Seven years ago I made the decision to leave California, the only place I had called home through my 26 years of living, and take a job here in Texas where the only people I knew were two cousins and my uncle and aunt. I didn’t have friends here, I didn’t know where I was going to live, I didn’t know how I was going to handle the move, and I didn’t know what my life was going to become.
You know who did? God.
I thought I moved here for a job. What God knew, that I didn’t, was that I was moving here to meet the love of my life, my best friend, and my wife, and five years into our marriage we would add a beautiful baby girl, our daughter Hannah, to the mix.
I came to take a job. I ended up with something even more incredible.
This isn’t the time for me to look back and see where I came from because I’ve done that far too many times before. I know where I’ve been, but I want to know where I’m going. What do the next five years hold for our lives? What dreams will be realized and what can we accomplish? What places can we see? What experiences can our family have?
God has put so many things on my heart, and so many things on Kerri’s heart, that it makes us excited for what’s to come. We see where He’s brought us from but what He’s making us realize is if we look forward, and continue to walk out each day the best we know how, that there is something so much better for my wife and I and for our family. This life might be great, but God has better things in store for us.
I moved here for a job, I ended up with a gorgeous wife and a beautiful baby girl. I came here and started driving to Frisco every day to cover the Frisco Roughriders in hopes that a media job would one day come my way. I ended up being able to cover some great sporting events and landed a radio gig doing color analyst work for Prosper High School football. Frisco was unpaid, on my own dime. Prosper is paid and it’s another step up the ladder.
If you think this is great, just wait and see what God has in store for your future.
Stop looking back at the past and think about all the things you’ve done because if you look ahead, if you look forward, God wants you to see all the amazing things He has in store for you. If you think the last year, two years, three years, was great just wait and see what I have in store for you in the next year or two or three.
I haven’t always walked in freedom with God, it’s been something I’ve struggled off and on with for a long time especially after the age of 18. I didn’t know if I wanted to have anything to do with religion. Then I met Kerri and she introduced me to Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas and my life has never been the same since that day. It changed my life. That decision she made to invite me to church saved my life. God formally introduced Himself to me that day and while the walk hasn’t been easy, with all of the blame being on my shoulders, getting to this point and seeing where I am now makes me want to do nothing but look forward and talk about everything that’s to come for me, for my wife, for my daughter, and for our family of three as a whole.
I came here not knowing if I wanted anything to do with religion. I ended up in a church I love, worshipping with everything I have, and being a part of a marriage ministry with an amazing group of friends who have each touched my life in different ways.
Don’t look back. Look at where you are now and know that even though where you were, and where you are now, is pretty awesome, God is just sitting back saying, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
That’s where I am right now. God I know “I ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” but I want to see what you have in store for my family. I want to know where you want us, I want to know what you want us to do for You, I want to know what lives we can touch because You ask us to, and I want to go where You want us to go.
Praying has never been easy for me until I realized I didn’t have to be formal with God. I found out that God has a sense of humor, God isn’t much different from me. He’s not a stern father waiting for me to do something wrong so he can punish me. He’s wanting to be a father that talks to His son and encourage everything I do. He wants to walk with me. He wants to teach me how to fish so I can feed myself, and my family, for a lifetime.
I came here not knowing if I would ever want to change my life. Seven years later I want God to use to me to change someone else’s. I was never an example of anything to anyone before now. I want to BE an example of a Godly husband and father.
Kerri has tried so hard to get me to look at where I am now and see how much God had done for me. But I was too busy looking back wanting to be so much further along. But the minute I realized it, the minute I stopped thinking back and decided to really look at where I was at this moment, was the day everything changed.
If you’ve gotten to the end of this I want you to do me a favor. Wherever you are right now just stop and reflect on where you are. Don’t think about where you’ve been, look at where you are. Did you ever think you would be in this place right now? Did you ever think you would come this far or have the things, friends, and family in your life that you have right now? Did you ever think you would be able to make an impact on other people just by telling them your own story?
Don’t look back. Look forward. Because the next few chapters of your life will be better than you could ever imagine.
Todd Kaufmann 