Tag: Faith

“Do you ever tell God that you are angry at him?”

· 8 Comments ·

We are asked fairly often if we are angry at God or frustrated with Him.

We can honestly say no. We are not.

Are we curious to know why this is happening? Of course.

Do we have our moments of sorrow and frustration at our circumstances? Definitely.

But anger at God has not been and is not currently something we are experiencing.

God is God and we are not.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” Isaiah 55:8

As I wrote before, we trust God completely and, even though we don’t like what is happening, we know that we will eventually (even if in Heaven) understand why this happened. We know beyond any doubt that He is trustworthy, faithful, and loving.

We know that He will be glorified through her life no matter how long we have her here on earth.

This doesn’t mean that we are “okay” with Tori’s situation, blindly accepting it without emotion. But, it does mean that it’s “okay” in the sense that we know that God is in control, we know that He loves us – and her – and we know that He has an amazing plan for all of our lives. We are unable to comprehend His plan at this moment, but we trust that He has one.

We are filled with His peace that exceeds all that we understand. There is no earthly reason for us to be so at peace with all of this – it is absolutely from God. Being at peace doesn’t mean that we are okay with any of this, but it means that we trust the One who knows all and created all. We trust Him fully with our precious Tori and know that He loves her even more than we do. We know that He eventually uses all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

It is a moment-by-moment process of surrendering all of this to Him and choosing to not worry, to not be angry, and to continue to hope that He will choose to heal her here on earth. He is more than able, and nothing is impossible for Him (Luke 1:37)!

The daily reading for today is from Psalm 66, and it is so fitting for our situation, and for this question:

Psalm 66

1 Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth!
2     Sing about the glory of his name!
    Tell the world how glorious he is.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
    Your enemies cringe before your mighty power.
4 Everything on earth will worship you;
    they will sing your praises,
    shouting your name in glorious songs.” 

5 Come and see what our God has done,
    what awesome miracles he performs for people!
6 He made a dry path through the Red Sea,[a]
    and his people went across on foot.
    There we rejoiced in him.
7 For by his great power he rules forever.
    He watches every movement of the nations;
    let no rebel rise in defiance. Interlude

8 Let the whole world bless our God
    and loudly sing his praises.
9 Our lives are in his hands,
    and he keeps our feet from stumbling.
10 You have tested us, O God;
    you have purified us like silver.
11 You captured us in your net
    and laid the burden of slavery on our backs.
12 Then you put a leader over us.[b]
    We went through fire and flood,
    but you brought us to a place of great abundance.

13 Now I come to your Temple with burnt offerings
    to fulfill the vows I made to you—
14 yes, the sacred vows that I made
    when I was in deep trouble.
15 That is why I am sacrificing burnt offerings to you—
    the best of my rams as a pleasing aroma,
    and a sacrifice of bulls and male goats. Interlude

16 Come and listen, all you who fear God,
    and I will tell you what he did for me.
17 For I cried out to him for help,
    praising him as I spoke.
18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened.
19 But God did listen!
    He paid attention to my prayer.
20 Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer
    or withdraw his unfailing love from me.

Praise God who does not ignore our prayers or withdraw His unfailing love from us.

Guatemala Stories: The Ravine

· Leave a comment ·

“All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all”

We had been told about The Ravine. We had been briefed on what we should expect and the few things we should/shouldn’t do while there.

But, words can only go so far; some things have to be seen, touched, smelled, experienced for full impact to occur. The Ravine is one of those things.

Entrance to The Ravine

The Ravine is a garbage dump in Chimaltenango. There are over 50 families there who live and work among the heaps of garbage, hoping to scrape a living out of the waste of others.

Our team traveled there on Friday morning to bring small bags of staple food items and soap to 50 of these families and to pray with them.

Gathering the families...

Their situation seems hopeless. They have been stuck in the cycle of poverty for generations, with seemingly no way out. Each day is the same: work until dark, hoping to find treasures that can be reused/cleaned/recycled and sold to buy food for their families.

“All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all”

Hope is present...

Hope doesn’t seem to exist here at first glance. However, we have seen first-hand that God is indeed redeeming and restoring these people, starting with their precious children. We saw hope in the eyes of each person with whom we prayed and spoke that day. We saw hope in the eyes of their children when we visited them later that day. He is literally taking them from the ashes and making them new, opening doors to a life they never dreamed would be possible. And this is all because of the love of two precious people: Cesar and Carol.

