Blessings Are By Choice!

I hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a good one for us - Logan is feeling better after an ear infection has been bugging him. All is well, and he's doing fine. We're still waiting for those teeth to start popping out - maybe that will help the 'fussy' attitude a little bit, too. Poor guy. He's chomping on everything he can. Sure likes that wet washcloth!

This has been a week of revelation on the subject of blessings for me. I have known for a long time about sowing and reaping, blessing and cursing. But this week in particular, God has shown me some really neat things. I just want to encourage you - if you see a need in someone...no matter what it is - and you feel like, "Hey, maybe I should help out here." - THAT'S THE HOLY SPIRIT! Listen! Even if your natural mind is telling you that there's no way you can possible help - God will show you the way! All we have to do is BE AVAILABLE - God will do the rest! He just wants us to be WILLING and OBEDIENT to His call. I have a word to share with you today - you'll hear it on the show this afternoon at about 2:20.

I’ve talked a lot here lately about rejoicing in God’s blessing, and about making sure that we take the time – MAKE the time to give thanks. This is so important! We have to take God’s word seriously, and knock off the complaining and grumbling! It’s a choice WE make, and our decision takes us down one of two paths: We can obey God’s word by rejoicing and giving Him our thanks and praise, which leads us down the path to more blessings…or we can disobey by constant griping and complaining, which takes us down the road to being cursed. Black and white. Only two ways we can go here, folks. I pray that we all choose wisely.

Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live."

I love you all, and I truly hope and pray for blessings in your life! Until next time, be blessed and favored!

In Christ,

-Fredly.

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.

Hey! I'm Baaaaaaack!

For all of you who have written, called, and stopped me at Wal-Mart and said, "Hey Fred - what's up with your blog?" Well...long story. I'll put it in terms that I can understand. It was busted. But now we have a new one! Life's good.

Lots of things happening now at Spirit-FM. I mean, God is rockin' in this place, and we're working on some HUGE ways to connect with you all better, as well as some really fun things for the not-too-distant future! I'm excited! I'm pretty much always that way now - God's just so good, I don't know how else to be!

Julie, Ashleigh and Logan are all doing really great. Logan's growing like we're fertilizing him or something - that kid eats more than I do! Well, maybe not quite that much, but pretty close! Ashleigh is always coming up with new and creative ways to astound us. Yesterday, she put two and two together and figured out that "when we give somebody something, that's a bwessing!" And now she's ALL ABOUT blessing others! It's the coolest. I look at our kids, and I just praise God, knowing that they're going to grow up and learn about Him all their lives, and I know that I know that I KNOW that they're going to be so much better off than Julie and I, and that's just another reason to jump up and be joyful!

Anyway, I'll try really hard to be consistent on this thing, and I hope that you will be able to consistently read it! Thank you for taking the time to drop by, and I'll catch you again later!

Be blessed, and be a blessing!

-Fredly.