Thankful that Marriage is for LIFE!

As funny as this might sound, I'm really glad I'm only getting married once--for lots of reasons!!  For one thing, I want to spend the rest of my life with my man.  There's no one I'd rather live, love, struggle, rejoice, praise, serve and grow old with.  Also, getting married is a lot of work.  It takes a lot of time, a lot of planning, lots of other people helping, and a lot of money.  I've been having the weirdest dreams of my life related to the wedding.  It is, after all, the biggest decision of my life, the biggest change I'll probably ever go through, the most life-changing event I'll ever experience.

However, I'm thankful for every aspect of this whole experience.  I'm learning more about myself, my future husband, and what all marriage entails.  I'm SO thankful that we have our whole lives to get this marriage-thing down.  It's going to take a lot of work, a lot of patience, a lot of love and forgiveness.  Thank God for his grace, and for the strength we'll need to honor him in our marriage.  I'm so thankful for the man God has given me to "do life" with.  I wouldn't want to go through life without either one of them--God or my man! :)

I'm coming to realize how much so many people love and care about me, about us.  So many of our family and friends are coming, so many are helping in myriad ways.  Our parents have expressed their love to us so clearly.  We are so blessed; God is so good.  And as one of my favorite bloggers, Nikki, reminded me in a recent post, God is not just good in the good times.  We will struggle, but God will be just as good then as he is now, in the happy times.  And we can have joy in those hard times too, because joy is not of ourselves but comes from Him and Him alone.

I have more thoughts, but those of you who are married understand that five days before my wedding, my to-do list is still overwhelming!  I'll get it done...but I need to get it done.  :)

I promised pictures.  They will come...eventually!

My Current State of Mind

SO much to do.  Not nearly enough time to do it.


I can do all things...


There's so much I need and want to do.  I wish I could make everything okay.  I can't handle it all...


Through Christ...


I'm so tired.  Not enough sleep, not enough time to rest, hardly any time for myself today.  I've been dashing from one thing to the next since 8:30 this morning and it won't end for another 3 1/2 hours.  I'm still not fully healthy.  I just want to curl up and sleep.


Who strengthens me.



This is what has been going through my head, practically all day.  Trying to do life on my own doesn't work.  Letting God take the reins does work.  (Ever notice how "reins" is a homonym of "reigns"?  Yeah...)

His strength is made perfect in my weakness.  When I am weak, he is strong.  When I can't do it, God can.

And he helps me get through even long, tiring days like today.  He has given me my amazing finace, without whom I don't know how I'd get through life.  He makes me so happy and just holds me when that's what I need.  He's encouraging and he inspires me to work hard.

God let me run into two beautiful women today, two sisters in Christ who gave me some much-needed love and encouragement.  I'm so thankful for all my girl friends; don't know where I'd be without them either!

And it's such a beautiful day.  The sunshine lifts my spirits so much.

I can do ALL THINGS
through CHRIST
who STRENGTHENS me.

Love Trusts: 1 Corinthians 13

I used to consider myself a person of pretty strong faith.  I have, in the last few months and even the last couple of years, come to realize that I have a lot to learn about trust.  I am a very take-charge person and that can translate to bossiness, micromanaging, control freak...you get the picture.  I am used to taking care of myself, planning out my life, and sometimes managing (ok, butting in to) the lives of those closest to me.

This afternoon in one of my classes, a classmate quoted 1 Corinthians 13:7: "[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Here are a few other versions of the same verse:
"[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (NKJV)


"Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]." (Amplified)


"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,^(N) endures all things." (ESV)


I like how the Amplified version translates it.  That's basically how my professor explained the passage: Love is ready to believe the best of people; it trusts them on the basis of love.  It's not a blind belief or trust, but one that says "I love you and I know you love me so I'm going to trust you."


This is the kind of love we can have with God.  This is the kind of love and trust I should be striving for in my relationship with God, and in a human relationship also.


My problem, I think, is the common human misconception that I know best.  This is quite false, of course.  I don't know best.  God does.  And he is in authority over me, he has put others in authority over me, and it is hugely beneficial to me to put myself under the care of those who are in loving authority over me.

It's really quite silly, when I stop to think about it, for me to try to do everything on my own and control every aspect of my life.  It might seem scary to let God manage our lives- I mean, it's our lives, after all, right?  But a whole life is a pretty huge thing to manage alone.  God is a pretty huge God, and he can handle our lives even when they're too much for us.  Not only that, but he's put people in our lives to help us along the way: spouses, parents, friends.

As I strive to love the way God loves, I am going to trust as love trusts.

Introducing... My Man! :)

Just for fun, and to experiment with posting pictures for the first time, I thought I'd share a few snapshots of my beloved fiancée and me.

One of the first pictures I took of us, right after we started dating.

Our first date: Homecoming 2009!

At my house, Christmas 2009

This was taken minutes after he asked me to marry him- and I said yes!

At his house, Easter 2010

This was taken by my sister on the Fourth of July.

Celebrating the beginning of our sophomore year!

Homecoming 2010!

And this is Christmas 2010.

So there you have it!  The sixteen-plus months we've been together have been fantastic, and I can't wait to continue living our lives together for God's glory.

Home: Coming or Leaving?

I am back in my hometown today, since the semester of college has ended.  I spent more than half of my growing-up years here, and this house is where my family has lived for the longest.  Right now I'm kind of in limbo: most of my belongings are in my dorm room, but a lot of my things are here.  My family is here, my childhood is here, but my future is with my fiancée in Nebraska.  The phrase "home is where the heart is" seems to apply very strongly to me.  My heart has been with my family, but now my heart belongs to my fiancée.  Now, home is wherever he is.  That is how it will be for the rest of my life.

Leaving my college-home and coming to my childhood home is making me think about where my home is spiritually.  If "home is where the heart is," where is my heart?  Where is my home?  When I leave this earth and go to heaven, will I be leaving home- or coming home?

Jesus said that he is not of this world, and therefore those who follow him are not of this world, either.  This earth, this life, is a temporary existence.  It is a meaningful existence, but it will not last for long.  We are, in a way, in limbo: part of us, our physical body, is in this world, but our spiritual ones long for the eternal world.  Right now I'm preparing to make a home with my future husband.  Are we, as Christ's bride, the church, mindful of our future home with Christ?  Am I in preparation for that life, for that new home?

All my thoughts these days, at least most of them, center around my future husband and my future home with him.  I have an intense longing for that new life to begin.  I'm ready for it to start.  But for now, I'm forced to be patient in the waiting period, and make the best use of this in-between time.  I feel like it's that way with my spiritual home, too.  I have a very deep desire to be with Christ eternally, and if he were to take me now I would be glad to go.  But I have much work to do in the time between now and then.  I have a purpose.  I have a life that he has given me in which to serve him, however temporal it may be.

My home is where my heart is: physically, with my fiancée.  Spiritually, with Jesus.  Today, during this vacation, I'm going to enjoy and relish being home in both ways.