I could have titled this “What EVERY husband needs and what every wife should know!”

In 2 Samuel chapter 6, King David was returning home from a hard days work.  They had just completed the STRESSFUL task of moving the Ark of God into Jerusalem.  It was something David had wanted to do to honor the Lord and bless the people.  (The last time David tried this, someone died.  So this was a BIG deal!)

2 Samuel 6:20 says When David returned home to BLESS HIS OWN FAMILY, (Men, your role is to BLESS your family not BELITTLE them.  To BUILD them up not BEAT them down.  To BE a servant, not to BE served.  And you do this, REGARDLESS of what your wife or children do for you. Now back to the wives.) Michal, the daughter of Saul (and wife of David), came out to meet him. She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”

David’s intention when he came home was to BLESS his wife, but when he entered the door he was immediately met with a BITE!  He had just completed something he had long wanted to do, and all his wife could do was tear him down.  Point out his mistakes.  Share her disgust.  Do you think David fulfilled what he set out to do?  To bless his family?  Hard to bless when you’re beaten up.

Wives, you need to know this.  There is ONE person outside of God and our own dads that we want approval from and it’s YOU!  Even after 5 years of dating and 15 years of marriage, I’m STILL trying to impress my wife.  It’s HER word of encouragement I need.  It’s HER support I’m looking for.  It’s HER respect that matters.  And I PRAISE GOD EVERY DAY that God gave me a wife who GETS IT!

I understand there are husbands who aren’t earning respect.  I know there are men who abuse the role of husband.  But wives (as I heard another pastor say) inside of every man is a KING or a KID.  The one who you speak to, is the one who will come alive!  Speak to your man as a KING and he’ll be better able to live like it!

RESPECT him (we take pride in what we do).  ENCOURAGE him (we often feel inadequate in what we do).  SUPPORT him (we need you beside us in what we do).  (All of that and I didn’t even use the dreaded “S” word…SUBMIT.  I’ll leave that for another day)

There you have it.  My ramblings on “What every husband needs and every wife needs to know.”  Maybe it helped someone today!

Here’s to hoping,

Jeff

Jaydah was born on December 23rd of 2006 but she was born AGAIN on March 9th, 2012.  Out of our 4 children, she has been the most spiritually minded, as far as bringing up spiritual things in normal conversation.  I’m not sure WHY that’s the case, but I do know that in the last 5 years Sabrina and I have become MUCH more intentional in that area with our children, understanding that WE are the primary disciplers of them, NOT the church.  In any case, she has been curious.

I told my wife a few days ago “I think Jaydah is getting really close to wanting to ask Jesus into her heart.”  We’ve never pressured our kids toward that decision.  We have instructed them in the Word but let the Holy Spirit guide them into those moments.  Recently Jaydah has been talking a LOT about how Jesus died for us,  how He died to forgive our sins and He forgives our sins when we ask him into our heart.  It’s been fun to watch.

Well, on our daddy daughter date, out of the blue, she brings it up again.  We were sitting at Guadalajara and she said “God protects us from evil.”  I said “You’re right Jaydah, he does.”  “Snakes are evil.” she said.  (LOL, I almost couldn’t contain myself) I just said “Yeah?”.  Then she went on, “Jesus died on the cross for our sins.”  I again asked her how He forgives our sins, and she answered very confidently “We ask Him into our heart.”  I said “Have you ever asked him into your heart?”  “No.” Was her response.  “Do you want to?”  “Yes.”  “When do you want to do that?”  Her answer cracked me up.  “In the car!”

So, sure enough, we got into the car after lunch, I turned around and said, “Do you still want to ask Jesus into your heart?”  She said “Yes”, and right there in the parking lot of Guadalajara, Jaydah asked Jesus into her heart.  I can tell you this…I LOVE seeing people come to know Jesus through Element Church but there is NOTHING like leading your own child to the Lord.

So back to Walmart.  I believe the Spirit was speaking to my daughter’s heart.  We’ve never used this language with our kids.  She said “Jesus is proud of me daddy.”  I said “He is, why?”  “Because I asked Him into my heart.”  I said “ABSOLUTELY, He’s proud of you Jaydah, and so am I!”

