{"id":13464,"date":"2015-08-10T16:33:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T23:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/uncategorized\/driscoll-family-update-and-ecclesiastes-part-2\/"},"modified":"2023-06-22T17:00:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T00:00:28","slug":"driscoll-family-update-and-ecclesiastes-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/blog\/driscoll-family-update-and-ecclesiastes-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Driscoll Family Update and Ecclesiastes Part 2","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
Pastor Mark here. It’s a big week at our house with the 16th birthday of our oldest son Zac, and the 23rd anniversary of our wedding. For a fun change of pace, this week’s newsletter is from my wife Grace.<\/p>\n
Happy 23rd Anniversary!<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> Looking back, at age 21 we were so young yet didn\u2019t think we were. We finished our final year of college and started the adventure of ministry that God had clearly called us on. We were happily dirt poor and creative in our dates. We loved spending time together talking, laughing and growing in our walk with Jesus. Life started to feel more serious as we started a church and got \u201creal\u201d jobs, instead of summer hotel jobs. It was easy to let life\u2019s busyness get in the way of building our friendship and marriage, and feel good about getting our to do list accomplished. The Enemy likes to keep us so busy with life that we can miss the spouse in front of us that is supposed to be priority. We both caused hurt in this area to each other, but God was so gracious to teach us and grow us as we repented and forgave.<\/p>\n In the last year or so, our friendship has grown even more as we have walked through a \u201cvalley\u201d. When I\u2019ve felt down, overwhelmed, or discouraged God has shown Mark how to love me through to the other side, and vice versa. A helpful tip from a recent book I\u2019ve read (Living Right Side Up by Debbie Morris and friends pg 115) said to \u201cpause, ponder, and pray\u201d instead of reacting from emotion, which is helpful in all relationships. When we are joy-filled, we get to laugh and thank the Lord for all He has done and taught us in our lives: for His provision, for our children, for the wonderful people we have been able to serve, for guiding us into the next season clearly, for protection, for the support of family and friends, and for never leaving us or forsaking us!<\/p>\n I love that God has given me a faithful husband to walk this journey of life with, in all it\u2019s twists and turns, highs and lows, triumphs and trials. The longer we are married, the more work we put into our relationship, the more enjoyment we have. When we committed to marriage we said there wouldn\u2019t be a back door, and by God\u2019s sweet grace we have grown closer to Him and one another.<\/p>\n These are some practical habits that I have learned along the way:<\/strong><\/p>\n For the married women, your marriage is different from mine, your husband is different than mine, your circumstances are different than mine, your journey is different than mine, but we all can follow the same amazing God to learn and grow into the women He wants us to be with the marriages He wants us to have. Though I sometimes wish learning was easier, I look back and am thankful for what God has taught me along the way. I pray that each of us women who are married or will marry can have a friendship and marriage that is growing and joyful walking with Jesus together.<\/p>\n Ecclesiastes Part 2<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> Pastor Mark Driscoll<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pastor Mark here. It’s a big week at our house with the 16th birthday of our oldest son Zac, and the 23rd anniversary of our wedding. For a fun change of pace, this week’s newsletter is from my wife Grace. Happy 23rd Anniversary! August 15, 1992 was the beginning of our new life together! We … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":6,"featured_media":13467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"13885,16691,16692,17125,16273,16901","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[392],"tags":[],"ministries":[],"topics":[],"series":[],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31681,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13464\/revisions\/31681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13464"},{"taxonomy":"ministries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ministries?post=13464"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=13464"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=13464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAugust 15, 1992 was the beginning of our new life together! We started dating at age 17 in high school, were married at age 21, and had no idea the journey God had for us. We made plans, but God redirected us many times\u2026and we are still together trusting Him and learning how to love and serve each other 23 years later! We\u2019ve seen God\u2019s faithfulness in the \u201cfor better or for worse, richer or poorer, sickness or health, joy or sorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\nLastly, Today Ecclesiastes called \u201cMeaningless Life? part 2, Stuffing the Pita of Life: Ecclesiastes 1:12-18<\/a>, is available. My hope is to spend some months taking a road trip, verse by verse, together through this winding and confusing Book. This will include an informal audio podcast, blog based Bible commentary, and small group questions.
\nWe continue to bring back past sermons, including this week as we post messages from Luke in audio format. In addition, we are sending out new Bible teaching. I will be posting on Twitter, mainly Bible verses, insightful quotes from others, and ministry updates.<\/p>\n