Beauty

Those beautiful nieces I was telling you about... here they are so you can see for yourself. #lovethem

"You are all together beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you."   Song of Songs 4:7

Forecast

The other day I looked up at the sky and it was rather overcast and gray. On a typical day this would not bothter me.

But THIS was not a typical day. THIS was the weekend my niece was to get married, you see. (Yes, I am old enough to have a married niece. *sigh* 2 married nieces, infact *smile*)
Remember the newlywed thing going on this year? *wink*

Back on topic...
The wedding was to be outside. And the last thing I wanted for this beautiful bride was rain.

So what did I do? Of course, I immediately texted my husband  asking him if he had looked at the sky lately and expressed my hope that the rain holds off. And of course, he immediately texted back assuring me he had looked up the forcast and it was supposed to be sunny.

What happened next? My spirit started doubting  (we're working on breaking that habit) but nonetheless it happened. Again.

But wait. It was an opportunity for a quick conversation with the Lord. As soon as my spirit started doubting I said to myself, "That sky doesn't look very promising."

And then the Lord asked me: "What skies do you have in your life that don't look very promising?"

Ummm... "Really, Lord? Do you really want me to start naming them? Because I got a few that don't look very promising right now."

And what do you think He said? "Sure, go ahead. Name 'em!"

So I did. I politely reminded Him of a few problems I've got going on right now.

And what do you think He did then? The gentleman that He is, He politely reminded me of the promises He's already given me for these problems I have.

And He also politely reminded me that no matter how gray or dark some of my skies may be right now, He has promised sunny skies in the end.

It's HIS forecast for ME.

There you have it.

Simpe Truth again: His everlasting love.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
Romans 8:31

Let that sink in and work on healing those gray skies you have.

Next up: a small download about rain.
But first, watch for a few pics of these beautiful nieces I speak of  :)

Truth

I know... it's been a minute... but bare with me.

It's been a new season in life.

The newlywed season.

And with that comes the blending of 2 lives with lots of precious family and friends.

Not to mention the 7 weddings we have attended over the last year. (Including our own:) ) I knew we had been busy but sheesh! Hold off on the baby-maki'n, folks so we can catch our breath.

Back on track...

I've been having (and hearing) lots of conversations about truth lately.

One particular quote struck me. It goes like this:

"The truth may hurt, but the truth heals."

My next conversation was with a friend praying about the armor of God. Pretty sure there is a belt of truth in there.

Then the dots started connecting...

His. Truth. Heals.

Making the connection???

And then I saw this next quote:

"You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality...."
-Ayn Rand-


And then- bam. There it is. Sometimes reality sucks. Simple, but true. And sometimes it feels like it is easier to ignore reality than to face it. But truth of the matter is, ignoring reality will have much tougher consequences than facing it. No matter how hard reality is.

There it is, folks. Undeniable truth.

Next up: Those that accept His Truth have a bright forecast. But what about when those bright skies appear cloudy with no chance of sun? That epiphany next.

Until then, find your belt of Truth and buckle up :)

Sweet Spot

 

I've been saying for a bit, I would post my absolute, all time, most favorite wedding pic.

 

It's taken me a bit to get the words around what is really happening here, so bare with me while I try to explain all the emotion my amazing photographers captured for me. It's not a posed pic, you don't see our faces, and it wasn't even on "the list" of pics to get. But it was a moment and they captured the moment!

 

I heard the other day on the radio about gaining momentum... Like in tennis, for example. You swing that racket, but maybe the hit doesn't go exactly how you imagined. But you keep swinging and eventually you find your sweet spot. The spot where your wrist turns just right and you rock that swing. You've found your sweet spot, baby! And then the momentum begins!

 

That's what this picture is to me.
It's my sweet spot.

 

I have two of the greatest people by my side: my husband and my sister. And you'll see we are looking up at the sky. You may initially think we are looking at a flock of geese. But actually, we are looking at a flock of cranes. I'm not sure if a bunch of cranes is technically called a flock, but we're gonna go with it for now. K? :)

 

Those that know me, know that's my sweet spot with Jesus. I talked earlier about how hearts are a universal love language, but we also have individual love languages. Cranes are my personal love language (with Jesus that is... Don't everyone be going all crane crazy on me now!) and I always know He is near whenever I see them.

 

On this particular day, December 20, 2015 (the day I was to get married), it was unbelievable the number of cranes we saw. He's just that sweet to me- to fill my wedding day with cranes. Crazy to some, but sweet to me and those that know about my sweet spot.

I mean, if He gives me cranes every other day in school parking lots, flying over me on the interstate, in driveways, etc why wouldn't I think He's capable of giving me not only one crane, but a ton of cranes on my wedding day?  That's beside the point. I digressed...

 

The first time I heard of the cranes on the property was when I was inside getting my makeup done. My friend that was by my side with me all day had gone out to get something out of the car and told me about all of the cranes she had heard. Of course, my doubting self thought to myself; "What? Cranes? Out here in the middle of December?" And then the thought was shortly dismissed. 

 

Until... Later, this friend was outside again and told me she saw a huge flock of them flying over. "Okay." I thought. "You've got my attention now." I mean, I knew He was there on this extra special day, but with a bunch of cranes? Yes- He loves me that much. Now, I was dying to get outside so I could experience this myself.

 

Low and behold (after being told of several other sightings from various other people with me that day) we were outside taking some photos before the ceremony when we heard the cranes squawking while they flew overhead. I immediately ran out from the covered dock where we were taking pictures so I could get in my "sweet spot" and see these cranes for myself. I hollered for my photographers to get pics. They probably thought I was nuts for wanting pics of this. Wonder how many other brides have demanded photos of passing cranes?? This was a sweet, sweet moment and I'm forever thankful it was captured as a memory forever. And not only did they get this moment with the cranes but they got even more as they were flying overhead literally all day long!

