“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
I can still remember the long, awkward ride from my “home” to Big Oak Ranch. It was April of 1990, and I was 14 years old. It’s my most vivid childhood memory – arriving at Big Oak Ranch. As I was welcomed into my new home, I watched my dad drive away and I stood there uncertain and angry.
After arriving at Big Oak Ranch at 14, Ranell Tillet still calls the Ranch home today.
All I had ever known was a life of brokenness, instability, and chaos and I didn’t see how Big Oak could change that for me. In fact, I was determined to let no one pass the protective walls I had built around my heart. The walls seemed like a refuge from the cycle of disappointment to which I was accustomed. But little did I know, Big Oak was being written into my story because God wanted to reveal Jeremiah 29:11 as a promise to me. One year from that day, I realized His provision in my life. I experienced the love of Jesus through the lives of selfless, seed-sowing, faith-filled people – a love that would tear down my well-built walls. My biological sister also arrived at Big Oak during this time, and I began to see a work unfolding in both of our futures. I was finally able to reflect with gratitude and praise because God had not only provided me with a home that day in April, but a place I still call home today. I grew to trust His plans for me, and I stayed at Big Oak through college.
Ranell Tillett is seen here with her four children.
The care I received then prepared me to be the wife and mother I am today. I have been married for 23 years and I am the mother of four children. As my husband and I raise our children, I am blessed to return to the examples of my childhood at Big Oak. The powerful love of God that intervened in my life continues in my children. Even more, because of the generational impact of Big Oak, my biological parents experienced the love of Christ and, later in life, came to know Him as their Savior! From an untrusting 14-year-old girl who knew nothing of the plans God had for me, I now stand boldly upon them as a daughter of God who repeats Philippians 4:16, “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Friday Nights at the Cove- Visit Downtown Montevallo for food trucks and live entertainment with Rude and True! 737 Main Street, Montevallo, 35115. Music starts at 6:30pm, free admission, 205-597-9322, www.cityofmontevallo.com.
Full Life Ahead, a non-profit serving teenagers and young adults with any kind of disability and their families, is hosting their first annual Toss for Hope Corn Hole Tournament. There will be 2 divisions of play, Competitive and Special Needs. All players should be 14 years old and up. Community resources will be on-hand to share information with families that have a young person with a disability. Join us for food, fun, prizes, and connection! Saturday, October 29 at Hargis Christian Camp in Chelsea. The fun starts at 9 a.m. with food, games, prizes.
Premier Event for Women of destiny! Get ready to soar like never before. Join us for an incredible day of Encouragement, Empowerment and Inspiration galore. Hear from a powerful panel of Miss Overcomers as they share life transforming Biblical strategies to help you Reclaim Courage, Affirm your Calling and Walk Strong in the Miss Overcomer lifestyle you were born to enjoy! Don’t miss this Divine Moment tailor made just for you. You’ve been Chosen for the Miss Overcomer Gathering! Cost is Free but seating is limited. Click here to register.
Jane sat staring at the floor. “If only, I could go back and do it over. I didn’t think it would be this way. Somehow time got away from me.”
Like Jane, we go through life not always thinking about the future. We may not consider how our actions today will affect us- and others- tomorrow. It is not unusual to reminisce and encounter phases of happiness, victories, disappointments, and regrets. As much as we would like to change the past, there are some things we cannot reverse. However, we can choose to make the most of today for the good of our families.
Evaluate Priorities. Do your priorities include investing time with your children? You probably have heard this statement: “Enjoy them now because they grow up fast!” Unfortunately, we cannot retrieve lost time. But we can determine today to be available for our children- to play with them, listen to them, and teach them about Christ. When you are with them, learn what they like, what makes them smile, and their idiosyncrasies. Let it be your goal to make tomorrow better without if only.
In the article, “The 5 Things People Regret Most On Their Deathbed”, Business Insider highlights the research of an end-of-life nurse. The second greatest regret expressed by her patients was, “I wished I hadn’t worked so hard.” They reported remorse over missing their children’s youth and their spouse’s company.
