A special thanks

Today has been one of those days where I am overflowing with satisfaction in God and how he has formed my life up to this point. Realizing that any of the mistakes that I made along my journey could have drastically changed my path had it not been for the sovereign will of God. As many people say, if you would have asked me six years ago if I would be where I am today, I would been taken back in laughter. Not because of many of the things in my life now, but because of this one thing: I am married to a senior pastor of a church. This one thing alone causes me to fall to my knees in praise towards God because it is because of this pastor, my husband, that I have grown in my journey with Christ in such an intense, face to the ground, kind of way. Of course it is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that we are transformed, but I thank God each day that the one he chose to be the closest, most defining influence of my sanctification process, is my husband Ryan.

I have always had a healthy respect and love for my husband, but it has been over the last few months as we have journeyed at Grace that I have seen his true freedom and joy in Christ. What a passion I see in Him as he strives to bring those around him a deeper understanding of God's Word. There is something so real about Ryan as he struggles, like each one in his congregation, to discern the will of God in his life and then embrace it, love God all the more for it, and rejoice.

So today Ryan, I thank you for who you are. My husband, my best friend, and my pastor. I thank you for your leadership in our physical family, but also our spiritual one. Thank you for always pushing me towards Christ, for loving me when I desperately need it, and for having patience when I fall. I look forward with great anticipation to the ways God will use in you in lives of so many. You are doing well my husband...Thank you for letting me labor with you as we live our lives together for His fame...

"For the Lord our God has made us
And the Lord our God has saved us
The Lord our God is growing us
And the Lord our God has brought us
This day in which to offer
Our lives together for His fame."
-Of All Daughters J. Ryan Davidson
copyright November 2005