The Lord Continues to Transform...

(One of our traditional date-night picture spots...)

It's been quite a while since I've posted. However, this does not signify that there has been a lack of noteworthy moments in the past year! On the contrary, God has done so much in my life and I am thankful! I would say that He has taught me most what love is. I am thankful He doesn't leave us to ourselves! We would forever be lost. It is through my husband that God has shown me what HIS love is all about. The way Josh has loved, forgiven, exemplified patience, shown kindness, throughout our married years has opened up my eyes to so much.

1.) How little I love...I hadn't realized, but much of the way I loved was dependent upon actions. Very much a work-based love. Josh has loved me in times when I have been most unlovable :-)

And 2.) How MUCH God loves! He loves enough to reprimand us when we are wrong or heading in the wrong direction. My darling husband does this often for me :-)...


There have been times he has felt the need to "reprimand" me, taking me to scripture to show me how my attitude, discouragement, etc...is not from the Lord. How thankful I am for a husband who loves me and who cares enough to tell me when I am not doing/thinking right! And how thankful I am for a God who cares about every thought and action of His children, and how willing He is that we walk rightly that He will scold us when necessary!



A few things I am thankful for in my husband:
1) How much he loves God and desires to serve Him
2) The way he loves me and shows me God's love
3) How he loves the children
4) He works hard to provide for us
5) He is a command man :-)
6) How he leads our family in God's word
7) He enjoys giving to others in need
8) He loves to play the guitar with me
9) His laugh :-)
10) His hugs

I love you! xoxo

What God Has Put Together...

In the amount of life I have experienced so far I have come to realize that marriage can be one of the most challenging yet rewarding of relationships in life. Josh and I just celebrated our 3rd anniversary. And while, yes, it may seem as though we should still be newly-weds (we're quite a ways away from our silver anniversary!;-), in many ways it feels as if we've been together our whole lives. I'm sure those of you who are so blessed to be married can agree that after only a few years together, it's rather hard to remember what it feels like to be single. We have definitely had our ups and downs...at times it feels as though there have been more valleys, and other times more mountain-peaks. These seasons come and go with life. Some are more welcomed than others, yet they all serve their purpose. A christian cannot expect to have a life without trials. Let me rephrase that...A christian who is seeking to become more like Christ in every aspect of his life cannot expect for life to be easy. Trials and tribulations are part of the package. It's unfortunate. But God is God. And we did not create this world. This is how He has chosen to refine us and to strengthen and polish our faith. Marriage is tough at times. But Guess what!! God is on our side! He DESIRES for us to stay together! Christ will never leave the church. He will never forsake us. And once we have been bought with His precious blood it is impossible for us to be completely lost again........To ourselves, the world, or to satan. God will pursue His children because He has promised that "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it..." (Phil. 1:6). What a beautiful picture of what marriage is and should be! No husband is perfect, and while we wives are a little closer...KIDDING!!...no one is perfect. We are all lacking. And that is definitely what makes this beautiful relationship so difficult! But this is how God's love is demonstrated here on earth. Through an imperfect man and an imperfect woman loving each other, REALLY loving each other despite those frustrations and annoyances. The wife beautifully submitting to her husband, respecting him in a way that helps him become all of the man that God intended for him to be. This is hard! Really hard. A woman has so much influence on how her husband is going to view himself and the world. How are we helping our husbands? Or are we hindering them? I have so much to learn about being a wife. Throw that on top of already being overwhelmed with being a good mommy and you have a total train-wreck! Dirty diapers all day long, nursing baby around the clock, cleaning up after toddler, developing relationship with little ones, training little ones in the way they should go, training little ones in the way they should go, training little ones in the way they should go ( ;-) there's a reason I mentioned that thrice! ), laundry laundry laundry, (I don't have school added yet!!...but God's grace will be sufficient then! ) rush to get dinner on the table for when darling hubby walks in, straighten house real quick before darling comes home......It may seem monotonous, but isn't that what it's all about? Yes, I am inadequate to be the wife God wants me to be. Yes, I am inadequate to be the mother He desires me to be. Yes....I am one inadequate person. PRAISE THE LORD!! Because if I were adequate, then why did Jesus die? If I were perfect, His life and death would have been wasted. SO, rather, my day should look like this: talk to God while I change diapers, talk to God while I make dinner, talk to God as I straighten house, talk to God anytime I can. Prayer is one thing that will NEVER BE WASTED. Though my life may at times be monotonous, and the things I accomplish throughout the day may seem minute, if I carve them in prayer, I am dwelling with my Savior, and every day is holy. Every day, and every action is an experience with God. Every diaper change and every nose-wipe is holy, bound in prayer, and that I can offer up to my Lord. Prayer cannot be burnt in flames.