There is a Time and Season. Ecclesiastes 3:1 states, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” This Scripture reminds us there is a time for various aspects of life, relationships, work, and other obligations. There is also a time to think of others above yourself. The events of life do not happen by chance. They are orchestrated appointments under the hands of Almighty God.
Embrace the opportunities you have to engage your family. As the four seasons come and go, so do the seasons of life. Choose to be faithful and productive now. Learn to make the most of the mundane, the celebrations, and the ebbs and flows of life. Do not be like Jane, who looked back with regrets. Think about how you utilize your time and decide to live each day with purpose. The clock of life advances one second at a time. Use each one wisely.
-Vanessa Jones
Vice President & Co-founder of Biblical Marriage Institute
The second Sunday of every September is National Grandparents Day! It was signed into law in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan as a day to honor the legacy and celebrate the importance between grandparents and their grandchildren. However, within the Christian community, there is a Grand Switch at play. The Christian Grandparenting Network (CGN) took the initiative to take this National Holiday and turn the focus from the grandparent into a Grandparent’s Call-to-Prayer.
Do you remember a grandparent that prayed for you? Can you see where your life could have taken a vastly different turn without those prayers? Did those prayers make an unseen difference in your life? Or perhaps, you didn’t have a grandparent’s prayer behind you. As a Christian grandparent now, can you see the difference prayer could make in the life of a grandchild?
Our grandchildren face a world vastly different and challenging than from our years growing up. Peer pressure, bullying, social media, gender crisis, addiction, abortion, family crisis, and sexuality are household words in their culture. Often, trying to put words into our heartfelt prayers for them is difficult. The need is so great. However, we have God’s defense and justification in our call to stand in the gap for our grandchildren. Here are four things to remember
1. We are invited to bring our concerns for our grandchildren before Him. 1 Peter 4:7 (Amplified Bible) says, “Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].”
2. He is greater! It’s easy to forget the truth of 1 John 4:4, “You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
3. A continuous invitation is found in Matthew 7:7, “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the doorwill be opened to you.”
4. And a Promise from Matthew 7:8, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the doorwill be opened.”
I admit it. I am a fan of classic movies. Some of my favorites are the period films- particularly the ones in which men were tough and chivalry was esteemed. Cheesy, I know, but pass the popcorn!
Husbands, would your wife describe you as chivalrous? Does she love it when you open doors for her or pull her chair out at the dinner table? I hope your answer is a resounding yes. But is this all your wife wants from you? Is it possible she desires a deeper level of gallantry? In nearly forty years of working with married couples, I consistently hear wives expressing their desire to feel secure in their marriages. They want a man who will honor and protect them physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
A Different Kind of Valor. Most men will physically fight to defend their wives and families. But, how many will fight to protect their wives emotionally and spiritually? The bar is high for Christian husbands. As Christ is the Savior of His bride (the church), so the Christian husband is to be his wife’s savior (little “s”). Ephesians 5:25-26 explains, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”
Biblical valor may require a husband to rescue his wife from imminent danger. But often, it needs him to be proactive. It requires him to pursue his wife with gentleness, kindness, and tender care—expecting nothing in return. It requires him to place her needs above his own. It requires him to model Godly character for his family.
Take Action. Here are five simple ways to safeguard your wife emotionally and spiritually:
Pray for her consistently and persistently. Text her nuggets of wisdom from God’s Word.
Speak up when anyone defames her.
Affirm and provide companionship to her. What you say to and about your wife matters.
Do little things to lighten her load, even when you are tired.
Give her your undivided attention. Make it your goal to understand her.
These things will help create a hedge of emotional security around your wife. She will know you have not left your post as her gallant knight.
-Alonza Jones
President & Co-founder of Biblical Marriage Institute
Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy and his wife Lauren believe that anyone can find a meaningful purpose and make a difference in other people’s lives through God’s direction.
