Wisdom in a Choice
There is nothing else I would claim to have been wise for other than my choice of who I married!
I am a very blessed man!
Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
Lost
We are in the middle of season 4 of this TV show.
Check us out at www.twitter.com/eddiesmith and www.twitter.com/marthamarie. These sites answer the question, “What are you doing?” You can see what wild and crazy things our kids are saying or doing as well as catch up with our latest thoughts on life subjects including how we feel while we are in line at the Wal-mart check out counter.
Our 6th Anniversary
Friday, May 29
- Martha Marie’s mother and sister came to watch the kids
- We left for Ridgecrest Conference and Retreat Center (Amazing place! Pastor’s can book it for $35 a night!)
- Took funny pictures of ourselves just cause we can.
- Went to eat at Flat Rock Grille (amazing!)
Saturday, May 30
- We were planning to go rafting on the French Broad River, but it was too high and fast with no banks because of all the rain.
- Instead we went to Grandfather Mountain and saw the animals, took in gorgeous mountainous views, hiked nature trail, and crossed the mile high swinging bridge.
- McDonald’s for breakfast in Marion, NC.
- Fatz for lunch in Marion, NC.
- Nap!
- No supper from being so full from Fatz.
- Loaded up on candy at Ingles to sneak it in to the movies to watch Star Trek for the late show.
Sunday, May 31
- Slept in!
- Looked around at Ridgecrest. The place is huge!
- Martha Marie almost stepped on a black snake.
- Brunch at Cracker Barrel.
Amazing weekend!
Click here to see pictures.
Leap Year
On February 29 every 4 years we make up the loss of a full day to maintain lunisolar calendars. Read more about leap year on Wikipedia.
I believe that Joshua 10:12-13 is why we have leap year so that God can display His glory and majesty while breaking His own rules of science. He can do that and anything He wants because He is God!
Joshua 10:12-13 (New International Version)
12On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:
“O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on [a]its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.
Joshua may have had his science wrong, but his heart was pure. He probably thought that the earth was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth. He asked God to do a ridiculous thing that defied His laws of nature (AKA a miracle).
We have asked the sun to stand still in many ways in the past few years for our:
- Family
We will officially adopt our son on June 9, 2009! There were several miracles that took place in order for this to be possible. We were told at 1 time that he would possibly not make it out of the hospital alive before he came into our care. He was once on 6 medicines and way underweight. He is now healthy, on zero medicines, and is on track for his weight with no complications. We were even told once that it would be impossible to adopt him. God made the sun stand still in so many ways and He gets glory for it!
- Health
Miracle after miracle took place in the revealing, the diagnosis, the correction, and healing of Martha Marie’s brain and gall bladder surgeries in 2008!Many of you helped us beg God to make the sun stand still through prayer, volunteering, child care, meals, financial giving, and encouragement and we can never thank you enough!
- Ministry
We have felt a calling to church planting in the past year or so. We don’t know what that means yet, but we have spent the past 2 years preparing for it through books, blogs, attending church services, conferences, and the things I am learning at my current employment.I currently do not have plans to leave Southern Wesleyan University or our current church (First Wesleyan Church, Greenville). I am however asking God to make the sun stand still and do something absolutely ridiculous through our personal ministry to the least of these. I am not satisfied until our family can make a difference for others in the name of Jesus so that people can walk from life to death. This will probably mean bivocational ministry (working my full time job while doing ministry). Our current church wants to start a new service of some type. This may be where this mentality of planting ends up, even if it does not result in a church plant. It may just mean planting a new service.
In February, Martha Marie began directing Caroline’s Promisein South Carolina. There are 143 million orphans worldwide. Caroline’s Promise exists to educate and make people aware of how they can make a difference in the life of one of them.
The problem is not that there are 143 million orphans. That is the outcome of a variety of circumstances. The problem is that some good people are doing nothing about it. Thank you for those that have supported orphans through your prayers, giving, volunteering, and/or attending the fundraising banquet in April. The banquet was fully underwritten by your generous giving and $9,000 was raised in addition on the night of the banquet to help orphans worldwide.
Several years ago, Martha Marie felt the calling to pursue playing the guitar. She felt like a fish out of water not knowing what to do about a good quality guitar and not knowing how to play. After brain surgery, life will never be the same for us. Life is much more purposeful now. It was go time. We asked the sun to stand still to provide a guitar and lessons. God sent an angel (you know who you are) to provide lessons and help us find the guitar she needed. Just 9 months later after starting lessons, our pastor invited Martha Marie way outside of her comfort zone to start playing guitar and leading a few songs each Sunday morning as a worship leader in our church.