Cesar and Carol decided that they needed to open a school for the children of The Ravine – a school where they could break free from the cycle of poverty and literally change their community forever. That’s how The Ravine School was born only a little more than a year ago – completely out of faith in God. Carol and Cesar did not have a “nest egg” or any riches to speak of, but they believed in a God who redeems, and had faith that He would rescue these children.

There are now 114 children in The Ravine School who are learning to read, write, use computers, and grasp their full potential instead of carrying on the work of their parents and grandparents in the dump with no hope of escape. From a one room building to a beautiful space with classrooms and plenty of light in only a year, God’s redeeming love and faithfulness is abundant in this place.

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new

– Gungor’s “Beautiful Things” (lyrics throughout post) is the perfect song for what God is doing at The Ravine…Hear the song here.

The color and lighting are imperfect due to shooting from inside a vehicle (in order to avoid making the families feel uncomfortable), but these images still show how God is continuing to make beautiful things out of bad situations.

Stay tuned for more about The Ravine School and the beautiful things happening there.

The Start Experiment: Choosing Destruction Over God’s Perfect Plan

· Leave a comment ·

In my “One Year Bible” the Old Testament passage today was from 2 Chronicles 25. It has been fascinating reading about all of the past kings of Israel and Judah and how they followed (or didn’t follow) God’s leading. In today’s passage, the king was following God but encountered fear when presented with a message from the Lord that required significant sacrifice.

For context, at this time, the nation of Israel was not following the Lord but the nation of Judah was. King Amaziah of Judah was building up his army so that he would be prepared when battle arose (which it often did). He surveyed his available troops and found that he didn’t have quite as many as he wanted to have; so, he hired men from Israel to join his troops and paid them 7,500 pounds of silver in exchange. That’s quite an investment.

After this, the Lord sent a messenger to King Amaziah to warn him to not bring in troops from Israel and said that if he added those troops he would surely fail in battle, no matter how well he fought. Essentially, the Lord said to not have anything to do with Israel because He knew what was best in the long run for King Amaziah and Judah.

v.8 If you let them go with your troops into battle, you will be defeated by the enemy no matter how well you fight. God will overthrow you, for he has the power to help you or to trip you up.

This brings us to the verse that struck me this morning:

v.9 Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about all that silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?”

The man of God replied, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this!” 

Let’s sum this up. Amaziah hears from the Lord that if he continues with his plan he will be destroyed by the Lord Himself. His first thought is about the money that he invested and what he will lose if he follows what the Lord is telling him to do, not on the fact that the Lord is saving his life and the lives of his troops from certain destruction! God knew the hearts of the people of Israel and knew that it would be worse for them to infiltrate the army of Judah and spread their influence than to just destroy them all. So he has two choices: be destroyed and waste your investment, or be saved and waste your investment.

From our perspective this seems so ridiculous. We look at Amaziah and think, “What a moron! Be grateful!” But, if we think about this in simpler terms, we realize that we all do this. We convince ourselves that we “need” whatever our temptation may be and we don’t want to give it up because the sacrifice seems to be too great.

For King Amaziah, it was manpower and money. For me, it is sugar. I love ice cream. I love chocolate. I have a sweet tooth that is genetic. When faced with facts like a family history of diabetes, being overweight, knowledge that the longer I wait to reform my lifestyle the harder it will be, it seems like it should be as simple as deciding not to drink alcohol was (due to family history of alcoholism)…but it isn’t.

If I take the verses above and put them into my context, here’s how they would read:

If you keep allowing sugar and unhealthy eating be part of your life, you will be defeated by your desires no matter how well you fight. 

Lesa asked the man of God, “But what about all that I am going to miss out on? I will be giving up so much!”

The man of God replied, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this!” 

In the moment, when presented with ice cream on a hot day, or chocolate everywhere I go in Hershey, it is so hard to remember the greater gift that lies ahead if I will just submit to a healthy lifestyle: weight loss and self-confidence, a longer life (in theory) because of my body being healthier, being a better example to our future children about what is really important in life, and most importantly, honoring God with the body He has given to me and keeping it holy and set-apart… Instead, all I can think about is what I am giving up in the moment. When that is my focus, it is easy to cave into the justifications like “You only live once!” or “Just this once, it won’t happen again” and eat that ice cream instead of exercising self-control.