It may seem like that’s something easy for Dungy to proclaim. After all, he had great success as head coach for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts, went on to a prolific career in broadcasting, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He and his wife stress, though, that all Christians have a life purpose, whether their sphere of influence is large or small.The Dungys share their wisdom on the topic in the just-released Uncommon Influence: Saying Yes to a Purposeful Life (Tyndale House Publishers), a book that presents practical and spiritual tactics to create lasting change in a Christian’s life, career, ministry, and family.
Tony Dungy began his NFL coaching career with the Steelers, then went on to head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts. He led the Colts to a Super Bowl win in 2007.
Living a Life of Purpose. Most people, according to Dungy, don’t think they make a real difference in life.“People think, ‘I could never have an impact on people,’ but we began to think about other people who’ve had an impact on our lives and it made us realize that they may have never known what they did for us,” he said. “We had this idea to inspire people to think about what they can do.”The couple wrote the book, which they describe as one with a “mixed voice” based on their different experiences and expertise, with several goals in mind including:
To demonstrate the importance of saying yes when God places opportunities in your path.
To provide counsel on being available to the possibilities that come from God (which leads to fulfillment and contentment).
To share stories of their path of service, specifically in the areas of adoption and foster care.
To teach that the only way to know a life of true fulfillment is to give that life away.
“We wanted to share our life experiences from the more than 40 years we’ve been married,” Lauren Dungy said. “We share about our experiences with kids, fostering, and adoption and how we’ve used that platform. And then we stress that everyone has a platform. Some are small and some are large, but you have to use it to glorify God.”She stressed that a Christian’s platform “doesn’t have to be in front of 50,000 people or on television.” It can be in a community or in a family.Part of their knowledge, she added, comes from guiding people to find out how to discover what their platform may be–since many people are starting at ground zero.Prayer, she said, is integral.“You have to pray about it, and wait to hear from God,” she said. “We prayed and communicated with God about our desires, and we heard the answer that this is where God wanted us.”
Additionally, Tony said, those who want to find their areas of influence should consider where their interests, talents, and passions lie.“What do you enjoy? What is your passion?” he advised people to ask themselves. “God gives us the desire of our heart, but we need to know what that looks like.”
Tony and Lauren Dungy met through their pastor and married in 1982. They have co-authored several books, including the 2014 release Uncommon Marriage and their new release Uncommon Influence: Saying Yes to a Purposeful Life.
In writing the book, they each focused on topics and experiences they had special knowledge of; they each point to favorite chapters.Lauren points to her chapter on prayer, which recounts her understanding of prayer from an early age.“That chapter’s powerful to me because I learned at an early that praying for wisdom and direction are so important,” she said, “My mother was injured in a terrible grease fire when I was young, and I learned from that how simple prayers can help in even terrifying experiences.”Tony points to his chapter on “going against the grain,” which he said can be especially powerful for Christian men. “Society tells us what masculinity is all about,” he said, “but you must be yourself and not follow the crowd. As a Christian we have to go against the grain of what our culture may tell us to do.”
A Shared Faith and Passion.Tony and Lauren both came to faith at an early age and were already believing Christians when they married. At the time, Tony coached for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Lauren was a teacher.They quickly realized that their platform was more than they’d imagined.“I had 30 players, she had 30 students, so we had a built-in influence,” he said. “And as we grew in our experiences with the Lord, we began a beautiful, lifelong journey that included experiences with children, foster children, and adoption,” she added. “We know that nothing is a coincidence and that God brought us to this place.”
Today Lauren uses her teaching background in her work as an early childhood educational specialist and vice president of the Dungy Family Foundation.Tony became the Buccaneers’ coach in 1996 and led the team to four playoff appearances in six seasons, then served as head coach for Indianapolis for seven seasons (making the playoffs each year and winning the Super Bowl in 2006); he was the first black coach to win the NFL championship. He retired after the 2008 season, served as an analyst for NBC’s “Football Night in America,” and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
As each of their careers changed, the couple prayed about where their focus needed to be.“We were looking at our lives. I’d retired from the NFL, was working some in television,” Dungy recalled. “We asked ourselves: What is our purpose now? What can I do in my community to make a difference?”Lauren said that it’s important for Christians to realize that platforms and opportunities can change over a lifetime, depending on what stage of your journey you’re in. “We have different seasons of life, and our platforms can change. And you can have more than one,” she said. “Tony retired, I stopped teaching, and we believe our influence is with children.”