If times are dark for you now or the storm is unbearable, ask God to make the sun stand still so you can march to freedom because of what Christ did on the cross for you to claim redemption for His plan for your life.
If times are peachy and tribulations are not in sight, take advantage of the opportunity to be on the offense and destroy the enemy’s (Satan) plans by asking the sun to stand still so you can march to victory.
Martha Marie: A Proverbs 31 Woman
“A wife of noble character is hard to find.” – Proverbs 31:10
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” – Proverbs 31:30
There are so many qualities I love about Martha Marie. Here are just some of them.
- She wants to do God’s will.
- She is beautiful inside and out.
- She is a wonderful wife and mother.
- She is so patient with me, the kids, and others.
- She is fun to be around.
- Her personality is attractive and magnetic.
- Her heart for people is as big as the world.
- She loves Jesus.
- She is a great cook.
- She has a great attitude.
- She is excellent with children: our and others.
- She has insurmountable amounts of faith.
- She is understanding.
- She is determined.
- She has a great sister, parents, and extended family.
- She has a pure heart.
- She teaches me so many things about life and God.
I am so blessed to be married to Martha Marie!
My Web Heroes
I’m new again to the blog world, even though I have had a personal web site since 2000.
I’d like to publicly share who my web heroes are that got me started blogging and web site designing.
I’m pretty sure this guy invented the internet. Thank you Stevan for being the second blogger ever (Keith Drury was the first). Thank you for all the annoying questions you answered for me about Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and all those other programs. I would not be a .com without you!
2. Keith Drury
The first blogger in the history of man kind. He would post a column every single Tuesday of something for us to think about.
Jason helped get me connected by learning how to connect nameservers and all that behind the scene stuff. I found out at a family funeral that Jason and I are cousins even though I grew up in North Carolina and he grew up in Michigan. Small world.
4. Aaron Pratt
Aaron gave me my first tutorial on Front Page and helped me put together my first web site.
Thanks guys for your investment. You are my heroes!
What I Love About Martha Marie (Part 1)
I have an amazing wife. I love her and am so blessed to have her as a part of my life. This will take several posts, but I want to share some of the things I love about Martha Marie.
1. She is beautiful inside and out!
I love what God did when he decided what Martha Marie was going to look like and act like. Her smile lights up the room and her eyes brighten anyone’s day that connects with them. I won’t get Song of Solomonish, but I love the rest of God’s creation of her as well!
People are attracted to her warm personality and want to be around her.
I’m so lucky!
Happy Birthday Mama!
Today is my Mama’s 50th birthday! Write her an email at tamiekennedy@hotmail.com.
Happy Birthday Mama! We love you!
Undo What I’ve Become
We all have areas in our lives that we are not wild about when we try to line our lives up with what God wants for us. These areas can be labeled as weaknesses, sin, flaws, or some other negative area of our lives. Whatever we want to call it, we should not excuse those areas of our lives or think that God cannot redeem those areas of our lives and turn them into something that can please Him.
The song Undo, by Rush of Fools has been a great encouragement to me that Jesus Christ “is the only One that can undo what I’ve become” when Satan tries to remind me of my weaknesses and try to convince me that I cannot overcome them.
2 Corinthians 12:9 says But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Undo by Rush of Fools lyrics
I’ve been here before, now here I am again
Standing at the door, praying You’ll let me back in
To label me a prodigal would be
Only scratching the surface of who I’ve been known to be[Chorus]
Turn me around pick me up
Undo what I’ve become
Bring me back to the place
Of forgiveness and grace
I need You, need Your help
I can’t do this myself
You’re the only one who can undo
What I’ve becomeI focused on the score, but I could never win
Trying to ignore, a life of hiding my sin
To label me a hypocrite would be
Only scratching the surface of who I’ve been known to be
[Chorus]
Turn me around pick me up
Undo what I’ve become
Bring me back to the place
Of forgiveness and grace
I need You, need Your help
I can’t do this myself
You’re the only one who can undo
What I’ve become
Make every step lead me back to
The sovereign way that You
[Chorus]
Turn me around pick me up
Undo what I’ve become
Bring me back to the place
Of forgiveness and grace
I need You, need Your help
I can’t do this myself
You’re the only one who can undo
What I’ve become