We have just started some conversations with different men about their Jesus stories and how that has impacted their lives, marriage and/or parenting. Today we continue our conversation with Shaun Arness.
Shaun shares it’s hard for him to share his Jesus story without speaking of his wife Jan. Shaun and Jan met at an art and design school in Ohio. When he found Jan he found his soul mate.
When they met Shaun didn’t know Jesus. He now teases Jan a little bit about doing missionary dating. Yet she was committed to Jesus and wasn’t going to move forward with him until he decided to follow Jesus or not.
Shaun says, “The biggest thing I have learned as a parent is how God sees me as I see my sons. It as helped me see who the Father is and how He loves me. I look at my sons and I would do anything for them. In the same way the Father loves me and He would do anything for me.”
If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him. Matthew 7:11
In regards to marriage Shaun shares:
Marriage is like having a garden. You have to tend it. You have to do little bit of work every day. There will be weeds. You will have to water it. You will have to feed it. If you do that every day, gardening is a joy.
Now if you neglect some things and the garden starts to be overgrown with weeds and things start dying off well then it becomes hard work. But if you take care of it every day it’s not going to be hard work. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
And if you do run into some problems, you can call the Master Gardener. “God, we have some bugs in our garden and we don’t know how to get rid of them.” Jesus will be faithful and help us through that.
In our marriage we have fun with that picture. My wife will come to me occasionally and say, “Shaun, your garden is wilting.” And I know I need to step it up and give the garden of my marriage some attention.
This week ask the Holy Spirit if there is an area of your garden, either your walk with Him, your marriage, or your parenting that you need to tend to. Then ask the Master Gardener for His help in getting it back to where it needs to be.
