Thank You, Pastor.

2 Corinthians 9:11
11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Staying on the grateful track, today I want to appreciate my pastor. Pastor Renee has seen me grow up over the last 11 years. She offered me her wisdom and all sorts of advice that I can't even begin to throw on paper so to speak.

This past Sunday was Pastor Renee's last sermon at church. She is going into retirement and really just needs to relax because of her health and spend time with her family. I can't tell you how much I learned from her. She was so honest and had such a way with words. I remember her kind heart as she offered my parents and I a place to stay at her house when we had no power for more than ten days after one of the hurricanes.

Perhaps one of the most important items that I gained from Pastor Renee was that we can learn so much from God if we just keep our eyes open. There are so many ways that we can see God in others and he can teach us through others. I know before every Sunday morning message she would say something like "Lord, sweep me aside if my words aren't right and replace them with yours." Sometimes our words and actions are blocked by earthly emotions and it interferes with the Lord's message. She didn't want that to keep anyone from experiencing God each Sunday.

I also learned from her that prayer is important. You have to trust the Lord with everything. It's all about faith. I know whenever she had health problems or concerns within the family she would bring them up to the congregation because she knew she could use the comfort and trusted the will of God.

Finally, the small things are just as influential as the bigger things. I know that just the little compliments and the little prayers helped me grow so much in my faith. Pastor Renee was nevertheless (her favorite word) a wonderful role model, one who I could always depend on, and one who always had a lot of confidence toward me. There's no doubt in my mind that she is in large part the reason I am who I am today: she's a leader in Christ and so am I.

So, Pastor Renee, "thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed." Listen to the song "Thank You" by Ray Boltz. It was played Sunday by the praise team in honor of her service to our church.



P.S. If you have trouble with the video stopping and starting, keep the video paused, and let it "buffer" (load) as it's called for a while. You will see the red bar along the bottom advance (speed depends on your Internet connection). Wait until that bar gets pretty far along (I'd say more than halfway) before you play the video and it shouldn't pause.