Right After Sunrise

Let's Talk...

2009-03-31T20:57:00.002-05:00

We are at a bit of a turning point here at the Gunkel house. In a few different areas, God is tying up loose ends, closing some doors and opening up some new ones.

SO, I ask my precious (in a manly way) husband while I'm fixing dinner,

"So how are you feeling about life?" (meaning, of course, the areas that are changing a bit.)

And he says, "Good."

Recognizing that he appearently doesn't want to talk I say, "Oh. Okay."

A bit later, I say, "You know it kind of hurt my feelings earlier when you didn't answer my question. With everything going on I thought we could talk about it."

He very seriously and lovingly responds, "What? We did talk about it."

To which I point out that he avoided my question.

He says, "You asked how I felt. And I said 'Good.'"

Well! There ya go. I guess we did talk about it. Silly me.

A very wise woman says often that "Men process with TIME. Where women process with WORDS."

I think we've proven her wisdom to be true. :)

Who has the whole world in his hands?

2009-02-25T22:23:00.002-06:00

Yeah. It's Jesus.

But SOMETIMES I take it out of Jesus' hands and put it in Tim's. I don't mean to. I just like to SEE someone hold my world. My security...my future...my children... you know, my world. In their hands. It's kind of heavy though, and after me making Tim carry the God-sized load he starts to get tired. But still in attempt to impress his bride with his brute strength he tries to press on, until he drops it. My world...dropped. And I cry. Because my feelings are crushed. And he gets angry. At himself.

And Jesus watches and waits. Then, when we come to Him. He wipes my tears. Gives Tim a 'You da man...I'm da God' pep talk. And picks up our world, with HIS hands.

And THEN there is peace. That passes all understanding. Because it works that way.

Humbled

2009-02-23T21:42:00.004-06:00

Christie has a small group that meets at our house on Monday nights, so I usually take the kiddos and we go on a date. Well, tonight we went to Mardel and then it was time for desert, so we went to Wendy's and had a frostie, or as I like to call it "heaven in a cup." After that, we still had about an hour to kill, so we went to Walmart.

Now, ask yourself, would you take four very adorable children, that are all doped up on sugar to Walmart...SOLO?

I know, I know, dumb idea.

Well, as my four sugar possessed children ran though Walmart screaming, fighting, and making sure that no cracks are stepped on or it will break your mothers back, I'm just thankful we went to the Walmart on I-35 where surely know one will know us. We finally get in line to checkout, and my kids are jumping back and forth to all the different trinket crap in the checkout line. They ask me for gum. I say no. They bounce a little more, and I get mad at them. As we get in the truck, I tell them that next Monday they will be going to bed instead of on a date. I then list off about fifteen other punishments to them, and we start to drive home. I am fuming over the whole ordeal while driving, when I start getting a little convicted. Just a little at first and then a whole lot. I begin thinking I shouldn't have blown up at them if I wasn't getting onto them all along for all the other stuff they where doing wrong before the checkout. I hate saying I'm sorry, but I did, and took all the punishments away.

Why do I sometimes feel like my kids teach me more than I teach them?

Fireproof

2009-02-22T21:19:00.000-06:00

Tonight we went to see the movie Fireproof (www.fireproofmymarriage.com). We are a little behind, as I think everyone we know has seen it. We tried to rent it on Valentines Day, but it was not available. So we got 'W' instead. Fireproof was certainly the better investment of our time.

A local church offered a showing of it and had popcorn, drinks, and free childcare. We have four children. We DO NOT pass up free childcare. Anyway, we thought we would discuss our thoughts of the movie on our first real post on our new blog!

Christie: It took a little while to get into the somewhat cheesy acting in the beginning, but after 20 min. or so I was emotionally committed. There were so many flashbacks to the ugliest times in our marriage...as well as some glimpses that didn't have to flash very far back. (Yesterday was not a good day in Gunkel Paradise.) I think that my favorite part of the movie was that it was the woman who ends up being the last to humble herself after her husband has repented and actively loved and pursued her. It was convicting because, well, I've got me some pride. Way too often we point fingers at the stinky boy and us girls get to sit around and wait and pray. Maybe I'm the only one, but I myself have some apologizing to do. And I don't think its ever "too late to 'pologize". In the end, the Holy Spirit used the movie to tug at my wee little heart to own up to my side of the problems in our marriage...or any relationship for that matter. It was good. I cried. And I really don't ever cry.

Tim: Praise Jesus that this movie was not produced by TBN! It did not look pretty for about the first 15 minutes or so, but (warning!! spoilers coming) as soon as the firefighters responded to the car accident and had to get the car off the train tracks, I was in. This movie was just one more thing recently that God has used to convict me as to how I treat my wife and how I live my life. I've picked up a sense of urgency that I feel like more and more people in the church are catching lately, which is we have to stop playing the game and start living the sacrificed life. We as the church cannot have a divorce rate that is equal to the rest of the world, and expect to be effective in spreading the love of Christ. This movie is one more example of that.

Welcome to our World!

2009-02-22T13:54:00.001-06:00

We have decided to create a place to share our random thoughts with the world. Thanks for coming by!