"Obedient to their own husbands"-Part One

I recently started going through one of my favorite books again, and last night, this was the chapter that I read, and the phrase of the verse that it covers.


Titus 2:4-5 "That they may teach the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet,
chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands,
that the word of God be not blasphemed."

Our culture tells us that a woman who is independent and equal in position among men, meaning that "she can do anything a man can do, and probably better at that", can "make her mind up for herself" or "know her own mind", intelligent and lucrative according to the world's standards, outwardly beautiful and not too humble, chaste, reverent, loving, and serving of others, is a success. This is a direct lie from satan that even the church has accepted in many ways. In times like these we must come back to scripture and ask God what HE thinks a successful woman looks like....what HE thinks a beautiful woman looks like. This is one of the passages that He so clearly tells us what He wants His christian daughters to look like. I am focusing on the 8th commandment that He gives us women because this is the one that He has been laying on my heart lately.

Obedient: Yielding, willing and eager to accomplish injunctions or desires, abstaining from that which is forbidden.

It is sad that our culture, and yes, even the majority of christians today, look at a woman who is obedient or submissive as weak. We look down on someone who gives up their "rights" to the benefit of someone else..."She doesn't know her own mind, or stand up for herself. She's so quiet and meek, so 'uncool' " we think or say. But what does God's word say? He tells us that we are to be obedient to our husbands...."that the word of God be not blasphemed." This isn't just a suggestion. It's pretty scary to think that we as wives can blaspheme the word of God if we do not obey our husbands!!! And what does it look like to obey your husband?

"According to God's very words, apart from any cultural context, it is a woman's nature to place her full attention and interest upon her husband, and she is to be under her husband's rule. That is the will of God," (excerpt from Created to be His Help Meet)

"But I would have you know, that the head
of every man is Christ; and the head
of the woman is the man; and the
head of Christ is God" (I Cor. 11:3)

"There can be no cultural context that nullifies this verse, for it says that the basis of a man's headship is rooted in the very essence of the woman's created nature. Just as God is the head of Christ and Christ is the head of the man, so the man is the head of the woman (his wife)" (CtbHHM).

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands,
as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church:
and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the
church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be
to their own husbands in everything" (Eph.5:22-24)

"Here again-a second witness in Scripture-we wives are informed that our submission to our husband should be viewed with the same love and fervency as our submission and love for Christ. The text says that we submit "as unto the Lord," as if we were submitting to the Lord. Since my husband's authority is delegated by God, when I submit to my husband, I am recognizing God's authority, and I am indeed submitting to God" (CtbHHM).

The Love of My Life

When I first married, I didn't realize how much molding, shaping, chiseling, and carving God had to do in my life. I guess you could say that I was one of those who married more for selfish reasons , and not with the sole intention of furthering my husband's visions and goals. God has opened my eyes to the purpose He has for me in being Josh's wife, and how fulfilling my life will be if I will endeavor to make my husband's goals my goals, his visions mine, and his pursuits and dreams to be my every day aspirations. In doing this I pray that my sons will see the kind of wife that they need, and my daughters (hopefully :-) ) the kind of woman they need to be. Only by God's grace will this be possible....