• Faith,  Marriage

    An Open Letter To My Husband

    February 21, 2017

    I know I have been writing a lot about marriage the past couple of weeks but it’s just so hard not to. It’s obviously such a huge part of my life and it’s the thing that I most feel like I can help others with, not because I’m an expert but because it’s very real to me right now and I’m still learning. I’ve always loved writing about things while I’m still in the process of going through them myself so that whatever I’m writing about will be hopefully be relatable.

    This post however is probably not going to help anyone though, but it is still something that I really want to write. Mostly to document this newlywed time well and to also encourage my husband too. This letter is actually part of the challenge at the end of the Wife After God book (affiliate link). The challenge is to write a letter to your husband and present it to him in a meaningful way. I just thought I’d share it with you all as well. 🙂 I would actually encourage anyone reading this to try it with your husband (or boyfriend) and let me know how it goes! I think it will be a really special time.

    To My Tommy,

    I finished the Wife After God book probably a little over a week ago or so and at the end of the book there is a challenge to write a letter to your husband. I’ve been really excited about this but also haven’t done it yet mostly because I honestly lack the words to really get across to you how much you mean to me. That may sound so cliché but I really mean it. I thought if I waited a bit I could think of the words or the perfect way to present this letter to you, but I don’t think I’ll ever find the words to perfectly communicate how much I love you.

    Anytime that I take the time to think about how our life is together, I am in complete awe that God would actually allow this much goodness in my life. I’ve dreamed of getting married for honestly as long as I can remember. Sure I’ve had tons of dreams but being a wife and mom were always at the very top of my list, and honestly the only two that I truly cared about seeing come true. Now that they are coming true, this life is way better than I ever dreamed it would be. And not just because God answered my prayer. I’m sure I’d be happy no matter what if I just got the chance to be a wife, but I’m amazed that God allowed me to be your wife.

    I know I don’t say it anywhere near enough but I’m so proud to be your wife. You make this life easy. You are always putting my needs first and working so very hard to provide for us, and those things never go unnoticed, even if I forget to thank you for them. 

    The way that you have been supporting my dreams of making a living working from home, even though it makes our lives more difficult in this season is a true reminder that you care so much about me and my happiness. I’m so thankful that I have someone who encourages me to chase my dreams. I’ve never had that before and it’s such an awesome thing. 

    I love the way that you aren’t afraid to step out of your comfort zone for us. Whether that be at work, trying your very best to make a living for us, despite the odds against you sometimes. Or whether that be in your faith. You lead me so well with your faith. I think we compliment each other so well when it comes to faith. You never hesitate to take the next step that we need, whether that is to start praying together, or joining a small group, or changing churches. You are always listening to my needs and trying your best to make sure that they are being met. 

    On top of all that, as if it could get any better, you are my very best friend. When something great happens, you are the first person I want to tell so that we can celebrate together. Or when something not so great happens, you are still the first person I want to tell because I know you will be there to encourage me through it. I love doing things with you, even if it’s just hanging out in the house all day. We always have fun together and that’s such a great gift to have in a husband.

    I still don’t feel that these words accurately display just how much you mean to me but I hope they at least scratch the surface and they encourage you. Thank you for being such a loving husband and my closest friend. You are everything to me. I love you.

    Love,
            Your wife

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  • Faith,  Marriage

    How To Pray For Your Marriage

    February 20, 2017

    I wanted to write a post about how to pray for your marriage because even though I wrote about how to pray for your husband, I think praying specifically for our marriages is actually different. I know that this will make it a lot easier for myself to pray for my marriage, so I figured it would help others as well.

    Just like in my praying for your husband post, this post will also be outlined based off of a chapter in the book Wife After God: Drawing Closer to God & Your Husband. If you are interested doing this study alongside your husband, there is also a book Husband After God: Drawing Closer To God And Your Wife. (Please note these are both affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase I may receive a small commission for the sale, but the price does not change for you. Thanks for your support!) It may also be a really special time to ask your husband to pray for your marriage with you.

    1 | Thank God for the gift of marriage

    No matter if your marriage is easy or hard, God still has given you marriage as a gift and I think it’s important that we try to see it as such. (This obviously is easier in some seasons than it is in others.) Thank God for the gift that is marriage and having a partner to do life with. If you are going through a hard time in your marriage and are having a hard time seeing your marriage as a gift, ask God to change your heart to be able to see your marriage as a gift.

