Love, Life, and Lessons with the Kinzenbaws: Kirkwood Alumni of the Year goes to.... my hubs!

Yes, the hubby got another wonderful award. He is now the Des Moines Firefighter of the Year and a Kirkwood Alumni of the year award winner. You must think I am married to a saint! Well, I will tell you, he is not! haha! And I am not being mean, he would tell you the same thing. And that's what I love about my husband. He knows it is nothing HE has done or is doing to earn these awards-it is having Jesus Christ as His personal Savior working in his heart helping him be honorable in his actions and loving others. He also knows he doesn't even do these things perfectly! We are all filthy, rotten, sinners with no chance at righteousness.
Check out this passage in Romans 3:

⁹Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles,^[c] are under the power of sin. ¹⁰As the Scriptures say,

“No one is righteous—
    not even one.
¹¹No one is truly wise;
    no one is seeking God.
¹²All have turned away;
    all have become useless.
No one does good,
    not a single one.”^[d]
¹³“Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.
    Their tongues are filled with lies.”
“Snake venom drips from their lips.”^[e]
¹⁴    “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”^[f]
¹⁵“They rush to commit murder.
¹⁶    Destruction and misery always follow them.
¹⁷They don’t know where to find peace.”^[g]
¹⁸    “They have no fear of God at all.”^[h]

¹⁹Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. ²⁰For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

These awards are NOT going to earn him a spot in Heaven-no one is capable of entering the glory of the Lord on their own accomplishments. It would be exhausting and depressing because it is IMPOSSIBLE. Thankfully, God says all we need to do is confess that we are sinners and believe that God is who He says He is.

Romans 10:9-10 "If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."

If he had chosen to ignore God calling him to truly believe in Him and change his life around 7 years ago, there would not be this blog post about getting awards. IT IS ALL GOD! He is the author and perfecter of our faith. We want to give Him all the praise.

Ok...just wanted to make sure everyone knew he is not getting a big head or anything. ;) He is truly humbled and grateful for the awards and all the kind words. Thank you!

It was a beautiful evening and made Mickey and I so proud to have graduated from Kirkwood Community College...some people may knock junior colleges but this is a top-notch place and we couldn't have been more impressed with how we were taken care of from a free, amazing hotel room to a delicious dinner, and an impressive, well put together awards program.

His sister Cari was so sweet to nominate him and arrange for his former Kirkwood baseball coach to present the award. Thanks so much!

And my favorite moment of the night was when Mickey says on his video they showed that his best accomplishment at Kirkwood was meeting me! Coach Lewis said the same thing in his speech and I couldn't agree more. I may have won a national championship at Kwood, but meeting Mickey was the GREATEST thing about Kirkwood, hands down. It is a special place indeed to both of us.

Here are some pics of the event!