What's Important to You?

What’s important to you? An education? A career? Having nice fancy stuff, going on vacations and storing your treasures here on earth? I stumbled upon Joey and Rory's Blog this past weekend. Wow! They love Jesus deeply and their story is difficult to hear but very inspiring. May it bless you today.

Rory, the husband, wrote these words, “When Joey and I got married in 2002, she made it very clear that she was never going to be having a baby. She had never wanted to be a mama; never liked holding babies or had any kind of yearning to be a mom. It’s not that she didn’t like kids, she just never saw herself having any. My guess is that she had her musical dreams and having babies was fine for most women, but it just wasn’t for her. I often wondered if someday she would change her mind, but she never did.

When she married me though, she became a mother to my two girls, Heidi and Hopie. That was something she adopted and embraced and has gotten better at being year by year. The girls and Joey are very close now. But the lack of desire to have a baby of her own never came. But what did come was a stronger desire to trust God with her fears. So one day, about a year and a half ago, she gave it to Him, and said, 'If you want us to have a baby, Lord, I want what You want.' And that was it. She went off birth control and almost a year went by and though she’d have her moments of wanting to 'take it back' from God, she remained faithful and trusting. This past June, on Father’s day to be exact, she and we found out she was pregnant.

They sing a song together that is heart-warming and what many of you, women, have decided is important to you. Please listen to That's Important to Me which will touch you deeply. Here are a few of the lyrics to whet your appetite!

Not planning our day around a TV set
Paying our bills and staying out of debt
That's important to me

Holding hands when we're saying a prayer
That's important to me
Yea, that's important to me
Having somebody to share my life
Loving my husband, and being a wife
And the very best mother I can be
That's important to me

Telling the truth, and being real
Feeding my family a home cooked meal
That's important to me
That's important to me
Planting a garden and watching it grow
Keeping it country on the radio
That's important to me
Yea, that's important to me
Always having you to hold,
Being beside you when we grow old

Joey had her baby at home with a midwife. She never went to the doctor, had tests, or did ultrasounds. She didn’t want any interference with her pregnancy. She had godly midwives who prayed with her while she delivered a breech baby without any drugs. Her baby has Downs Syndrome but they love this baby immensely. They said that even if they knew she had Downs before they delivered her, they would not have done anything differently.

Their baby is one and a half years old and Joey is dying of cancer. It seems so unfair!!! I have wept for this woman I don’t know but I know I will have the privilege of spending eternity with her as well as with Kara Tippets and many others who are in the Lord’s presence. We can’t understand the Lord’s ways but we know that He is good and we can trust Him. Joey and Rory trust Him. They love Him and have no anger towards Him at all; they are simply heart broken and the Lord promises to be with the brokenhearted. No, this is NOT our home. We have an eternal home that will be more than we can ever hope for or imagine. We rest in Him.

In Rory's last post titled For Better or Worse, he writes these precious words about his dying wife, "But please, one thing I ask...don't pray that Joey is healed. Yes, pray for a miracle. But also pray for peace in her heart and ours if God chooses not to let this cup pass from her sweet lips." Not my will but Thine be done. Trust Him whom all blessings flow.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Psalm 34:18

***On Rory's "about page" on his blog, he writes this about his wife, "I want to out-love and out-serve her, but it is impossible." Do you try to out-love and out-serve your husband?