    2 | Ask God to protect your marriage

    As it says in the Wife After God book, marriage will always be a very fragile thing. Since we are two sinners living together, there will always be arguments and hard things, so I think it is so important to ask God to protect our marriages. Ask that God will protect your marriage from the schemes of the devil and from your own sinful desires.

    3 | Ask that God will increase the intimacy between you and your husband

    Increasing intimacy will obviously make our marriages stronger. If we ask God to increase the intimacy between us and our husbands, he will be able to help with this. Sometimes this might not be so easy apart from God, but with his help, he can open our eyes to ways that we can bless our marriage. He may also show our husbands how they can also pursue us better as well.

    4 | Ask God to help you center your marriage on him

    This is important because without a firm foundation, marriage can very easily crumble. We know that if we build our relationships on God, our foundation will always be secure. Ask God to show you how to center your marriage more on him.

    5 | Ask God to show you what you need to pray for

    This one is great. Sometimes we honestly don’t know what may be lacking in our marriage or where we can improve so all we need to do is ask God to show us what does need prayer. It may not be automatic, but this is a prayer God will definitely answer.

    6 | Ask God to help you with your finances

    I think this is a great thing to ask God as well. No matter how well we think we are managing our finances, God knows what is down the road and the best way we can handle them so it is so important to ask for his help. Finances can also be a huge stressor on marriages, so asking for his help with this can ultimately eliminate an issue within your marriage.

    7 | Ask God to strengthen your marriage

    All of these things will obviously strengthen your marriage but if we specifically ask God to strengthen our marriages, he will. Ask God to give you an increased desire to spend time doing the things that your husband enjoys, and vise versa. I don’t know anything quite as helpful to a marriage than spending a lot of time together, doing things that you both love. Ask God for help with this.

    These are just some ideas that might be helpful to pray over either by yourself or with your husband. Inviting God in always improves our situations, including our marriages, since marriage was always about God anyway.

    What other things do you pray for your marriage for? I’d love to add it to my list as well!

     

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  • Faith,  Life

    It’s Okay To Chase Your Dreams

    February 15, 2017

    I had scheduled to write this post today since the beginning of the month. It turns out that today is actually the perfect day to write it. I’m actually so excited too! Let me explain.

    This month has been rough so far. I’ve been doubting my plan to try to make a living from working at home like a lot. I have been so worried that we weren’t going to have enough money to pay the bills and thought that I had chosen the wrong path, and that I should just go back to work. I have been so worried about how other people were going to see me that I haven’t had the motivation to really put too much effort into this plan.

    But something shifted in me the past two days and I honestly really believe that this is possible again. I actually believe it now more than I did when I first made the plan. A lot of that definitely has to do to my husband’s hard work and support of my dreams. He has been working so, so hard (like working the past 3 Saturdays) and has been able to pay all of our monthly bills plus some medical bills that we’ve been putting off for quite some time now. I am so in awe of both God’s provision and my husband’s will to walk in it. Every time I get down about this plan that we made, about me staying home, my husband has shown me that he 100% believes that I can do this and that makes all the difference for me to persevere through the times that I don’t believe that I can do this. I have without a doubt borrowed his faith some days.

    I also have been doing a ton of research about blogging and starting an Etsy shop (because that’s my next step!) and am learning so much. I’m learning different ways of how other people have become successful and adopting them as my own. The most exciting part about all of this is that I’m really passionate about these things. I love showing up and interacting with whoever may be reading this. I’m also so excited to start my own Etsy shop and be able to bless others in that way. I wanted to share with you guys an entry that I wrote in my journal from the beginning of the year where I had just decided to quit my job a week or so before and really had no idea where God was leading me. I believe that this is where it all started, God really showed me that he was about to take me down a path that I never could have dreamed of, and that this is only just the beginning.

    January 9, 2017

    In Isaiah 28, if I am understanding correctly, God is talking to a land or people (Ephraim and Judah) and is saying how that land was supposed to be “the resting place” but they would not listen. God gets angry because of this and punishes them. It shows me that there really is a time and place for rest. This season, although it can be challenging, is teaching me that. Sometimes I feel like I am just being lazy or am too broken right now and that’s why God has me home. But then I remember he has me home because he is teaching me here and is showing me it is okay to chase my dreams… wow!

