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

11 Rules for marraige you wont learn in school.

Came across this today and thought it was worth passing along. I love Family Life.



Rule 1: Marriage isn’t about your happiness. It’s not about you getting all your needs met through another person. Practicing self-denial and self-sacrifice, patience, understanding, and forgiveness are the fundamentals of a great marriage. If you want to be the center of the universe, then there’s a much better chance of that happening if you stay single.

Rule 2: Getting married gives a man a chance to step up and finish growing up. The best preparation for marriage for a single man is to man up now and keep on becoming the man God created him to be.

Rule 3: It’s okay to have one rookie season, but it’s not okay to repeat your rookie season. You will make rookie mistakes in your first year of marriage; the key is that you don’t continue making those same mistakes in year five, year 10, or year 20 of your marriage.

Rule 4: It takes a real man to be satisfied with and love one woman for a lifetime. And it takes a real woman to be content with and respect one man for a lifetime.

Rule 5: Love isn’t a feeling. Love is commitment. It’s time to replace the “D word”—divorce—with the “C word”—commitment. Divorce may feel like a happy solution, but it results in long-term toxic baggage. You can’t begin a marriage without commitment. You can’t sustain one without it either. A marriage that goes the distance is really hard work. If you want something that is easy and has immediate gratification, then go shopping or play a video game.

Rule 6: Online relationships with old high school or college flames, emotional affairs, sexual affairs, and cohabiting are shallow and illegitimate substitutes for the real thing. Emotional and sexual fidelity in marriage is the real thing.

Rule 7: Women spell romance R-E-L-A-T-I-O-N-S-H-I-P. Men spell romance S-E-X. If you want to speak romance to your spouse, become a student of your spouse, enroll in a lifelong “Romantic Language School,” and become fluent in your spouse’s language.

Rule 8: During courtship, opposites attract. After marriage, opposites can repel each another. You married your spouse because he/she is different. Differences are God’s gift to you to create new capacities in your life. Different isn’t wrong, it’s just different.

Rule 9: Pornography robs men of a real relationship with a real person and poisons real masculinity, replacing it with the toxic killers of shame, deceit, and isolation. Pornography siphons off a man’s drive for intimacy with his wife. Marriage is not for wimps. Accept no substitutes.

Rule 10: As a home is built, it will reflect the builder. Most couples fail to consult the Master Architect and His blueprints for building a home. Instead a man and woman marry with two sets of blueprints (his and hers). As they begin building, they discover that a home can’t be built from two very different sets of blueprints.

Rule 11: How you will be remembered has less to do with how much money you make or how much you accomplish and more with how you have loved and lived.

Pass on “The Rules” to a friend who will enjoy them!

IT IS TIME

Its time. Its time for me to get my life back on a schedule and be more organized. I have been aweful for a few weeks now. I only do laundry when there is nothing else to wear or no towels in the hall closet, I only do the dishes when the sink overfloweth, I have not made my bed once this week. ITS AWEFUL! I am starting in the morning (Monday) to get my life a little bit more organized. When I started babysitting the twins I was getting up before they got here to do a little bit of reading and Bible study then would clean the house BEFORE laying down for a nap with Levi. It was great I always had time to myself during the day, because I planned it well. We were up and had breakfast and the kitchen cleaned by 9 o'clock every morning. I had time to play with Levi ( in a clean Living room) and do a little bit of learning excercises. My bedroom was ALWAYS clean. The bed might not have been made everyday, ok, so the bed was never made, but at least I could see my dresser and chest! Now there are clean clothes on my chest and books and baby stuff all over my dresser. I am tired of feeling like I am not getting anything accomplished during the day when my man gets home. I like to be able to just spend the evening with him and Keristin after they have been gone all day. I like to have supper done for them by 4 in the evening, but the past few weeks, I have done none of this. I have got to get myself together becaue beginning next year we will start 2 year old school with Levi. I will not be doing much each day with him, but if I am not structured, then it will be crazy trying to teach him even a little bit. I heard someone say once that a sloppy house reflects a sloppy faith I have this posted on my refrigerator and I am living by it! You would think that by me not getting my house cleaned everyday that I would have plenty of time to spend with the kids and with Joseph, but on the contrary, I constantly have something on my mind, such as what I need to be doing or I things haven't gotten done during the day. So I am not spending quality time with them. When I am more organized, I have EVERYTHING done in the evening and am able to spend the whole evening with the family. I am much more ful filled and feel as though I am living out my purpose in life. Being a wife, mother, and friend to my family.

