Happy Monday!

I hope that everyone had a great weekend! Ours was truly blessed! So many great things, I don't know where to begin. How about if I start with our daughter?

Children are a blessing from God. I love our kids. Kids can say and do things that will make your head spin. Saturday morning, my wife Julie took our three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Ashleigh out to run errands. And as it happens on a beautiful Saturday morning, the gravitational pull of a yard sale is too great for the girls to escape. While milling around at one sale, Ashleigh came upon some children’s bracelets. One was a giant ring, filled with a purple glittery stuff. It was faded and obviously well-played with. But Ashleigh was insistent that she needed that bracelet. Since it was only ten cents, and it seemed to be something that Ashleigh was so adamant about, Julie conceded and bought it for our daughter. As they were getting into the car, Ashleigh offered the bracelet to Julie and said, “Here, Mommy – I got this for you to bless you since I broke your other bracelet.” The whole time Ashleigh was bugging Julie for this faded old ten-cent piece of plastic, she had wanted it to give to her Mommy. See, about three weeks ago, my wife’s ‘Secret Sister’ had given her a bracelet, and Ashleigh, being a curious child, tried to check it out. While Ashleigh was trying to get the bracelet out of the box, she managed to break it, and it wasn’t repairable. It broke Ashleigh’s heart to realize that she had ruined her Mommy’s pretty bracelet, and Mommy never even got to wear it. So, on Saturday, Ashleigh gave her Mommy something to say, “I remember that I broke yours, and I want you to have mine as a replacement”

Like I said – kids can say and do things that will make your head spin.

Well, for those of you who may be wondering, my wife Julie and I went out on our first real “date” in about a year-and-a-half this past Saturday night. We had a wonderful time. I took the kids to our friends’ house for the evening while Julie finished getting ready to go out, and while I was out of the house, I picked up a dozen roses, which I gave to my wife right before we went out. We then headed for Springfield, where we had a reservation at Nakato’s. We love that place. It’s like this great dinner and a show all-in-one! Dinner was perfect, and we topped it off with a cappuccino before heading home. But here’s the cool part, and it’s a testimony to how great our God is –

Things were a little tight for us this month, and we were probably pushing it pretty close by going out to dinner. But through three random blessings that we weren’t even expecting, God paid for our date! God blessed us with what we needed, and He threw in something that was of our heart’s desire, just because He’s a giving God!

And as if that's not enough, our church family, Lebanon Family Church, celebrated the 10th anniversary of LFC yesterday. We had two amazing services that took us through the journey of Pastor Matt and Aimee Flanders, the humble beginnings of our church, all the way up to the present, where we are praising God for the beginning of construction on a much needed new building! We met last night as a church at our property, worshiped, prayed, and cheered as Pastor Matt broke ground. No ceremonial golden shovels, though. No - Pastor Matt broke ground with a giant EXCAVATOR! It was awesome!

Like I said - it was a great weekend! Thank you for letting me share with you about it! I hope you've enjoyed the post! I pray blessings for all of you today, and I will look forward to sharing more with you later!

In Christ,

Fred.