    I remember writing that last sentence and almost not believing it or why I was writing it, which is one of the reasons why I added wow to the end, haha! God was only just introducing this idea to me and I was a little afraid to believe him honestly, but the more I walk in this path, the more I really believe that he really is showing me it’s okay to chase my dreams. I don’t want this to sound too preachy and weird, but I’m writing this to encourage anyone else who might feel like God is nudging them to do something that just seems crazy. There’s so much more to my story that shows that God had his hand all over this and that I couldn’t have made it up myself. I’ll have to try my best to try to share the rest of the story if you’re interested. If you can relate to this at all, leave a comment or send me an email and let me know how I can be praying for you. I know how tough taking that first step but I want you to be encouraged that if God is with me through this, he will be with you too! It’s okay to chase your dreams!

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  • Faith

    How To Get The Most Out Of Bible Studying

    February 8, 2017

    Good morning! I wanted to share some tips today about how I study the bible. I am currently reading through the bible from Genesis to Revelation (and have been for about a year and a half) and am currently in Jeremiah. I have learned a few things along the way and wanted to share in hopes that any of these tips may help someone else.

    Pray Beforehand

    When it comes to faith, we cannot do anything outside of God. No matter how smart we are, we will never understand God’s word if he doesn’t first open our eyes to it. Before I start reading I usually say a quick little prayer asking God to reveal himself to me. I ask him to open my eyes to what he wants to teach me today and to help me see him in the text. I think this is really helpful because it reminds me that reading God’s word is important because it is about Jesus and that the reason I should be reading in the first place is to learn more about him.

    Get Comfy

    This one may sound a little silly but I think it is the step that helps me stay consistent with reading my bible. What I mean by this is to create a little space that you feel comfortable in. For me it’s at my desk, with a cup of coffee, and sometimes with a candle lit. I look forward to mornings where I get to do this.

    Be Reasonable

    Don’t expect yourself to sit down and read half of a book in one sitting. This is what kept me from staying consistent for so long. I had it in my head that I had to sit down and spend so much time with God and read as much as I could at a time, but the problem with that was that I barely ever had a large chunk of time to do this. And while I definitely think there is a time to sit down and spend large chunks of time studying the word, maybe this isn’t a realistic thing to do every day. Instead set a reasonable amount of scripture to read as a standard, maybe a chapter or two a day. I set out to read two chapters a day and it really helps because I don’t feel overwhelmed by it.

    Get A Bible You Enjoy

    We are always more excited about doing something if it involves something that we really like. I just bought this Coloring Bible last month and it makes reading the bible fun. It’s also important to get a Bible with a translation that you can understand very easily. Having a Bible that is confusing will definitely make it harder to want to stay consistent.

    Journal

    You can either journal about what you just read in your Bible or about what is going on in your life at the time, or a combination of both! Either are really helpful honestly. I usually just journal about what is going on in my life and how God has answered prayers. This is such a special thing between me and God because I can look back in a year and see exactly how I was feeling and how God showed up. If you don’t do this now I highly suggest that you do. It’s so so awesome.

    Be Consistent

    Try your best to be consistent about reading. You will get the most out of understanding what is going on if you read every day. But I also noticed that if we try our best to be consistent, it gives God the opportunity to really show up. I think it’s important because it’s showing God that he is most important in our lives. Obviously I’m not saying that if you don’t carve out time for him every day then he isn’t your priority because I know myself that there have been seasons where I just really struggled with that. What I am saying is that if we give God the time to show up, even if were skeptical if he will, or if we’ll really understand what we’re reading, I’ve come to learn that he shows up in ways that we would never imagine. Sometimes it’s just giving you a great mood to start the day. Sometimes it’s just opening your eyes to things in a way you’ve never seen them before. Or sometimes it’s just opening our eyes to the blessing that are already in our lives. If you commit to God to show him that he is most important, he will show up, that’s all I do know.

    Give Yourself Grace

    While staying consistent is obviously important, I think it is equally important that we give ourselves grace when we fall short too. God knows that we aren’t going to do this perfectly and we shouldn’t expect ourselves too either. At first it might be really slow going, you might only read your Bible once a week, but the key to this is don’t give up because you didn’t meet your goal. God will still show up. Keep at it until it becomes a habit.

    These are just a few tips that have helped me along the way. When life gets busy, I usually tend to not be as consistent with reading my bible. But at the same time, if life is so busy that I don’t have time to really spend with God, I know that sometime has to change. It’s important to do whatever we can to make sure God is our priority because he really is our lifeline and if we don’t have time for him, everything else in our life is going to suffer as well.

