week I deactivated my Facebook account after a long time of debate over it’s usefulness versus my uselessness the morning after a News Feed binge.  I’ve been so free from the temptation to check Status Updates this week that I may not ever go back.  But I only replaced the bad habit with another one; I cleared out one demon and seven more moved in.  Deep sigh.

So it all culminated tonight as I was putting the boys down for bed and was heart-felt apologizing my for my lack of patience and kindness to them.  I tell them every night that “Jesus loves you most and best” and I thought it appropriate tonight to explain why I say that: to remind them that He is the only one who can love them perfectly; that I fall very short of demonstrating the love, kindness, grace and patience that Jesus gives.  "God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” I said, “and I’m praying that I can know His love and show it better in the way that I love you."

 I expressed how, although imperfectly, I loved them and that I’m asking God to help me.

That’s when the usually quiet Bear spoke up with eyes wide open, “Mommy we need to tell you how much screen to get…20 minutes or 30 minutes and that’s all.”  

“Screen?” I asked.  Then Lion caught on and said, “Yeah, your screen time.  We’ll give you one minute of screen time and then you’re done.”  Bear, presently fixated on rhyming, piped up, “One-DONE!"

They had no idea I had been up late, nor did they know how much I’ve been wrestling with this bad habit.  I knew it was a prophetic reference to the source of my lack of patience and focus that day and my overall malady. They insightfully equated my inability to love well with my overuse of media. I bravely pressed in to understand more of what they meant: “what screen are you talking about?’

Lion said with a grin, “Your phone. You’re OBSESSED with it.” I seceded as I combed their hair with my fingers, “Yeah…I realize I’m awfully distracted and I’m missing what’s important, which is you guys. I am very, very sorry.”

Lion agreed, “Yeah mom.  Can you give us some paper so we can write a note that says, ‘One minute allowed’? Then you’ll actually have time to play Legos with us!"

In a flash I pictured all the times during the day that I’ve got my phone in my hands, the times I’m sending a text, or checking my e-mail, or the weather, or whatever I can to feed my habit.  I saw myself missing all of the moments of opportunity to engage with my children because my mind is elsewhere, finding every opportunity to escape such a beautiful reality to numb my brain with virtual reality.  

I need help.  So I asked the boys to forgive me for being so distracted, and to remind me about my screen limits.  And while I tucked them into bed and kissed their soft faces a few extra times, I prayed to a very patient, loving, kind, merciful, always-present God for help.  

That hog in the ground better tell me winter is almost over!

Yes, I came out of my winter burrow once again to tell you "Happy Groundhog Day!" and share with you what we and our little hoglets have been up to this year!  Besides the fact that it's so cold I couldn't feel my fingers and toes after merely delivering our Groundhog Day letter to our nearby neighbors, the snow sure is beautiful here in our Minnesotan wonderland.  Punxsutawney Phil's shadow tells us we have 6 more weeks of winter...I'd be stoked if that were true.  His shadow seems to stretch a bit farther 'round these parts.  So back in my snow burrow I go, thankful for our furnace and the love of God that keeps us warm :).

Sorrow for Sparrows

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.

Luke 12:6

The newly melted snow uncovered a dead bird in our backyard yesterday--the boys' first face-to-face encounter with the sadness of death. Quietly they crouched and observed the stillness of our little feathered friend.  I found the moment appropriate to mention Jesus' teaching that not even a sparrow falls to ground without our Heavenly Father knowing about it; that God knows all about even the little sparrows and determines when their time is to "go". Their little minds worked to process why and how this one died but were mostly just sad for the little birdie.

Full of faith, Lion concluded, "We can pray for it and bring it inside and care for it to bring it back to life..." Not wanting to crush his sweet heart I gently explained that in this world, when a creature dies, it's body stays dead, but that's why we love Jesus because He made a way for life after death.  Lion began to weep and expressed, "I'm just so sad about death." I picked him up and told him that it was okay to be sad, that I was too.  Bear's sad eyes looked up from his observation of the bird and humbly asked, "will you pray?" So together we prayed a little eulogy for the bird and I thanked God for loving us even more than the sparrows, for the bird's song, and for Jesus who came to make an end to forever death.

Quietly we sat, holding each other while the boys observed and again Lion heavily wept about the sadness of death. I empathized with him while speaking relevant words of scripture, like how all creation has been made subject to death because of sin, that creation groans as we wait for Jesus to come make all things new. As Lion processed, he lamented that "death is just everywhere, it's so sad."

