“Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing. For the one who wants to love life and to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit, and let him turn away from evil and do what is good. Let him seek peace and pursue it, because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do what is evil.” 1 Peter‬ ‭3:8-12‬

As I sit here and read this passage something comes to my heart that I have been struggling with like I am sure many people do. There are people I have to deal with in my life that make choices to make other people feel unloved, put other people down or just plain try to hurt them. Some of these people even call themselves Christians. I struggle because when frustration sets in I want to retaliate in the same way so they feel the pain they are causing others. As a husband, father, pop pop, uncle and brother in law especially when my family is being attacked in that way I just want to lash out to make them feel the way they are making my family and I feel.

That being said I cannot act that way. I am a true follower of Jesus and God says do not repay evil for evil. I choose to take care of things the right way. So at times it does become hard to make the right choice but I will make the right choice every time. I want to follow Jesus example the best I can. I am not perfect but I strive for perfection. I choose to be blessed by God. God’s eyes are on me and I want to make Him proud.

Be Blessed, Dave

“My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.” James‬ ‭1:19-20‬

Sitting here tonight on the 1 year anniversary of the day our lives would forever be changed. September 15th 2019@ 3:27 pm, Dave and I became grandparents. What we thought was a very serious medical concern with our daughter, turned out to be a surprise miracle baby, our granddaughter Arabella Marie! We went through every emotion that day from shock to anger to pure happiness and bliss.

Everyone handles things differently especially men and women. I as Madison’s mom went from being scared for my daughter’s life to utter shock and then to absolute love for both my daughter and my new granddaughter. Dave on the other hand was overwhelmed with anger. He had just found out that our daughter had been lying about her virginity and now had just become a mother with absolutely no prenatal care. I embraced Madison whereas Dave’s instinct was to pull away and avoid her. I believe my motherly instinct came out but men don’t have that instinct. That doesn’t mean his emotions were wrong. This was the way he handled the shock.

It did not take long for Dave to conquer his anger, thankfully. With the help of God and myself, Dave had reconciled with Madison the very next day and was finally ready to meet his new granddaughter.

As I expected, Dave instantly fell head over heels in love with Arabella and it was not long before she had him wrapped around her little finger.

There will be times in our lives where we are thrown curveballs and it is up to us how we handle them. We can choose to run and hide or we can embrace the situations we are facing. Something that may seem impossible at the time can turn into something beautiful! Yes we were overwhelmed to find out our 17 year old had just become a mom, but today, we cannot imagine a life without Arabella!!

“Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.” Ephesians‬ ‭4:31-32‬

Sometimes in our lives there are people and or situations that frustrate us or take a hold of us to the point that it takes our joy away. Some of those situations are so hard to let go of but those same situations are much harder to keep a hold of. When we keep a hold of those things it can make us sad, angry, take a toll on our relationships or any number of other things. Most of what we hold onto we have no control over. We cannot help how other people act and sometimes we cannot control situations that happen to us. So my question is why do we hold onto these things?

I think we hold on to those things because we hope to gain control of them when in reality we cannot most of the time. Situations with people are some of the hardest things to let go of because we think we can change what is going on or we can change them to act the way we want them to. Well we cannot and God does not expect us to answer for their actions He only asks us to answer for what we do and say.

The verse above says let go of all those feelings and be kind and compassionate. So let go of the all the things that cause you to not be who God has called you to be!!

Be Blessed, Dave