it's about time.

this entry is a long-time coming.  not just because i haven't written a blog in a long time, but because i have thought about writing it or one similar to it far too many times.  i have hesitated in the past for reasons that seem so very trivial now.  i guess sometimes i feel like i have to protect the truth. i feel like i have to coddle and care for it and even hide it sometimes. funny, isn't it?  little old me trying to shelter a huge, powerful, immovable thing like the truth?  well, anyway, here is a blog from my heart.

i have a friend i am sure you have heard me speak of named justin adams.  he and his family are precious to me as you probably know if you read my blog.  but this time this entry is about justin.

my very favorite thing about justin is how he loves his family.  not just how much, but how.  as i have sought the truth of God's love for me...sought to try to understand what it means that He delights in me and is so very fond of me, it is always a picture of justin and his children that the Lord brings to my mind.  you would know what i mean if you saw the way he looked at his Meagan.  you could not pack more love, more adoration, more delight, or more joy into one simple look.  it takes my breath away when i catch him looking at her that way.  i have teared up over it many times.  and the moments when i feel most alone and most forsaken are the moments when He brings that picture to mind...that this look on justin's face is but a glimpse of how He looks at me.  if you had ever seen that look of adoration in justin's eye for his daughter who he could not be more proud of or in love with, you would know why the thought that He loves me even more consumingly overwhelms me. 

i also continue to be moved and affected by justin's love for his wife.  marriage, i know, is hard for any couple and i know at times it has been hard for them.  but he continues to pursue his wife.  he continues to seek out more of her...how she thinks and who she is and what she loves and what she responds to.  he chooses to prefer her over himself.  he takes joy in providing for her and delight in claiming her.  and that look of adoration, it seems, gets stronger every time i see them.  

justin's integrity is the crux of what makes those things so poignant.  i have watched it get beaten up, pushed around, lied about and betrayed.  and i have watched him choose his integrity...i have watched him choose obedience.  he is not a perfect man.  but he makes the important decisions wisely and saturated with prayer.  this is the thing that amazes me about justin.  watching him change and grow over the years i have known him...watching him allow God to do what He will with his life.  oh, it is good for my soul.

i am so grateful for this man.  so grateful for his talent and his influence and his anointing and his affection and his example.  and that's what this blog is about.