As Bear remained in quiet observation, Lion got up and walked across the yard to the gazebo for some time to himself.  He wandered around in the mud of our winter-killed garden; vines bare, plants brown and crushed by the months of snow...and then excitedly came running back.

"Mom! I have the BEST news after this bad death news: I found signs of LIFE! Come see!" We
 hurried across to the corner of the yard to find the very first sprouts of green emerging from the mud. Lion was inspired, "we will call this the 'Garden of Salvation' where we can come when we're sad about death and see life to wipe our tears away..."

Lion's heart was lifted and mine was filled. We walked around the yard, talked about telling daddy when he got home, and made arrangements for birdie's burial.  Lion ran inside to get a little box and he and Bear filled it with leaves "to make it comfy". Shortly afterward, Todd came home and the boys spoke a mile a minute to explain what they discovered.  Todd prepared for "a proper burial" and Lion objected: "you can't put him in our Garden of Salvation because it's only a place for life; no death can come there." So Todd dug a place under an evergreen tree opposite the garden and placed a rock there for us to remember our birdie teacher.

Lion was excited to show Todd the green sprigs in the garden, and there he said, "whenever we see green, whoever is sad can pray.  If you don't come to the garden to pray when you're sad, your heart will be like a stone.  Daddy, are you sad about the bird? Then you can pray." Lion knelt and Bear stood by the sprigs while Todd prayed a beautiful prayer of thanks for our hope in Jesus, and for His death and resurrection that brought us life. 

After dinner, we went out in the spring rain to find raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry bushes to plant in our garden.

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.  For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.  Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.  For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.  We were given this hope when we were saved. 

Romans 8:18-24

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.  All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

Revelation 21:3-7

Praises for Seven

Seven years ago, dressed in pearly white, I walked with my dad down a brick path through a rose garden to the guitar-strumming tune of Come Thou Fount.  There at a fountain I met my man, in his Navy dress whites, where we vowed our love in the communion of Christ's love.  

Since then I'd like to portray that it's been all roses, but better yet it's been beautiful blooms surrounded by the prick of thorns.  We've been painfully cut back sometimes to bloom more bountifully, watered some by dew, other times by heavy downpour, all still a consistent nurturing of God's faithful love and care.  But regardless of how well Todd and I, and now our three-almost-four children have grown, I always come back to the same tune of praise to Jesus, our never-failing Fountain of Grace:

Come Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,

Mount of God's unchanging love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Hither by Thy help I'm come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let that grace now like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

--Robert Robinson, 1757

After praise to God for our marriage, my heart wants also to praise my Todd.  Being the humble man that he is, Toddy doesn't receive words of praise very well.  It's almost like he doesn't trust them, or worse, receive them.  So today as we celebrate seven years of marriage, I thought it was appropriate to explain why I must praise him so :)

For Toddy With Love

“We delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is the appointed consummation.  It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.”  -C.S. Lewis

When I tell you, ‘I love you,’ ‘You’re handsome,’ ‘You’re good,’

I believe that you have me quite misunderstood.

I don’t tell you I love you to boost your esteem,

and when praising your character it may seem

that to receive my praise is to deny humility,

or worser yet to promote idolatry.

But what you have missed is that I must praise what I enjoy;

to deny praise is my joy to destroy.

For Jesus said, “what’s in the heart the mouth speaks,”

and to share from my heart is when my joy peaks.

So when you hear that I admire your frame,

your thoughts, your love, and the sound of your name,

please hear that your quality is reflection of your Maker,

and believe when I praise you that I am no faker.

That enjoyment of you is enjoyment of Jesus,

Who gives us sweet gifts with intentions to please us.

That the pleasure of others is to make more than a nod

to the ultimate joy who is our great God.

So my Toddy, I love you and the man that you are.

If I were looking for greatness I wouldn’t have to look far.

for beside me is a husband, a father, a friend,

who makes my heart swell and my knees to bend,

in praise of my Redeemer who loves me so,

Who has blessed me with you that His Christ-love I’ll know.

Happy Anniversary, seven years have now passed,

in a marriage that is more than I could have asked.

To the enjoyment and praise of the One who gives life,

and has given me the pleasure of being your wife.

From my heart,

trace

Happy Groundhog Day 2013!