    What tips do you have for Bible studying? I’d love to know!

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  • Faith,  Marriage

    I Prayed For These Moments

    February 6, 2017

    Happy Monday! I hope you guys had a nice and relaxing weekend. I wanted to write a post that was inspired by this quote:

    I wanted to write this post because some days I forget how amazing it is that God really did answer my prayers. Some days I forget how desperately I wanted this life. Some days I forget all the tears and pain that led me here. I wanted to be a bit vulnerable and try my best to let you in on how my life used to be, because I know that by posting only positive things, it can be easy to display the wrong message to my readers. I don’t write about how blessed and happy and grateful I am for my marriage and the way my life is because it’s perfect or because it’s the reason behind my joy. I write about these things because I am grateful to God for this life, and I never want to forget that, or to display anything otherwise on this blog.

    I prayed for these moments and it was a hard, tough road to get me to where I am today.

    Because on that day I sat in my car back in 2012, crying in my driveway because I couldn’t understand what God was doing, because all I wanted was someone to love and God wasn’t allowing that then. I couldn’t see it back then, but all those prayers would be answered and it would lead me to this:

    A life where all those tears are way outnumbered by all the laughs shared with my best friend, all the laughs because of silly things he does, like falling asleep in the most bizarre ways.

    Because on the day that I moved out of my mother’s home at 18, wondering why life had to be this way, it led me here to this:

    My heart leaping with joy at just the sight of a tiny, little, one bedroom apartment because it is a place to call my own.

    Because on those days that I spent growing up, wondering why my family was so different, wondering why my dad wasn’t around or why we didn’t have the money to do things like the other kids did, it led me here to this:

    To a man who works so hard to provide for his family, even if that means his only family right now is me. To a man who I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, will provide and be there for his kids when that day comes.

    Because on those many nights that I ate dinner by myself, feeling desperately alone, and wondering why God wouldn’t answer my prayer for a family to eat dinner with, it led me here to this:

    A man who I know will be my forever dinner date, who I know is in it for the long haul.

    Because through all the breakups and the tears and heartache that followed, through all of the confusion and the what ifs, they let me here to this:

    To a man who will do anything to put a smile on my face. To someone I know that God hand-picked for me because of his commitment to do what is right and to love me the way that God commanded. I couldn’t see it then but God was protecting me and saving me for a guy who was worth it.

    Because on the nights where I sat literally crying out to God, not understanding why he wouldn’t take the pain away, led me here to this:

    A life that I wouldn’t trade for the world and a faith so much stronger because of the hard times. I have the confidence of knowing that I did not rush ahead of God and that this is his best for me. I have confidence that all those tears cried were seen and all those prayers prayed were heard. Back then I couldn’t see it, because the pain and heartbreak and confusion were so blinding, but that pain had a purpose and taught me to appreciate just how much of a gift this life truly is.

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  • Faith

    8 Verses To Show There Is Hope In Suffering

    February 3, 2017

    I wanted to share with you some verses that have recently helped me get through a hard time. I’ve shared here before that I struggle with anxiety and specifically, health anxiety. I’ve had weird aches and pains for about the past three years now. They seem to come and go, but the times when they are there, it feels as if I’ve been struggling with it for three years straight. I can get very discouraged and feel as if the trial is never-ending. I just recently marked out verses in my Bible to help me through these times when I feel like God isn’t there or that he will never rescue me from the pain. I want to share them with you in hopes that they will encourage you if you are going through a trial that feels never-ending, or if it feels as if God isn’t there.

    I would really encourage you to look these up in your own Bible too because there is something about searching for them yourself and reading them in my Bible that is really comforting. Even mark them off with a post-it for next time you are feeling overwhelmed.

    1 | PSALM 37:23-24

    The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

    2 | ISAIAH 40:28B-31

    The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

    3 | ROMANS 8:18

    I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.

    4 | 2 CORINTHIANS 4:8-9

    We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

    5 | 2 CORINTHIANS 12:9-10

    But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak; then I am strong.

    6 | JAMES 1:3

    Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

    7 | 1 PETER 5:10

    And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.

    8 | LAMENTATIONS 3:31-33

    For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.

     

    I really hope these are as encouraging to you as they were for me. What do you do when you are feeling overwhelmed or far from God?

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