 

There continued to be numerous sightings that day of these cranes. There's no other explanation other than He knows what He's doing and He knew I'd need that reminder to get in my sweet spot; in His presence when I'm loosing momentum.

 

Never mind there were absolutely no other crane sightings on the property during the several pre-wedding day visits we made to the site. He's just that good to put them there on MY special day just for me because He loves me THAT much.

 

I'll post more of the other crane pics later, but for now find your sweet spot and enjoy :)

Abundant (Love)

Being that we're in the month of love... (never mind that I'm a newlywed and all... *wink, wink*) the topic of love is high on the radar.

We all know the universal language of love is hearts. I've never been one that has really gotten overly excited at the site of hearts... heart shaped jewelry, heart shaped trinkets, heart shaped this, and heart shaped that. Yea- it just never really tugged at my heart strings. Actually, in all honesty all that lovey dovey stuff created more irritation in me rather than affection. I guess because I'm not one to follow the crowd and would rather show love and affection in a more personal way than how everyone else does it. It's easy to show love with a heart, but to really get to know someone and discover what speaks to their heart takes a little more effort.

That is... until I had a friend that would always talk about seeing these hearts and how she saw them as kisses from the Lord. Hmmmmm... now that got my attention. Hearts as kisses from above. When she would talk about kisses He'd sent her in the form of a heart shaped rock, a heart shaped cloud, a heart shaped shell, a heart shaped leaf, a heart shaped oil stain on the concrete (you get the idea) I decided I wanted some of that! I thought; if He'll send her kisses in the form of hearts surely He'll send me kisses in the form of hearts too. And so the search began. I started keeping my eye out for hearts and guess what?!?! Yep... I started getting hearts too! In every way you can imagine. Sometimes I didn't have to look very hard for them. And sometimes I did. This has been going on for years now.

I've been in a season where I hadn't been getting many hearts lately. So I had a conversation and it went kinda like this:

Me: Lord, I haven't been getting many hearts from you lately. I'd really like to see some hearts here soon.
Him: OK. Just ask Me for them.
Me: Fine. I will. I'd like to get a heart from you everyday for the next 30 days!
My Inner Thoughts: Oh, dear! I just asked for a heart every day for the next 30 days. That's a lot of hearts. I better start small and just ask for a heart every day for a week. Then we can reevaluate and extend it if things are going well.
Him: (Since He was listening in on my thoughts...) Really? You don't think I can send you a heart every day for 30 days? Who do you think I am?
Me: Yea- you're right. You're God. You can send a heart every day for 30 days. Let's start tomorrow! I'm looking!  

That was 15 days ago. And guess what? Yep... I haven't only gotten a heart every single day, but I've gotten multiple hearts each day. And a lot of the times, it's many hearts together at once. So we've been talking about His abundant affection and desire to provide. We're also talking about how love can still exist even when you don't see the hearts and how love is not based on how you feel. Ironic we're having this conversation when I'm a newlywed? Probably not... ;) We've got lots to talk about and I'm still on my 30 day heart challenge.

Back to the universal language of love... we also have a unique language of love. Some of you married folk may be familiar with the book, The Five Love Languages and you know what I'm talking about. You know how something may mean a lot to you, but it doesn't necessarily mean the same thing to your spouse? Well... He knows that love language too! I'm not just on the lookout for hearts. I have my unique little thing that He knows speaks just to me.

In fact, one of my favorite wedding pics captures it perfectly.

Stay tuned and I'll post it soon.

In the meantime... Feel the love. Share the love.
Let His abundant love consume you!

More later.



Fat and Happy

We've survived 4 weeks of marriage! How are we doing you might ask?

I've always heard that after you get married you may gain a few pounds... I guess because you are happy. And of course I always said, "that will never happen to me!" Just like I said I would never get married in December... Never say never.

Let me set the stage for you...

We were out shopping the other day. When I bent down to look at something on the bottom shelf- that's when I heard the rip. I was in denial. When I checked to make sure it was not MY pants that had ripped open I was wrong! Yes- it WAS my pants that had a hole ripped open. Wide. Open. Needless to say our next purchase was a set of bathroom scales! We cannot let this get out of control!

In the four weeks we have been married, we have learned much about each other. When you're not used to living with someone, especially of the opposite sex, there is much education to be had. Mark thought HE was normal and I thought I was normal, but what we're learning is that NEITHER of us is normal!

Mark is convinced that if I continue to loose the same amount of hair each day in the shower, that I will soon be in his situation with a bald head. I have assured him it is normal for females to loose a certain amount of hair. I also told him about  my dad's kind deed of unclogging my drains about once a year and how we always named the furry pet after it had been freed from the pipes. We have since purchased a drain protector.

And I think he is learning that when I make brownies he might want to tread along with a little more caution...

I am learning to laugh more and let the little things go. He's good at keeping me laughing. The other night I had on a little green sweat suit and he told me I looked like a ninja turtle. I'm not sure why, but that just cracked me up. Maybe because he said it so matter of factly. I love it when he makes me laugh!

We are both learning that as much as you can love someone, they can just as much irritate the snot out of you. But somehow you keep loving them. I heard a quote once that went something like: "I'd kill you if I wouldn't miss you so much." Truth. Enough said.

Overall, we are getting fat and are happily married. We've already started learning so much about each other and have so much more to learn. But in a nutshell, there's no one else I'd rather do life with!

For now, we are headed on our long awaited honeymoon!

More later!