I just had to share,

Jeff

“WOW!”  That was my only response.  “WOW!”  That, and I was moved to tears.

Like “big church” does each Sunday, Pastor Derek offers a chance for kids to turn in any prayer request they would like prayed for, and that’s what my daughter Mariah turned in.  Again…WOW!

This is one of those moments as a parent I live for.  SHE GETS IT!  Her prayer?  “More people to come to know Jesus and come to element church!”  Nothing like the heart of your child to convict the parent.

Her prayer makes Mark 10:15 come to life  “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

What do you say?  Will you join my daughter in this prayer?  I think it’s THE MOST important thing we could pray for.  “More people come to know Jesus…AMEN!”

Praying,

Jeff

P.S.  And I LOVE she put her name “Mariah Maness” and then added “Jeff’s daughter”.  YES SHE IS…and I’m PROUD to say it!  And by the way, she prayed that prayer Sunday and FORTY PEOPLE acknowledged to us they accepted Jesus as their Savior.  YES!!

Well, this past week was Jonah’s dad time, and over the course of the past couple months we had been working on writing a rap together.  Jonah is a NATURAL writer.  He LOVES writing songs, poems, or just journaling his thoughts.  After several cumulative hours of working on the rap (Jonah dreams of being a performer), it all came to fruition this past Saturday when we recorded it at Pastor Adam’s Triple Pane Studio.

So without further adieu, here is the OFFICIAL release of Good Times by Jonah Maness (Download lyrics HERE)

Generosity is not something many of us are natural at, but it IS something we are called, even COMMANDED to be.  Now, giving is a spiritual gift that I think many people have and if they have it, it is OBVIOUS by the way they live.  My daughter Makalah, has been given the gift of giving and generosity…and I LOVE it!

Makalah LIVES and LOVES to give.  Not many days go by without me receiving something from her that she has made or found.  When we were at Disney World this past month, she used some of the money WE had given her to use as SHE wished to buy a gift for her sister.  What seven year old does that? Makalah wants to go to the Childrens Hospital for Chrsitmas and buy gifts for the kids who are sick, instead of GETTING gifts for herself.  WHAT?  And this past week, she did something that again blew me away.

Each week, one of our children gets a daddy date with me.  (For Jonah we call it Father/Son hangout time.  His idea…and I’m cool with it. HA)  This last Thursday, Makalah had her date.  I LOVE taking my girls on dates and my son on some hangout time and they look forward to it every month.  Sabrina and I have budgeted money for each week so I can do that and the kids get to choose what we do, up to a specified dollar amount.  As soon as it was Makalah’s week I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said “I want our daddy/daughter date to go buy a gift for somebody.”  I told her “You understand that if you use your money to buy a gift, that’s what we’re doing for our date?”  She said, almost with a “DUH dad” kind of response.  “I know!”

So that’s what we did.  I came home from work, had dinner with the family and took my amazing daughter on a date.  I actually had a Starbucks giftcard that was given to me, so we used it to go sit down, have a donut and drink before she bought a gift for her mom.  We headed to Walmart, and I walked the aisles hand in hand with Makalah as she smiled from ear to ear, living out the LIFE of generosity.  She used every penny of her money to buy some things for her mom that SHE wanted to get her.  It was amazing.

We ended our date by going to the mall to check out the dogs in the pet store and see the guniea pigs, snakes and lizards.  (I like going down the snake aisle with her cause she holds my hand even tighter.  Daddy trick)  As we walked out of the mall and headed to the car, I unlocked her door and opened for her.  She looked up at me before she got in the car and said “This was the BEST daddy/daughter date EVER!”

God just spoke to my heart, and I thought “MAN…If I were as generous as a SEVEN year old I’d make a much more SIGNIFICANT impact.“  Makalah LOVES to give, and I LOVE affirming that gift in her.

Friends, we belong to a RADICALLY generous God, may we be RADICALLY generous people…like my seven year old.

