Notice the Roses Among the Thorns

This past week we had our annual Faithful Men's Conference at our church. I was so excited about this meeting! Why you may ask? Because this was my first Faithful Men's conference married to my faithful man! I prayed and prayed that God would speak to his heart. I hoped that Simeon would receive such a blessing from this meeting. As the conference drew nearer, it was as though God said to me, "Just because this is a conference for men, that doesn't mean that I don't want to speak to you." After that, my prayer changed a bit. I still prayed God would speak to Sim, but I also started praying that He would speak to me! Monday evening, Pastor Craig Edwards preached on overcoming depression. His text was II Corinthians 12 where Paul speaks of his thorn in the flesh. Pastor Edwards went on to say that we will all deal with thorns in our lives, but that we should not allow ourselves to be so consumed by them that we forget to see the roses that they produce. This thought hit me like a ton of bricks! So often in my life I focus on my "thorns", but when compared to what other people are dealing they with seem like nothing! At that moment, I stopped and thought about all the "roses" that God has placed in my life!

I would like to share a few roses God has placed in my life. I would love to try to list them all, but I think it would take me years to write of all the good things my Lord has done for me! So here is my concise list. . .

Rose #1- God's Mercy, Compassion, and Faithfulness
   Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." If all I had in life was this one rose amongst thousands of thorns, this should be enough to keep me full of joy and praising my Lord! When all I deserve is death and hell, God reached out His merciful hand to me, wrapped me in His tender compassion, and proved that He is faithful to keep His promises. When I called out to Him, acknowledging I was a sinner and I needed a Savior, He was there to hear my cry. And every morning since then, His mercies have been new! What a rose to ponder on!

Rose #2- My Christ-honoring husband
   Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, ". . . a threefold cord is not quickly broken." IWhen Simeon and I were married, a dear friend of ours wrote this verse on a card. I was amazed at how it applied to our relationship. When Sim and I first started dating, we agreed that we would only draw closer together as we drew closer to God- our threefold cord. We have been married almost 7 months now, and it has been the most blissful, happy time of my life! I am so blessed to be married to a man who loves the Lord and seeks His guidance as he leads our family. Again, what a special rose!

Rose #3- My Christian Family
   Deuteronomy 6:7 says, "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Simeon and I both had the wonderful privilege of being raised in Christian homes. Our parents and all our siblings have trusted Christ as their personal Savior. Although I will never realize the sacrifices our parents have made to mold us into the people we are today, I  do know enough to be so full of gratitude! I love my parents, my siblings, and my in-laws. They are some of God's greatest gifts to me. What beautiful roses they are!

Rose #4- A New Testament Church
   Acts 5:42 says, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. My pastor, Dr. Clarence Sexton, has chosen this as his life verse, and I believe it perfectly describes the Temple Baptist Church. It is so refreshing to be able to worship with other believers who cease not to proclaim Jesus Christ! How beautiful this rose is!

Rose #5- My Faithful Friends
   Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." God has blessed me with such wonderful, godly friends! Some of them I see almost on a daily basis, some we text often, and others I only hear from by email every so often, but each friend is precious. There is nothing quite like having a friend who loves you enough to let you know when you are doing wrong, who encourages you when you need it most, who you can trust to pray for things weighing on your heart. I don't know where I'd be without these dear people in my life. Once again, what sweet roses!

I am writing this blog post more so for my benefit as I reflect on God's goodness, but I hope that you will receive a blessing from it, and that it will encourage you to notice your roses among the thorns. Make a list of your roses as I have done above. The next time you seem overcome by the thorns, pull it out, read over it, and thank God for his unending goodness to you!

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the sweet and precious roses you have placed in my life! As trials attempt to entangle me in their thorns, help me to see past the pain, and see the beautiful roses you are growing!

All for His Glory,

Brettnay Brazzell

Recompense

How you do what you do matters

"To what do I owe the pleasure?", "How much for the fruit?", and "You’re going to pay for that!" are all phrases one might hear any day of the week. All these have something in common – Recompense. Men feel that there is a price for all actions. Negative actions deserve a negative response, equal actions deserve an equal response, and positive actions deserve a positive response.

              

If you show up at someone’s house uninvited, they might ask you, “To what do I owe the pleasure?” (That is, if you are friends). The immediate assumption is that you are there for a reason. Maybe you are their neighbor, and you need to borrow a few eggs. Maybe you’ve come over to bring them a gift. Always they assume there’s a reason for your coming. They might invite you in and offer you a drink, or they might ask what you need first and make a decision as to what to do next.

If it’s the girl scouts at your door asking you to buy cookies you don’t assume they’re going to give you the cookies for free. Automatically, you are approached with the decision of whether the cookies are worth the cash it costs for them. There’s a price. In my opinion it’s a fair trade no matter how much they are this year!

In a negative light, if you were to decide that those cookies are far too expensive, and you make the poor decision to assault the little girl’s mother and take the cookies for yourself, then you will have the negative price of spending time in jail. Like Newton’s Third Law of Thermodynamics, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

I believe my wife has already written about sowing and reaping in a previous article, so that’s not what I’m getting at. I want to talk about recompense, or "compensation". Everything has a cost or compensation. Fruit in the store has a price, a friend showing up at your door has a cost in time and possibly food, and a criminal action or just a bad decision has a penalty or compensation for that decision. Everything has a price in life.

If my wife asks me to go clean her headlamps I can make a few decisions:

1. Say "ok" and go outside and do it.
2. Yell at her for always telling me to do things and then go outside and do it.
3. Ignore her and not do it.
4. Yell at her and not do it. Etc.

