Today is an anniversary day–Kathy and I met 34 years ago today.  It was a blind date set by a teacher who worked for me.  She and her husband knew the two of us even though we were 200+ miles apart.  Kathy was in Wallowa, OR and I was here outside of Caldwell, ID.  It is through this relationship and marriage that God has brought me through the reality of my abuse, the healing of it and the ministry of now using it to help others overcome.  I simply am amazed at the wondrous works of our Father God, Jesus Christ and The Precious Holy Spirit.

I had one of my grandsons helping me yesterday disassemble the swimming pool that we’ve had for the past 18 years.  It was a 24′ above ground one which we had a deck built around, etc.  It had weakened over the years and finally gave way this winter.  While working with my grandson I asked him to tell me about the strengths he has.  It was so fun to hear him expound on the gifts of character he sees in himself.  It was not a time of arrogance for him to do this.  He was rather humble in telling this.  I was able to confirm them as true.  A little later I asked him if he had any character traits that needed to be worked on because they hindered him.  He was quiet for a minute and then he told me one.  Just as before, he was honest and accurate.  We went on to talk about how he is using his strengths and how to could work on the hindrance.

As I grow older and reflect on my life and the lives of many from my generation, I see how the spirit of man was humiliated into thinking what could be gifts needed to be humbled into submission or beat out of you.  This mindset of many men and even women was a genuine flaw in our upbringing.  We really need to honor the gifts our children and grandchildren are given and nurture them as well as help them use these for honoring purposes.  Satan has an evil way of perverting man’s thinking so that what God intended to be a gift becomes something to do away with.  I am glad to be working on this in my own life and it’s fun to work with others to help them see their own gifts as just that–a gift.