my wife

2009 December 1
by Joshua Potter

From time to time I will talk about my family on my blog and today I am going to talk about my wife. Some people don’t know that my wife left a paid ministry position to come to be my wife (which is not a paid position). She had been very involved in her church and youth for several years and she left all that to come down to Clarinda. She is very involved in our church in many ways. She helps in so many areas, and most of them are behind the scene things that no one sees except for God and occasionally myself. She is the vision behind all of our Christmas decorations and set up and and how wonderful our sanctuary looks. She loves to decorate and be creative even when it comes to wrapping silverware for things we do. She does so much at our church. She does it for God and because she wants to see God do great things at our church. I could not do what I am able to do down here without her. She has been such an amazing ministry partner. I would not want to be on this adventure with anyone else. The good thing is that even if people in church forget to, or I forget to acknowledge all of the wonderful things that she does, God sees them and He will reward her for everything one day. I wish I could be there on that day because the reward will be great and deserved. I haven’t even started to talk about how great of a job she does at home with Alora and in being married to me. I am blessed.

highs and lows

2009 November 30
by Joshua Potter

Everyone is going to go through highs and lows. Everyone is going to have great things happen in their lives. Everyone is going to have horrible things happen in their lives. What I have noticed is two responses.

One is from people who press in and get closer to God and look at the situation from a healthy perspective. Who realize that life is difficult, nothing is promised and we have to acknowledge God in everything we do.
Others choose to run or quit. They stop going to church. They stop giving. They stop serving. They don’t draw close to God, but they try to rely on themselves and they don’t acknowledge God for anything.
These are people who have probably heard a message at one time saying “once you give your life to God, everything will be great” or “just put God first in your marriage and it will be perfect” or “train your child in the way he should go and he will not stray from it”. I know people who have given their lives to God, who have put God first and who have trained their kids up in the way they should go and everything in life isn’t perfect, their marriage is difficult and they have adult children who don’t serve God even though they took them to church almost every Sunday and Wed. night.
So what do you do? What you do is Matthew 5:3 – blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. When things are going well and you have great health, thank God and bless His name. When your health is bad, still thank God that He is good and believe in Him for healing. When things are going well or not so well we need to acknowledge our need for him. He will hear us.

trip recap

2009 November 24
by Joshua Potter

As most of you know I went to Dallas last Friday through Sunday. Here is a quick recap of my trip. Friday morning we left at 6 and drove till 4. We got to Dallas and then we got all showered up and went to the Dallas Mavericks game. After the game we drove around to places, my favorite was the grassy knoll and the exact street JFK drove down when he was assassinated. (not that he was assassinated, but I drove down a street that has so much history) Saturday we got up and watched the Hawkeyes go 10-2. Then we drove around Dallas for a while. I went to Fellowship Church (Ed Young). Then we went to chapel with the Cowboys. It was awesome to sit in the same room as some of the coaches and players. I also met a pastor friend of the guy we stayed with who was really cool. Sunday we got up and went to the Dallas game. It was a boring game, the total was 7-6, but they won. Then we drove back and arrived home around 3:30 a.m. It was a great trip. I posted some pictures on my blog yesterday and on my facebook account. Check them out here.

couple pics from Cowboys game

2009 November 24
by Joshua Potter



Excuses

2009 November 19
by Joshua Potter

I am not a fan of people who make excuses. People make excuses for everything. People make excuses in their marriages. People make excuses for their kids. People make excuses for being late all the time. People make excuses for almost anything you can think of. I could think of 1000 reasons not to do the things that I do and so could you, but does that mean we should? I can think of many reasons why my spouse needs to change, does that mean I should? (not talking about my wife whom I love dearly, speaking in generalities here). I can think of a thousand reasons to blame everyone else for all my problems, but that does not mean that I should or need to.

We have all made excuses for behaviors, problems and situations in our lives. What would happen if we stopped making excuses and took action? When we make excuses for ourselves or others it really locks up the potential of what we or they can become because we are limiting them in the long run. I HATE WHEN PEOPLE DO THIS!!!! Anyhow, the next time you would rather make an excuse for whatever the situation might be, take responsibility and take action. Don’t let others define who you are or what you become. Don’t let your inaction determine who you become. STOP MAKING EXCUSES!!!!!

leaving things behind

2009 November 18
by Joshua Potter

It’s almost here!!! I leave for Dallas Friday morning. I am so excited. When I leave for Dallas there are a few things I am leaving behind. I am leaving behind my wife and my daughter. I am also leaving behind the church and my home. I wish I could take everyone with me, but I cant.

