A few years back my wife and I were desiring to improve our relationship. Things were going well and we had been studying how to be a better spouse and how to have a more fulfilling relationship. We began praying for God to give us a ministry we could do together.

Over the years as a youth pastor, Heidi helped out quite a bit. She led junior high small groups, prepared food, hung out with kids, hosted events and even had many sleepless nights with teenagers over long weekends, primarily to help me with my ministry. I mean, she loved the students and she loved Jesus, but she had her own ministry, as well.

Heidi LOVES children in elementary school. You can see her light up when she interacts with them. And she is the premiere expert at it. She is an incredible teacher, parent and children’s ministry leader! After all, I trust her with the most important kids in my life, ours! Heidi led children’s ministry in the years after and I supported her, a little bit, anyways. I helped her with tech, trained and organized her tech helpers, helped create flyers or advertisements and showed up to her events to do whatever was needed.

So, here we were praying about a ministry we could do together, that would be ours. Within a few weeks, God had pointed us to our current roles as co-principals at the Eagle & Dove Academy. I noticed a post on facebook advertising the position. As I read the job description, I noted with each passing bullet, “Heidi would be great at that, I would be good at that, Heidi would be great at that, I could do that,” and so forth throughout the entire description. 

It was one position, but I could see how the two of us together would be perfectly fit for it. I messaged the contact and asked if he would consider two people to do the one job. We met, got to know each other, interviewed and was offered the position within a week.

God gave us confirmation that we knew He was providing. He was blessing us. We had received a ministry opportunity that we could do together. It was ours.

We have spent the last 2+ years leading as co-principals and we have learned a lot. We have grown in our relationship. We have seen how much we complement each other. We have learned to allow the other to lead in our strengths and/or passions. It is beautiful. 

But, it is not without challenge. We have learned to trust each other. We have learned how to listen better. We have seen certain strengths in each other that were only visible at our day jobs. 

When we were starting this position, I remember saying, “we’ve never really worked together before on something that is both of our passions.” Well, that wasn’t true because I quickly realized and remembered that we had spent the past 23 years raising our daughters together! And we quickly began relying on that experience, while expanding our influence.

I love working with my wife. First, I get to be with her. Second, I get to complement her. Third, I get to grow in my relationship with her. Fourth, God has used it to bless us. Lastly, I get to be with her. Having a relationship you enjoy with your spouse and working together is one of the most rewarding benefits of marriage.

I encourage you to pursue your oneness with your spouse in your own way. God will bless it. God will use it. 

God will bless you. Both of YOU.

It was amazing that I could do anything positive at school. We never settled in one town very long. We moved many times a year, almost every year. Due to the number of times we moved, my education was constantly disrupted. I also had a propensity to have behavioral issues from time to time at school. I excelled academically everywhere we went and most often surpassed those that had been at that school all along. I enjoyed the positive reinforcement I received at school from my teachers. Positive reinforcement was severely lacking at home and it was nice to receive it somewhere. It motivated me to do well in the classroom. I never settled for just passing my classes, but pursued excellence knowing that I would receive that positive feedback at school. I was a fairly smart kid and took pride in most of my studies.

“Hey, can I go to the library to work on a project for English?” I asked. 

“Since you finished typing the first section, sure. What do you have going on?” she asked. 

“I am working on my Senior English paper. I’m almost finished, but need a few more resources. I am writing about ‘Bart Power,’”I explained.

“Bart Power? What’s that?”