Possible opening for my first talk for at Hope in the Home,
Welcome feedback and thoughts.

"but when I was a young Christian looking for guidance on what an average Joe godly life looked like, I ran into a problem - I couldn't find it.

The book stores were full of the stories of martyrs and missionaries and pastors and megachurches and political and war heroes and more... Sermons were no different. Special guests at churches? Even worse.

It seemed to me that the only way to be truly godly - to not be a second class church citizen - was to move to some foreign country or be some other special person who did some special things for God. I couldn't be... normal. I had to be radical.

What I couldn't find at the bookstore or sermon booth was...
Susan, age 43, mother to four, twenty years and 14,000 sink fulls of dishes for God's glory...
George, age 52, plumber, how to wake up on day 10,143 of work (now with arthritis and more) and marriage while still growing in happiness and holiness...
Tristan, age 17, how doing your homework and becoming a man of integrity brings God glory...

It seemed that just loving your wife, raising some kids faithfully, working a job through good and bad to provide for your family, and being part of a local church didn't mean much in the grand scheme...

The problem? Martyrs and missionaries and pastors are the exception, not the rule in the church.

Average dads and moms are and have always been the bulk of Christ's sheep.

And He loves them just as much as any other part of His body, He cares for them just as much, and they are brick and mortar of His church and deserve the same kind of recognition and praise and appreciation.
And they more than many others need encouragement in our day to persevere in the glory of every day godliness. "