our family

our family

Monday, February 13, 2012

Relentless Pursuit

Here we are on our 2nd Anniversary trip.













Neither of us knew that the picture was taken until we were home!



What do you think of when you hear the words Relentless Pursuit?

I think of a Lion running after the gazelle. Never giving up until his prey has been caught.


Relentless by definition is never slacking, but continuing at the same level.

Pursuit is an effort to secure or attain.


It overwhelms me to think that I have been pursued relentlessly. Here is a recent event of God's pursuing in my life...




When Joseph and I were married we knew that we wanted other marriages to have what God has so graciously given to us. We knew that it was there for the taking if they would just open up and let him have full control. Though we felt that we had it all together and knew how to take them there, we had no idea! There were still things that we had to learn. Our first year of marriage was awesome. We both had full time jobs , and yet somehow I always worked it out to have food on the table when he got home from work and laundry was always done. When I went to work on a second shift job, he was the one that would take care of me. He would leave lights on at night after he had went to bed so that when I got home I could find my way through the house. Joseph was the music minister and I played the piano at our church, we were working in youth ministry, and was the directors of VBS. We thought that this was the life that God had for us along with "fixing" marriages. We celebrated our first year of marriage and thought we had it together and that this next year was going to be just as blissful as the first. Boy were we wrong. Not long into our second year we began to isolate ourselves from one another. He would have his plans and I would have mine. He is adventurous and was always wanting to be outside. I on the other hand wanted to stay inside and snuggle on the couch to watch movies. We hardly ever communicated anymore. Oh sure, we would talk about the little things but we would never discuss the big picture of where we saw God was taking us. We had put on the back burner what we KNEW we were suppose to be doing. By the end of the second year we were all dried up. We had nothing left to give to each other much less be able to pour into others lives. We knew that the 'D' word was not an option in our marriage, but we didn't know how to live with each other anymore. We decided for our second anniversary we would take a trip to Gatlinburg, TN. We bought our groceries when we arrived and stayed in a cabin for 4 days. We took our Bibles and Bible studies. At that point in our marriage God began a whole new work in us. We came back revived. I wish I could say that it was perfect from there on out, but it was not. We still had our times of not communicating or our misunderstandings, but it was different. We knew that we wanted to live our marriage in such a way that others could learn from example. We had something to strive toward. We had a purpose.


Little did we know that through all of this God was still pursuing us for something bigger.

He has relentlessly pursued Joseph and myself for 9 years and we have finally surrendered to what we were made for. He has opened many doors for us to act on the calling that He has placed in our lives. We now have the opportunity to share with others and hopefully bless them in their walk with Christ and by extension their relationship with their spouse and children.


Will you surrender to a GOD who is relentlessly pursuing YOU?

ENJOY LIFE MY SWEET FRIENDS,

Courtney Cooper













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