These little groundhogs came out to say that winter isn't going anywhere soon around these parts!  Praising God for another year of His faithfulness :)

Seedlings

I suppose you wonder if the Frues fell off the face of the earth?  Not quite, but we are certainly in another world!  We only moved 2,250 miles, 37 road hours, 8 states, or 3 days away from our cozy little condo in Cali, but life is dramatically different. The pace, the place, the people (don’t-cha-know)—all the unfamiliar that is beginning to become much more familiar.  I still rattle my head when I’m reminded that we live in Minnesota, and I still refer to California as “back home”. I look at people funny when they say “put your things in the beg” (bag) or “here’s your name teg” (tag), and they look at me funny when I say “stoked, ya’ll”, but slowly Minneapolis is becoming our own.  We are in love with the city and the diversity and the new things to see and explore and do.  We are overwhelmed by the sincere love and care and friendship that has come from the families in Todd’s seminary, our church and our neighbors. Our home is a haven in a humble quiet neighborhood where you can turn right to go into “the forest” as Lion calls it, or left to a view of the city’s skyline.  We’ve been uprooted from the sandy soil of SoCal and replanted in a special place…and are beginning to take root again.

Now just so I don’t paint a rosy picture of utopia and perfection, we may have left a few things back west, but our sin and habits and hang-ups came with us, for sure.  It’s taken some adjusting, and stretching, and releasing, and (gasp) repenting to settle us into this new way of life.  Some rocks had to be dug up, some weeds pulled, some pests (ahem, habits) killed so that we can wiggle our feet into the new soil.  It isn’t easy, but it’s good.  In a lot of ways, although challenging at times, I feel like the Lord had us under the rake for awhile in order to make the soil we’re in the perfect place to grow.  Or to put it another way, if the year prior was a muddy mess of awkward uncertainty, confusion, and painful pause, this year is emerging from the soil and seeing sunlight. 

The summer garden we inherited and it's caretaker

It’s no coincidence that I’m using planting metaphors to describe the season of life that we’re in.  As Todd unpacked his seminary textbooks, I unpacked our homeschooling curriculum and realized that we’re settling into a fresh field for an altogether new beginning for our family. And just why am I so enthused about the planting, and growing, and seeds, and root talk?  Well first, Todd has begun seminary, which is derived from the Latin word seminarium, or seed bed.  It’s name is defined not only as a place of theological education, but also “a place or environment in which something is developed or nurtured.” Next, we have begun kindergarten with Lion, which is German for “children’s garden” and preschool, otherwise known as “nursery school” (think plant nursery) with Bear.  And Bees, well, he’s busy eating dirt and bugs…which begs me to say our home is a garden and we are all growing!

So what exactly are we watering?  Zucchini?  Tomatoes?  Faith.  Plain and simple, by grace Todd has answered the upward call to the knowledge and fear of God, which has already taken him deeper than any Navy dive he’s done and has really stirred up (and healthily challenged) his faith.  And as a mom I’m (fumbly) engaging the role as seed planter in my children’s hearts for the love of God and of learning, which has equally challenged and stirred up my faith in and dependence on Jesus.  It is not beautiful (I’m often in my pj’s well into the afternoon) nor breezy (Todd’s school work is more than a full-time job), but I know that the Lord is cultivating in us something that I believe will be fruitful and worth it. 

(Not coincidentally, “cultivate” is the word God impressed upon us when we started dating):

cul·ti·vate  tr.v. cul·ti·vat·ed, cul·ti·vat·ing, cul·ti·vates 1.a. To improve and prepare (land), as by plowing or fertilizing, for raising crops; till.    b. To loosen or dig soil around (growing plants). 2. To grow or tend. 3. To promote the growth of. 4. To nurture; foster. 5. To form and refine, as by education.

Honestly, I can’t get away from the metaphors.  The last several weeks of homeschool with the boys was first about the sun, how it gives life and light to everything, then later about leaves and how plants grow and are dependent upon the sun, and last week was about apples and how it begins as a seed, grows into a tree, and bears fruit that proliferates more seeds…I really think God in nature has a theme running here…

“Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table…”  Psalm 128:1-4 

“Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants…”

Psalm 144:12 

“Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.” 

Psalm 37:3

What’s most encouraging to me in the days that I just want to go back to bed:

“Do not become weary in doing good for at the proper time you will reap a harvest of blessing if you do not give up.” 

Galatians 6:9 

And I'm reminded that we aren't really the growers here, but God who began a good work in us and who will see it to completion (Philippians 1:6). "So neither he who plants or he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow." 1 Corinthians 3:7

"I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. . .If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing." (Todd's theme verse)

John 15:1,5

So just as Jesus said, “no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God", pray that by His grace we'll be focused, with our minds fixed on the row in front of us, able to nurture the little mustard seeds of faith in Christ that God has planted in us.