The Dungy family consists of 10 children, who are both biological and adopted. The family also regularly includes foster children.
The Dungys have 11 children (three living biological children, seven adopted children, and their oldest son who committed suicide in 2005); they also currently have five foster children.They originally learned about the fostering opportunity from their church and have fostered children since the beginning of their marriage. It’s an experience, they both agreed, that can truly change a child’s life.“We look at these children and we don’t know where they came from or what their background is. We don’t know what their fear is,” Dungy said. “But in ten minutes they expect you to help them, and you realize that you can help them.”
The fostering experience–and the years of parenting their own sons and daughters–has taught the Dungys a variety of lessons about what children want and need.“All children want love,” Lauren Dungy said. “They want to be poured into and listened to. They want to be given the gift of time. And you have to be intentional about it. You have to ask yourself: Did I give them the time they needed? Did I support them? Did I listen to them?”Ultimately, she said, much of their efforts came down to prayer. “All children need to be prayed over and prayed with so that they can have their own faith and develop their own relationship with God,” she said.
Lauren Dungy is a childhood education specialist, with years of experience as a teacher; she is vice president of the Dungy Family Foundation and heads up the organization’s reading program which visits elementary schools and donates books to promote literacy. Photo Credit: Steven Vosloo/Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
Sharing Their Faith.The Dungys’ faith has become well known and documented over the years, as they have both been comfortable in sharing their convictions with the public. Their Dungy Family Foundation is designed to “meet the physical, educational, and spiritual needs of their community,” and they both serve in various Christian ministries and at their Tampa Bay area church.
Their testimony, though, is something they say they’ve grown into–as it’s become easier to share their faith as the years have gone by.Dungy said that he can speak from a faith standpoint when it comes to sharing his opinions–whether it’s while doing football analysis or speaking to a large audience–and Lauren stresses that a Christian testimony should be natural.“We can incorporate our faith into everyday life,” Lauren Dungy stated. “We don’t become a Christian once the TV turns off or we come home from work. We want to live our lives, and for our faith to be integral in every part of it. It needs to become natural.”
Ultimately, that witness intertwines with a Christian’s platform or sphere of influence to make a real and tangible difference in others’ lives.“We may not even realize what a difference we can make,” Dungy said, “but as Christians, we must say yes to the opportunities God puts in front of us.”
–Cheryl Wray is a freelance writer based in Hueytown, Alabama, where she often writes on sports-related topics. She’s also the coordinator of the Southern Christian Writers Conference.
Did you enjoy this story? Click here to read the full August issue!
Join us in beautiful downtown Montevallo for an evening of live entertainment! Each event will feature a different musician and food truck at Owl’s Cove Park (737 Main Street). This family-friendly, free admission event is the perfect way to kick off your weekend. Bring a chair or picnic blanket and make yourself at home on Main Street! The music begins at 6:30 PM. Swanglish (Swahili+English) is an intercultural music group that primarily utilizes East African and Western music styles. Band leader, Ben Ndalima, studied music in the USA & is a native of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania! Sponsor: Team Lehman – Keller Williams Metro South. Featured Food Truck: To be announced, M&M’s Lemonade Stand For more information, contact us at mainstreet(at)cityofmontevallo.com or 205-597-9322.
Join us in beautiful downtown Montevallo for an evening of live entertainment! Each event will feature a different musician and food truck at Owl’s Cove Park (737 Main Street). This family-friendly, free admission event is the perfect way to kick off your weekend. Bring a chair or picnic blanket and make yourself at home on Main Street! The music begins at 6:30 PM. Twelve plays a wide variety of Southern rock, old Country, R&B and alternative—including some originals. Fans say they are one of the best party bands in Central Alabama! Sponsored by Alabama Public Television. Featured Food Truck: To be announced, M&M’s Lemonade Stand. For more information, contact us at mainstreet(at)cityofmontevallo.com or 205-597-9322.
