Well, it has been exactly a year since I have been on my blog site, and I must say it is embarrassing to admit. I guess I have never blogged before so I can’t promise you that this first blog will be all that great. Some of the staff at the church have been on my case for a while about blogging again and some how it always gets pushed to the end of my “to do list”.
Looking at the calender this week and I can’t believe that it has been exactly one full year since I’ve started working at Grimes United Methodist Church, and I can say that it has been a huge blessing in my life. My grandpa told me when I was little. “Philip, you will have a job someday, and you may like it, you might not. But if you have a job where you love what you do, then you never work a day in your life.” I can agree with that quote. I try to explain it to people and looking back at all the events that have brought me to this point, I am speechless. I can only thank God for bringing me to this place. Before my ministry at GUMC, I was stuck in a pretty deep hole. I was trying to deal with my grandpa’s death, which hurt me more than I thought it ever could. So, I was trying to climb out of it, but it didn’t matter how hard I tried I kept slipping and kept getting deeper and deeper into this pit that I seemed to be chained to. All through my young life I have heard stories and testimonys how God has used all kind of different events in people’s lives to point to show them a God that loves them. I am glad to say I am among them. We all have a story to tell. I use to think you had to have some HUGE deal happen to you in order to have a story.
I have a heart for kids. I love kids. Hearing all kinds of wild stories and events that have happened to them, always make me smile. Just hearing the simple joys that make them happy, it makes me think that sometimes I try to hard. To just sit, and listen to them. They have a story to tell and I am not going any where but to grab a front row seat so I can be there to hear them out. I was reading in the “Jesus Story Book Bible” the other day and something in this little Bible made me think. It says, “And Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, and said, “No matter how big you grow, never grow up so much that you lose your child’s heart: trust fully in God like a child trusts his parents.”
After thinking about it for awhile, I have been trying to grow up to fast. Since dad is gone for a year, and my brother has moved up to ISU and now it is just mom and I. I have learned how to lean on him and trust him with all my heart. That no matter how big you and I get, we are still God’s kids, and he loves us with all of his heart.
So to those who read this blog, I just want to strongly encourage you to share your story with someone. You never know who’s heart you might plant a seed in.
God’s Blessing to you all
Phil
