Our Story
Living a life within God’s priorities became a way of life for us after we got sick and tired of being sick and tired!
We’re a blended family, and we entered marriage with our own thoughts of a balanced life.
In our early years, we had successful careers with over 10+ years in the financial industry. As our family grew, we decided to become self-employed in the real estate and mortgage industry.
We thought becoming self-employed would help free up our time allowing more time to spend with our children, and serve in our church.
Our life was starting to look good until we experienced challenges most marriages face, and so we sought help. Not just any help, Godly counsel; and it was through that Godly counsel; we learned about God’s priorities and why they were in their respective order.
Was our marriage perfect right after counseling and the enlightenment of God’s order? No! Honestly, it seemed to have gotten worse rather quickly.
After being self-employed in the real estate industry for over 12 years, the market took a dive, and so did our finances. We lost everything, and not just material possessions. We experienced challenges with our health; and André lost his brother and sister within a year of each other.
At the same time, God called us to help our Pastors start a church as their men and women’s ministry directors. Seemingly, with all that was taking place it was enough for anyone to say, “we support you, but we have too much going on.”
After walking through so many life challenges, we learned to rely on God in a way we never had before. You see, learning God’s priorities to help save our marriage did more than just that. It became a way of life for us.
We became so accustomed to living God’s priorities, they became our priorities! We learned to trust God, keep His priorities by living a balanced life, despite life’s challenges, whether it be financial, physical or anything else.
Not too long after making the decision to help our Pastors start a church; we were hit with another devastating loss. Both our Pastors went home to be with the Lord within three years apart of each other.
They were not just our Pastors; they were our mentors and our spiritual parents. With their loss, we were now faced with the decision of where do we go from here with our church?
Honestly, we were ready to call it quits. But we heard that still small voice. God was calling us to serve as the Senior Pastors for The River, A Christian Church (Las Vegas, Nevada) for a season to lead our church through this difficult time.
Notice the keyword, here “serve”.
We “served” as Senior Pastors while working full-time jobs, parenting, all while walking through health challenges, and sharing our journey through this blog.
In our own strength, it seemed impossible. But, since we’ve made “living our priorities” a lifestyle, saying yes to God despite our circumstances, makes our life possible.
After serving as Senior Pastors for 8 years, God gave us a peace of release as we were faced with another decision of priorities.
When our daughter was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune condition that required and still requires weekly and sometime daily medical care, it caused us to pause and think about how we were balancing our time.
Balancing our relationship with God, our marriage, our family and the church God, convicted our hearts to live what we teach. When we stepped into that role, we said it would be for a season and would never sacrifice our family at the altar. That was our conviction and after 8 years, we felt God giving us a peace of release from serving as Senior Pastors.
Our hearts were at peace as we knew we had led our church through the most difficult time and now it was time for us to prioritize our family for such a time as this.
By no means would we step away from our spiritual gift of teaching or sowing into others. Which is why we continue to sow into this blog. That decision was probably one of the most difficult decision we made, but it was another example of truly living within the priorities of God and it spoke volumes to our children.
Over the years, in ministry, we’ve encouraged and counseled others to identify God’s priorities and purpose to live by them.
It was through counseling that we discovered our passion to help others embrace a lifestyle of living within God’s priorities. It was that passion that birthed this blog, giving us the opportunity to reach more people than we could do with individual counseling.
Our Purpose
Our purpose is to inspire men and women of all ages to embrace a lifestyle of living within the priorities of God, to the point where God’s priorities become their priorities.
Our desire is to help you eliminate the excuse of not having time to spend with those you love; and discover the importance of “making time for what matters most” (God, Spouse, Family, Ministry, Work).
What to Expect From Our Blog
Our blog is the platform we use to share our journey, not only of our loss and how God restored us. But we share how God restored us by applying practical and Biblical principles in the areas of: our relationship with Him, each other, relationships with others, finances, caring for our home, and honoring God in business.
You can expect not only to be encouraged by our personal testimony, but we will give you tangible, and practical tools we use, to make living within God’s priorities possible.
Where to Start
If you are a new reader, then we would encourage you to start reading the following articles. They will give you a sense of who we are and what you can expect.
From Journal to Blog
When Less Became More
Lifeline
What If We Were Measured By Our Failures Instead Of Our Success?
Are You Struggling With Identifying Your Purpose?
~ Blessings
André and Timberley Gray