Learning from my daughter,

Jeff

I’ve made it a habit to pray for my kids each day before they leave for school, or before I leave for the office, whichever comes first.  I started doing that a few years ago and see it as a VITAL role of me as a parent…to pray over my children.  I want them to KNOW that I pray for them, and for them to HEAR me pray over them.  I LOVE the fact that it has become such an important part of our morning that I don’t even ask if I can pray for them anymore.  They find me before they take off across the street to school and say “Dad, will you pray for me before I go to school?”  I LOVE that!

Well, a few weeks ago I gathered all three of the oldest kids in the kitchen to pray for them before they left.  I typically pray the same prayer every day, and did that day as well:  “Lord, I pray you would ENCAMP your angels around Jonah, Mariah and Makalah.  I pray you would protect their hearts, souls, minds and bodies.  Help them to be leaders for you!  I pray they would have an awesome day and to do their best.  In Jesus name, Amen.”

As soon as I said Amen, Mariah looked at me and said “Angels go camping?”  At first I wasn’t sure what she said, so I was like, “Huh?”  Mariah asked again “Do angels go camping?”  I replied “Why would you ask that?”  “Dad, you prayed for angels to be camping around us.”  I about lost it!  In the middle of my laughing I explained to Mariah that I didn’t pray for angels to be camping, but that God would ENCAMP them around her.  “What does ENCAMP mean?”  I then explained that it means we’re asking God to put angels ALL AROUND us to protect us throughout the day.  Like kids often do she said “OH” and bounded off to the playground at school.

I didn’t think anything of it until last week at family devotions.  We had finished reading the Bible and everyone had shared their prayer requests they would be praying for.  We went around the table praying and came to Mariah.  I don’t even remember who or what she was praying for, but she prayed one of the most mature prayers I’ve ever heard her speak.  And in the middle of her prayer, in the proper use, she prayed “And God, I pray you would encamp your angels around them to protect them.”  WHAT?  Did she just pray that?  ABSOLUTELY she did.  Wanna know why?  Because she heard her DAD pray it!

Hearing her pray that prayer only FURTHERED my firm belief in what Donna Reed said during our panel discussion on Sunday:  “Much more is CAUGHT from us to our kids, than it is TAUGHT!”

Parents?  What are your kids catching from you?  Are they hearing your prayers?  Seeing you read your Bible?  With you when you serve?  Do you let them put the tithe check in the offering and then have the JOY of explaining to them why you give that much money to God?  Don’t be fooled.  Your kids are watching, listening AND learning from what you do!

Do angels go camping?  Not that I know of?  But with that one question, my daughter learned a VALUABLE lesson in prayer and spiritual warfare.

Hoping they catch it,

Jeff

I came home from work the other day and Makalah (our 6 year old) said “I haven’t given you a Care Bear hug yet today.  Can I give you one?”  (Care Bear is my nickname for Makalah) And immediately the Holy Spirit spoke to me and got me thinking on a spiritual issue.

You see, several months ago I asked Makalah for a hug, and she proceeded to give me the biggest, warmest hug she could muster.  I LOVED it.  All I did was comment on it one time.  I said “Kalah, you give the BEST Care Bear hugs ever!  I love them.”  And from that ONE comment, it became her goal to offer me Care Bear hugs as much as possible.  She began offering them more often.  Then she began to offer them daily.  As her dad, through one comment, one commendation, one word of encouragement, I gave her the DESIRE to do something for me and EMPOWERED her to do it again.  Now I don’t have to ask for a hug, she OFFERS one ’cause I told her how much it pleased me and how good she was at it.

I wonder if our response to our Heavenly Father should be the same?  Philippians 2:12-13 says “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.  For God is working in you, giving you the DESIRE and the POWER to do what pleases Him.”

I think so often we tend to view our relationship to God as trying to avoid the things He doesn’t want us to do, when in actuality He’s trying to REINFORCE the things He DOES want us to do.  We’d be more comfortable if that verse said “Giving us the desire and the power to avoid what displeases Him”.  But that’s not how God works.  As a child of God, He is working IN me, GIVING me the desire AND the power to do what pleases Him.  “Jeff, I LOVE it when you do that.”  “Jeff, it PLEASES me when you pursue that.”  “Jeff, I DELIGHT in you when you say that.”  God is more into the business of giving us desires and empowering us to do them, than He is condemning our mistakes and holding us over them.