All of those have a different recompense associated with them. #1 probably lands me a good kiss and a smile. #2 ends up in lost fellowship with my wife and lost confidence in my desire to take care of her. #3 forces her to assume that I am lazy and don’t care about her safety on the roads. #4 undermines her confidence that I love her and also shows that I don’t care about her safety.

The point being, we can do what we are supposed to do with a poor attitude, but it will cost more. We can do what we are supposed to with a good attitude and gain the rewards that it entails. It’s up to us. Just something for your brain to munch on.

Keep thinking friends,

Simeon Brazzell.

PS: I chose option #1, buffed the headlamps, and the results were nice.

God's Been Good

Friends & Family,

Simeon and I are so blessed to have such a large group of what we would consider our "friends and family." What a blessing it is to have godly people in our lives. Because that group is so large for us, we decided that instead of sending out hundreds of Christmas cards, we would give our Christmas/2014 update on our blog. I hope you don't mind! :) Please enjoy reading about what God has done in our lives during this past year. . .

Merry Christmas! I can hardly believe that 2014 is drawing to a close. This year has held so many major life events for Simeon and I. We have seen God answer so many prayers! As I look back, I can say God truly has been so good to us!

One thing that has been special about this year is that due to some of these life events, we have had the opportunity to spend time with family and friends that we have not seen in a very long time! What a blessing it has been to both of us to be able to catch up with some of our past school teachers, Sunday school teachers, childhood friends, and more!

This letter has a twofold purpose. First, Sim and I would like to update everyone on the many changes we have experienced in 2014. Secondly and most important, we would like to take this opportunity to praise the Lord for how He has led in our lives recently! We have so much to be thankful for!

The first major event that 2014 held for Simeon and I was our college graduation in May. We both received our Bachelor’s degree from Crown College of the Bible. Simeon’s major was Missions with a minor in Business. I majored in Secondary Education with an English emphasis. Our college years were so special to us, and we learned so much not only academically, but also spiritually. We will always be grateful for the influence of our teachers and staff at Crown!

The next major event happened on Saturday, July 12^th . . . our wedding day! Outside of the day we accepted Christ as our Savior, this has been the most special day of our lives! It has been so amazing to see how God has brought Simeon and I together, and how He has had His hand in our marriage. We have been married 5 months now and are loving every minute of it! There is nothing like sharing your life with your best friend! Simeon surprised me with our honeymoon- a two week trip to Spain! This was my first time out of the country, and what an experience! We had such a wonderful trip, learned a little Spanish, and enjoyed sampling a different culture!

Since then, we have been busy with daily life. . .

           Simeon is nearing his 2^nd year working as a Financial Counselor at 21^st Mortgage. He is also taking online classes on web design, html coding, and a bunch of other “techie” things I do not understand. Haha!

           I have been blessed to primarily be a stay-at-home wife and work from home. Two days a week, I work outside the home as an office assistant for a Mary Kay Sales Director. I have been doing this for 5 ½ years and love working with my boss! For the past 2 years, I have also been doing the same type of work for other directors online. Another thing I have the privilege of doing is to do office assistant work for Dr. Ed Reese. He is an elderly man in our church who has written many books, compiled thousands of books, magazines, articles, etc. on Christian history, and is the greatest Christian researcher I know. I also teach piano lessons to three awesome kids, and I occasionally substitute teach at our church’s academy. Whew! I think that covers everything! God truly has blessed me by allowing me to do things I love, yet be able to work so much from home.

            Simeon and I are enjoying being active members in our church, Temple Baptist. One of the things Sim and I love to do together is sing, and are thankful to be members of our church choir. We also enjoy participating in the weekly prayer meeting and visitation. What a blessing it is to be a part of a church where the Gospel is preached and the main goal is for people to be won to Christ!

         

   Simeon and I are so blessed to come from Christian families. This past August, my parents moved back to Knoxville from Dover, Delaware. This was a surprise and a huge answer to prayer! We have enjoyed having both sides of the family close. Another very special family event was the Lord blessing Simeon’s older sister, Keanne and her husband Brian with a precious baby girl, Paton. She is the first grandchild on Sim’s side, so his parents are having the time of their lives spoiling her, but then so are we. She is such a joy to us all! My brother, Clay, is still serving in the United States Army in Ansbach, Germany. In May, he will have been there for 2 years. Another answer to prayer was finding out that his next duty station will be at Fort Campbell, Kentucky which is only 3 hours from Knoxville!

That about sums up what 2014 has held for us, and now we are so excited to see where God will lead in 2015! Please pray that we will continue to follow in His way for us!

As many of you know, God has called Simeon and I to be missionaries to Australia. That is all the direction He has given us at this point. We are currently praying through things, learning all we can about the country and missionaries that are already there, and saving for a survey trip we hope to take in the next few years. If you could pray for us in this matter, we would greatly appreciate it!!

I know this letter is very much about my husband and I, but I hope that as you read it, you didn’t just read an update on us, but a testimony of how God is working in the lives of two of His children. The only reason we have been blessed with anything is because of His goodness and mercy! When I was a freshman at Crown College, our Pastor preached on the story of Abraham’s servant going to find a bride for Isaac. He read Genesis 24:27, “And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master's brethren.” The point of his message was that as we follow in the way the Lord has set for us, He promises to lead us. This verse has resonated in my heart ever since, and I have seen it played out in my life over and over again!

Thank you for the influence you have had in our lives. We are so blessed to know each of you!

May God richly bless you and your family in the New Year!

All for His Glory,

Brettnay Brazzell

Philippians 1:20-21