Oh, and did I mention there’s literally something growing in me?

We’ve got a new seedling a-sprouting in May!

And that’s why we’ve fallen off the face of the earth--it’s hard work to grow a person from a seed, you know!  (Not to mention, I'm definitely experiencing "growing pains" in this first trimester, so please keep us in prayer for healthy perseverance!)

Sandcastles to Snowballs

Remember when I mentioned Todd answering God's call to drop his nets and follow Him? I must say it wasn't hard to drop our nets on the sandy shores of Southern California.  "I could like it here, Jesus, good call."  Then came a little blurb on one of our favorite websites, desiringGod.org, about a brand new, purposefully small seminary out of our favorite Bible teacher's church.  Great!  Just what Todd was longing for: one-on-one discipleship, teaching, learning, and loving Jesus with his mind in order to be equipped to care for souls.  "Perfect.  So, where exactly is Bethlehem College and Seminary?"  In the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  I gulped, "Can you do it online?"  Unfortunately, no.  But watching the invocation and visiting this newborn school filled our hearts with an excitement and a quiet peace that this is where Todd and our family belongs.  Todd wasn't looking for a seminary degree--if he was, there are plenty of opportunities for that along our golden California coast.  But in his heart he felt a longing for learning for the sake of loving...and BCS has a matching pulse.

"Okay," so I ask, "how do we get there?"  Be accepted.  "How's that?"  Apply.  "Doing what?"  Write extensive essays and papers, answer probing heart and passion questions and have your pastor and wife send their own private responses to what you are pursuing.  "Mmmkay."  Two months and whole lot of heart searching and writing later, out goes the application and a prayer (or two).  "Allllrighty. How hard could it be?"  They only accept 15 students.  "Hmmph.  We don't even have a prayer."  Then came the interviews.  "How'd it go, Todd?" Fumbly and humbly he admitted, "If I get in, it won't be because I interview well." 

So after a year of dreaming, six months of forehead rubbing, and a few hundred-thousand soul-searching prayers for God's will for our little family...he got a call.  Then he called me.  I was standing at my favorite beach park gazing out at the beautiful Channel Islands...

 ...Deeeeep breath...

God willing, and it seems so far that He is willing, this summer we're moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota to live and study among the people of Bethlehem College and Seminary!

Mennesooda, eh?  I'm still flabbergasted.  And need warm socks.

For those of you having trouble lifting your jaw from the floor, may I share with you what I privately sealed and sent for the BCS Spouse Questionnaire?  My hope is that you will join me in lifting my jaw from the floor to my hands in the air...

I am thankful to have been asked to share my reflections/excitement/concerns about my husband studying in this M.Div. program and moving toward full-time Christian ministry.  In order to do that, I must put my feelings in context and give glory to God for what He has done to get us to this application process.  Before I boast in the Lord, I will tell of my husband, only for you to see that at his highest worldly accomplishments were his lowest moments of spiritual failure, and at his humblest points of repentance are the Lord’s greatest works of grace that have brought us to where we are today.

Todd Fruehauf is a thrill seeker and I knew it from the beginning.  When we met he was a Navy diver a year out of the Academy, stationed on a minesweeper as Damage Control Assistant working his way to bomb school.  On our first date he took me surprise skydiving.  Soon after he gave me a hot pink helmet so I could ride with him at mach speed on the back of his motorcycle.  For fun with friends we kayaked to an abandoned ocean oil rig and I watched him leap from the top of it. We surfed and built bonfires on the weekends.  Triathlons were a side hobby.  But the most poignant fact I know about him he confided to me on our first dinner date, “I don’t know if it’s a spiritual thing or an actual wartime role, but I long to lead men into battle.” 

Granted, Todd is a grounded thrill seeker.  As we dated we read together, by his leading, books by John Piper and discussed the exciting new thoughts, one of which was adoration—chasing sunbeams up to the sun.  The worship of God on the way home from skydiving was a greater and more memorable experience to us than falling 120 miles per hour from thousands of feet in the air.  We had a taste.  A seed planted.

Fast forward, we married and were immediately whisked away to EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) School and he was thrown into the intense demands of learning with little margin for error.  Todd graduated at the top of his class but was spiritually sinking.  In a whirlwind we were transferred to San Diego and the vigorous work of jump school and tactical training, where he fell in love with backflipping from airplanes and jumping into the ocean from helicopters.