I wonder how much effort I waste trying to avoid MY list of the things I’m NOT supposed to do, instead of focusing my efforts on the things I know HE wants me to do?  Things that PLEASE the Father.  Which by the way, if we’d focus SOLELY on the things that PLEASE the Father, we’d naturally avoid the things that don’t!  We just need to LISTEN to what the Father is saying.

Makalah started focusing on that thing that pleased me, and she was empowered to do it again and again.  Maybe I should do the same.  Where has God spoken into your life saying “I LOVE it when you do that!”?  Then DO it!  What is your “Care Bear hug”?

Hugging my Father,

Jeff

E:kidz takeover services coming July 10th!

We’re going to try something we have never done before @ Element Church! On July 10th we will cancel our normal e:kidz programming to have combined family services during each of our 3 Sunday morning services. Our volunteer team will present a kid friendly & family oriented lesson so mom’s and dad’s can catch a glimpse of what a typical Sunday looks like for their children in e:kidz. We are counting on our kids to make sure mom and dad participate in this fun family experience.

We are also busy recruiting KIDS to take part in presenting this unique Sunday program. If you would like your child to participate (5 & up please) please contact Pastor Derek right away.

Kids will be assigned to the following roles: music/motions, audience coaches, ushers/greeters.

Two “training/rehearsal” times are required to be in our program: June 26th practice (during Sunday services) and July 7th for live rehearsal (6-830PM build your own ice-cream sundae social included). Children will perform what they learn LIVE during Sunday morning services on July 10th!

Contact Pastor Derek today: derek@elementweb.net or call 635-1316 today!

Well, a few weeks ago I gathered all three of the oldest kids in the kitchen to pray for them before they left.  I typically pray the same prayer every day, and did that day as well:  “Lord, I pray you would ENCAMP your angels around Jonah, Mariah and Makalah.  I pray you would protect their hearts, souls, minds and bodies.  Help them to be leaders for you!  I pray they would have an awesome day and to do their best.  In Jesus name, Amen.” 

As soon as I said Amen, Mariah looked at me and said “Angels go camping?”  At first I wasn’t sure what she said, so I was like, “Huh?”  Mariah asked again “Do angels go camping?”  I replied “Why would you ask that?”  “Dad, you prayed for angels to be camping around us.”  I about lost it!  In the middle of my laughing I explained to Mariah that I didn’t pray for angels to be camping, but that God would ENCAMP them around her.  “What does ENCAMP mean?”  I then explained that it means we’re asking God to put angels ALL AROUND us to protect us throughout the day.  Like kids often do she said “OH” and bounded off to the playground at school.

I didn’t think anything of it until last week at family devotions.  We had finished reading the Bible and everyone had shared their prayer requests they would be praying for.  We went around the table praying and came to Mariah.  I don’t even remember who or what she was praying for, but she prayed one of the most mature prayers I’ve ever heard her speak.  And in the middle of her prayer, in the proper use, she prayed “And God, I pray you would encamp your angels around them to protect them.”  WHAT?  Did she just pray that?  ABSOLUTELY she did.  Wanna know why?  Because she heard her DAD pray it!

Hearing her pray that prayer only FURTHERED my firm belief in what Donna Reed said during our panel discussion on Sunday:  “Much more is CAUGHT from us to our kids, than it is TAUGHT!”

Parents?  What are your kids catching from you?  Are they hearing your prayers?  Seeing you read your Bible?  With you when you serve?  Do you let them put the tithe check in the offering and then have the JOY of explaining to them why you give that much money to God?  Don’t be fooled.  Your kids are watching, listening AND learning from what you do!

Do angels go camping?  Not that I know of?  But with that one question, my daughter learned a VALUABLE lesson in prayer and spiritual warfare.

Hoping they catch it,

Jeff

Trusting God with the answers,

Jeff