Um... PJs, McDonalds, and Target

After being snowed in for a week I was finally ready to go somewhere. Levi was almost out of diaper so why not go to Target. When we got up this morning Joseph told me he wasn't taking the day off and our beautiful daughter is at a friends house. So it is just me and levi. I love having mommy days with each of my children.
I wanted to get out but didn't want to get dressed! I decided I was staying in what I slept in (lounge pants, and one of Joseph's sweat shirts). We went to eat just at McDonalds and ordered 2 cheese burgers, medium french fry, large sweet tea, and COOKIES ( something we NEVER do) we sat down adn shared it all! Levi enjoyed watching the cars go by out the window, but I think the little guy filling the ice machine was his favorite. When we were all done, levi helped put things away and then wanted to walk to the car all by himself. He is growing up so fast!
We left for Target and Levi decided to get in a power nap on the way. He loved shopping! We always check out the dollar section at Target for great deals! He has to play with everything there. He wanted stickers, books, oven mits, cookie cutters, trucks, animals, chips, and a closet organizer. ( no I did not purchase them all!) We left only with a clothes hamper for $2.50. As we were walking away from it all he was still holding the closet organizer , handed it to me and said " put it back". I guess he decided he didn't want to organize his closet after all. We walked around for awhile playing with different things. I found a shower curtain for the bathroom on sale for 13 dollars, originally 27 dollars! So then I think he was done. He asked for his binky and pabby. When he is tired he always wants those two things. He wants me to lay is binky on the buggy handle so he has a 'pillow' to lay his head on. So he rested on the way to the check out. I purchased our items including our 2 bags of raisenets that we had a coupon for. :)
As we got in the car he asked to go night night. I told him he could sleep on the way home, but do you think he did? Um... no.
So here we are at home. He is laying next to me while I am writing this. Oh how I love being able to stay at home with my children! It is the little things like this that make me feel so blessed! God is an awesome God!

Who We Were, Are, and Hope to Be

Hello,
let me introduce you to myself and my family. Let me start by telling you where Joseph and I(Courtney) came from. We met in a small home school group in a little town called Bridgeport, Al . I had just turned 12 years old, Joseph was 16. Joseph and I became best friends. We would do everything together. We were already 'courting' before we were 'courting, if that makes any sense at all. I knew that he was the one that God had for me before he ever asked me what I thought about us. Joseph left for UNA after graduating high school. We had a long distance relationship for 2 years. I saw him only a hand full of times through the school year and he would come home for the summer. We would try to spend lots of time together then. God was amazing through this time. He kept Joseph and me untainted for each other. We had our rough spots during this time, but we knew that God had put us together and He would keep us together. Joseph announced his call to preach the gospel while he was at UNA. Again, I knew that this would be the road for us before he ever mentioned it to me. It is funny how when God is up to something he lines everything up just right. We were married on January 25, 2003 in a small church in TN. In this church Joseph was the Youth Pastor, Song Leader/Choir Director,we together were the VBS Directors. I stood along beside him in his leadership positions and played the piano. We learned and grew a lot in this little church. After sometime there, it was evident that God was calling us back to Bridgeport. We attended First Baptist Church, where Joseph held a hand full of responsibilities. While at FBC we were expecting our first child. We were so excited, we had wanted children from the time we were married. I had been to a couple of doctors appointments and everything seemed to be fine. The day that we were to have our first ultra sound I woke up feeling as something was not right. I told Joseph that I was physically fine I just felt uneasy about the day. When we were there the Doctor told us that things were not right and that we would lose this baby. I was 10 weeks and the baby had stopped growing at 7 weeks. We were devastated. How could God take a baby that he had promised to us? How could he take a baby from a healthy pregnancy? Those were the thoughts running through my mind that day. Looking back I now see the big picture. There was nothing that anyone could do to comfort me, not even my beloved husband. Though he was an amazing man through all of it, he could not fill the void that was there. My Father was calling me to a deeper relationship with Him. I remember the day that I just gave in to the pain. I laid in the floor of my living room and sobbed. I had wrapped myself in a blanket and was clenching it with my fist asking God why. I remember the sweet peace that overcame me that day. We became Jackson County Foster Parents a few months later. I know that if it were not for the miscarriage then we would have never fostered. We have fostered 17 children to date. How awesome is that. I did not know at the time that God was calling us to be parents to 17 children! I have had a love for each of them that is different than anything I have ever felt. Each one of them different in their own way. After being at Bridgeport First Baptist for 5 years, God has called us to Huntsville, Al where Joseph is Senior Pastor at Brownsboro Baptist Church and I am a full time mother, part time photographer. We have been here for 2 years and love it! God has richly blessed us in our church family. In the past 2 years God has given us a second child of our own, a son, Levi Riddoc, who is now 18 months old. We are still fostering through Jackson County and have a beautiful 16 year old daughter. She might not share our last name but she definitely shares our hearts.We are looking forward to what God has for us in the future. What other children he might bless us with. None of this has been an easy task, but our Father is faithful.
I hope that this tells you a little about who we are. One day I might elaborate on each stopping point in our journey, but for now I feel as though this is sufficient.
May God richly bless you in your faith journey.