This got me thinking. Some times to get to experience something you have never experienced you have to leave some things behind. I am hardly suggesting you leave your family behind, but you understand there are relationships that will be o.k. if we leave them behind or possessions that will be o.k. if we leave them behind. A lot of people are afraid to leave things behind and they never get to that next level or next step because they would just have too hard of a time parting with whatever precious thing they have. So we have to look at our lives and look at that thing that you may be keeping or holding on to, maybe it is time to let it go. Maybe it is time to part with that, so you can experience something new. I am going to experience something new and awesome this weekend, not better than my family or my church, but something new that I love. My family will be o.k., the church will be o.k. and my house will be o.k.
So, what is something you need to leave behind to experience something new?

feeling stupid

2009 November 17
by Joshua Potter

Have you ever just felt stupid? I am sure most of us have. Whether it is not knowing directions, not knowing how to put together something or not wanting to ask for help. Now, I am not writing this so you can tell me, “I know how to do that” or “You should know how to do that”, I am writing it because sometimes we just feel stupid and it doesn’t help to have someone point out “ok stupid, it’s not that hard”. There are times as a new dad I feel useless. There are times as a pastor I feel inadequate. There are times when things happen with cars that I feel completely stupid, as is the case today. Yesterday my battery light came on, which is odd because is has never come on before. Then Melissa took it to the store and the music was cutting out and lights were blinking a bit. This morning I went to start it, and it was officially dead. I charged it, it ran for a while and while it was outside just running it died, so that’s awesome. So I have been making calls to people who may be able to help me.

Long story short, I feel stupid and useless today regarding my car. Help is on the way. Thank God.

intergenerational church

2009 November 16
by Joshua Potter
About 3 months ago God started stirring in my heart today’s message. The way and timing of everything has been truly amazing. You can listen to the message here. It was all confirmed in me this week when my wife got a letter this week from a 91 year old from our church who said this – ” I am not sure why I am here, but I know God has me here. I sit where I sit on Sunday so I can hear the message and so I can be with the youth (she sits on the second row with them, today the youth took up 4 rows). Every week when I hug them I tell the boys “she is pretty” and I tell the girls “you are beautiful”. This is my ministry to the church”. It was blatantly obvious where God was taking our service. We had a 15 year old girl get up and tell her story of how God has brought her from amazing places to where He is her Rock. It was an amazing testimony. It’s on the podcast along with 2 other testimonies from girls from our church who God did great things in at convention. Our dream is simple, to see a 15 year old passionately pursuing God next to a 70 year old who is passionately pursuing God, realizing that they both do things differently, but understand it’s not wrong, it’s just different. Working together and doing it all together in unity. Not us against them, but it’s us against the enemy. Not blaming each other for what the church should be, but being the church together. It was a refreshing Sunday for me.

spiritual pacifiers

2009 November 13
by Joshua Potter
I write a lot of stories about our daughter on here. So, I am sorry you have to put up with me, but I love her a lot and I talk a lot about her. Here’s the deal -
Alora likes her pacifier. We like that she likes her pacifier :) . When she falls asleep a lot of times she will spit it out. The funny thing is after she spits it out, she still thinks it is in and makes the mouth motions as if it were in. Most likely she still thinks it is in or is trying to comfort herself somewhat.
I think sometimes believers do the same thing. They revert back to something that is no longer there and trying to comfort themselves. I heard Francis Chan said “why would we need the Comforter if we were comfortable?” I love that quote. Sure God has brought a lot of us through many things, but there are many more things we will go through and we will need a fresh level of comfort in uncomfortable times. Many in the church have fallen asleep, the pacifier is out and they are going through the motions as if the pacifier is still in and it isn’t. We need to wake up and find the Comforter in uncomfortable times. He is there. He is fresh. It’s time to wake up.

when in doubt, blame yourself

2009 November 11
by Joshua Potter

Yesterday, I spent my whole day blaming others, not because this is how I live, but because I wanted to show people how ultimately silly we can be when we live our lives like that. It is always easier to blame someone else for our issues. It is always easier to blame my friends, spouse, former pastors, past relationships and you name it rather than to take responsibility for your own actions. So, today I am taking responsibility for my own actions.

When we take responsibility for our actions we humble ourselves and acknowledge that we make mistakes or have made mistakes, but we don’t give the enemy grounds to attack us and condemn us, so this is kinda tricky for some. Taking responsibility means admitting that you didn’t handle yourself the way you should have, even if the other person responded in a worse way than you did. Taking responsibility means admitting you haven’t treated your spouse perfectly either. There are always two sides to every story and most times we just hear one, and the one we most like to tell is our side of the story and we conviniently leave out details of how we dropped the ball. When we take responsibility, we tell the whole story, and invite the other person to tell their side.

We take responsibility for our actions. We take responsibility when we waste money and then don’t have it for the most important things. We take responsibility when we act in a way that takes Glory away from God and puts it on ourselves. We take responsibility when we act in the ungodliest ways because we are not “there” yet.

I am going to take responsibility today. I have been married for 2 1/2 years now and until the past few months didn’t pray with my wife every night before bed. We started out doing devotions with each other every night before we went to bed when we were first married. After that book was done, we never started another one. Since just before Alora was born we pray most every night, and some nights we just don’t and that is on me. I pray for my wife daily, but there is something special about praying together. So, I am taking responsibility for not doing that, and I am going to do my best and ask for God’s help to be more diligent. If there is one thing I need outside of God it is my wife’s love and companionship. She is supportive and loving. As the leader of my family, it’s on me to wash her with the Word and pray for her and cause all of her affections to be set on God. God help me!

p.s. I promise tomorrow won’t be as long :)