Our first son was born while Todd began his assignment as Officer In Charge of an EOD Detachment, who would eliminate Improvised Explosive Devices and Roadside Bombs in Iraq.  Our family was being built while preoccupied with the training workups for war.  In Iraq Todd lived his desire, leading men and creating explosions from terrorist ordnance that NASA saw from space.  He earned a Bronze Star medal for his bravery but had little victory over the terrorist of his own sin nature. 

Upon arrival home we were transferred to Point Mugu, California and he came to such a place that he doubted his own salvation.  Then he read Finally Alive.  I witnessed a new birth in him—a transfer from the duty of religion to the delight of knowing God personally and experientially through His mercy in Christ.  This was the seed breaking from the shell and pushing through the dirt.

Then with our second son on the way, came the invitation to screen for SEAL Team Six, an elite Special Operations military command.  This was his hardest, greatest, ultimate desire and dream pursuit.  It meant being called upon, as a tier-one asset of the Commander-in-Chief, to act at any hour on any day for any mission in any part of the world for an untold number of days of which his family would not be privileged to know.

I watched as my husband pushed himself beyond the limits to pass the rigorous requirements to join this team.  He was a freight train I couldn’t stop so I just got on board regardless of what it meant for our family…and I prayed.  Then, halfway through the week of intense physical, technical, and mental screening, the psychologist asked, “What does your wife think of this pursuit?”  Todd didn’t know.  Which caused Todd to question, “what does the Lord think?”  Todd hadn’t asked.  With his final interview before the board the following day, he hit his knees and searched the Word all night long with the same vigor that he had given to this special command.  God was faithful to answer, “I want you to pursue Me and My Word with as much passion as you have this position.” When the sun came up Todd faced the Review Board in his Service Dress Blues uniform with his answer: “Thank you for this privilege; I’m going home to my family.”

The freight train came to a screeching halt…and changed tracks.  You can imagine this thrill-seekers delight upon his discovery that “at His right hand are pleasures forevermore,” and that not only was it okay to seek God for his own thrill, it was what he was made for—to enjoy Him.  Utmost joy.  Utmost delight.  Utmost satisfaction.  And it’s right.  In doing so it is loving God.  And it is an endless reward—not bronze, gold, or silver but Christ Himself.

When once Todd’s passion was for his own glory and pleasure, he now undoubtedly and perseveringly has a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.  Where the seed was planted years ago now stands a green olive tree thriving in the house of his God.

As his wife, I have been baffled by his transformation and the passion with which he pursues the knowledge of God.  He couldn’t finish a brochure before all of this; now he flies through Christian literature faster than Amazon.com can deliver them.  His heavy weight lifting is benching Grudem’s Systematic Theology (for training in godliness).  He keeps Greek flash cards on his person like a concealed weapon.  Where he used to surf on dawn patrol he rises early for prayer.   We have to budget for his coffee shop meetings with brothers.  Most notably Todd is the Officer In Charge turned tender pastor of three little men and their mommy.

Bethlehem Seminary is Todd’s SEAL Team Six where he is trained and equipped to lead men into battle.  But this pursuit is markedly different from all the rest; it’s not for a glory job or from misplaced passions.  He’s not seeking position or his own pride.  And he certainly doesn’t flex his spiritual muscles for anyone.  He just wants to enjoy Jesus on a deeper level and see that many are awakened to His joy.  

I whole-heartedly stand behind Todd in this pursuit. It is a decision we made and prayerfully sought together and I happily trust God for what it means for our family.  If the Lord is willing that we attend, I know it’s going to be a challenge on a whole different level; Todd hasn’t written a works-cited paper since the Naval Academy over nine years ago and that was probably over a yawner of a discussion of Naval History.  But God has been writing His Word on Todd’s heart and exciting him about His story, which is absolutely no yawner.  And if I know anything about my husband, the intense and demanding rigor of a Bethlehem Seminary education is, to him, an invitation to know Jesus--his ultimate thrill.

Groundhog came out of his burrow...

I know, I know Groundhog Day was exactly one month ago...but it took me that long to get back to blogging after laboring over this little paper child and licking all the envelopes to deliver him ;)  

Or in other words, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on February 2nd and went back in for four more weeks...so here ya go! :)

Really, I just wanted to wet your whistle for more news to come of God's faithfulness and perfect timing! (I promise I won't go back into my burrow before I post the follow up!)