My Husband...

My Husband, My dear Brad,
I fell in love with you before I even knew I was in love with you. There was something about you that was different and I made sure I hung on to you. Now after 7 years together, a wedding, and two children later I am more in love with you then ever. You are an amazing and devoted husband, but you are also an amazing and devoted father. I couldn't wait to have children with you. I knew from day one that you would be a wonderful father. That you would show our children love and guide them in a path that leads to the Lord. I love watching you light up when you walk in the door from work and see benjamin and caleb, and almost even more, I love watching how excited Benjamin gets when he knows his Daddy is home. I am so thankful for the time and devotion you give to benjamin and caleb. Making sure each evening that you spend time with your boys. I know as they get older they will want to be just like their daddy. I am so glad that their example will be in you. You are slow to anger which is a quality that I hope both our boys get. You don't snap and you are always calm and composed on the outside even when you don't feel it on the inside. Our boys will want to one day walk in their daddy's shoes, and I hope that you will always remember that you are their example. I know they will always feel your love and support as their father and that they will also feel your discipline but encouragement. I pray that you will continue to pull your strength for our family from the Lord and that you will always rely on him to be your source of wisdom and strength. Thank you Brad, for being so willing to walk through life with me and to go through this process of being parents together. It is not always easy and there are days ahead that won't be easy either, but as we work together as a family we will get through it all. I am thankful for each and every moment with you, I am thankful for each and every glimpse of Christ I see in you and feel in your love not only for me, but for our boys as well. Fatherhood came naturally to you Brad, and from that first moment when Benjamin was born and that switched flipped and you were instantly a father you took the role on with grace and strength and pride. You are a proud daddy of your two boys. I love the way you talk about your boys, but also the way to talk to them. I love how you want them to know the love of the Lord in a real way and not something from a felt board in sunday school. Thank you for being a leader in our family. It is a big responsibility when you have to be the man in a household and though you have so much to learn, you have done a great job. I am proud to be your wife and the mother of your children. I love you so much!

I wanted to share a prayer I have prayed many times for you (from the book "the power of a praying wife")
Lord teach Brad to be a good father. Where it was not modeled to him according to Your ways, heal those areas and hep him to forgive his dad. Give him revelation of You and a hunger in his heart to really know You as his heavenly Father. Draw him close to spend time in Your presence so he can become more like You, and fully understand Your Father's heart of compassion and love toward him. Grow that same heart in him for his children. Help him to balance mercy, judgement, and instruction the way You do. Though You require obedience, You are quick to acknowledge a repentant heart. Make him that way, too. show him when to discipline and how. Help him to see that he who loves his child disciplines him promptly (Proverbs 13:24). May he never provoke his "children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). I pray we will be united in the rules we set for our children and be in full agreement as to how they are raised. I pray that there will be no strife or argument over how to handle them and the issues that surround their lives.
Give him skills of communication with his children. I pray he will not be stern, hard, cruel , cold, abusive, noncommunicative, passive, critical, weak, uninterested, neglectful, undependable, or uninvolved. Help him instead to be kind, loving, soft hearted, warm ,interested, affirming, affectionate, involved, strong, consistent, dependable, verbally communicative, understanding and patient. May he require and inspire his children to honor him as their father so that their lives will be long and blessed. Lord I know we pass a spiritual inheritance to our children, Let the heritage he passes on be one rich in the fullness of your Holy Spirit. Enable him to model clearly a walk of submission to your Laws. May he delight in his children and long to grow them up Your way. Being a good father is something he wants very much. I pray that You would give him the desire of his heart. Amen

I love you Brad!