Giving up refined sugar is hard. It is everywhere. But that can’t be an excuse for me to give in to temptation. There ARE ways to avoid it, even though it feels like I’m making a huge sacrifice. Fear tries to tell me that this is just too uncomfortable, that it isn’t worth it, that I can wait until tomorrow to start this…but the Voice of Truth says that the God I serve is greater than any of these things that my brain (and the world) tells me are desirable and worthy of my attention.

The New Testament passage today was from Romans 12, and this passage fit perfectly with the one above:

v.2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s Will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Bottom line: Don’t be afraid to give up something that will cause destruction in the end just because of what you have invested in it, or because of how uncomfortable it will be in the moment to let it go. God is greater than anything you are struggling with and He can give us FAR better things in exchange if we will just follow Him! 

 

New Perspective…Part One.

· 3 Comments ·

So, something occurred to me in the past twenty-four hours that just might be an answer to a long-standing prayer of mine. Maybe. It’s at least getting me closer to understanding the “why” of my jobs, past and present. I have split this into two blog posts because it’s far too much for one post.

First, some background:

In 2001, I was ready to take on the world. I wanted to be the governor of California someday, with every intention of being my friend’s vice-president in 2028 (we even had a website!). High-profile aspiration is an understatement.

That’s how I saw myself: working in politics to change our country for the better, and everyone would know my name and how awesome I was. I wanted to feel important, to feel admired, to feel respected because of my capabilities, talents, and brilliance. In one word: pride.

Over the next few years I interned with Newt Gingrich in Washington, D.C. (2003), I worked on (and ran) several campaigns, attended the 2005 Presidential Inauguration (and a ball) and was even on ABC for thirty-seconds. I attended campaign training at President Reagan’s ranch in Santa Barbara and was pictured in TIME Magazine with the rest of the training group. I was on my way…or so I thought.

Fast-forward to 2007: Two years past graduation and I was still living in Southern California (not my plan). I kept trying to get back to D.C. but doors just would not open. Instead, I was working for a financial company fixing tax returns all day long–completely low-profile–along with doing youth ministry at my church (nearly full-time for a while). I eventually became content (but not fully happy) in the tax job and even tried to move into management, to no avail. Even though my bosses said I was the perfect candidate for management, I continued to be passed over for promotions, and it didn’t make sense to any of us. But, it was a good job so I remained there.

In December 2007, I felt God urging me to pray for discomfort. My faith had grown stagnant and I was desperate for a change. He brought to my attention all of the accounts in the Bible of people who grew tremendously through trials and discomfort (and never through times of prosperity or easy living)…

…so I did it. I began praying for the next year that God would make me uncomfortable in order for me to become more like Jesus. God definitely delivered. 2008 was one of the toughest years of my life thus far, and I never DREAMED of what God would call me to do/lead me through. From the spiritual struggles to the physical (pneumonia), He used that year to the fullest to mold and shape me. I knew it would be a challenging year (I could probably write a book), but I never dreamed of the growth and transformation that would take place by surrendering to God’s plan and letting go of my own.

The biggest change was my move to Pennsylvania. I had been contemplating this for many years but kept trying to do things my way and nothing ever worked out. I visited PA in October 2007 and during that trip I realized that I didn’t want to live in Southern California anymore, at all. The realization even brought me to tears one day.

I began praying that God would allow me to move to PA, and I prayed for six months before I felt an answer from the Lord. He said that I could stay or go, and that He would use me wherever I was. That was a huge lesson in itself, realizing that sometimes God allows us to make decisions and that sometimes there is no “right” answer.

I moved to Harrisburg, PA on July 31, 2008 knowing only two people in the city, having no job, and having very little money. I chose Harrisburg because of it being the center of Pennsylvania politics. I worked through a temp agency for awhile until obtaining a job with a lobbying firm–which I thought was PERFECT! This was it–my door into the political arena!

Boy, was I wrong. Looking back, I firmly believe that God allowed me to have that position for a year to show me that He did NOT want me in politics. It was a terrible year–the job was a terrible fit and I was so miserable in that role. I saw a side of politics that I had never seen before and I was completely disillusioned. I was let go on 09/09/09 and the joy that I felt was indescribable! Most people aren’t happy after being fired (or, in my case, “forced to quit”), but I felt all the heaviness that had weighed on my heart disappear and I felt so free.

From there, I was unemployed for a year, and that year was an incredible gift to me. I watched as God provided faithfully for me and I was able to pay my rent until April 2010, when I moved in with Brennan’s aunt and uncle until our wedding. I was able to focus on church planting and mission trips, and I was so joy-filled through it all. I got engaged during this time, so this also allowed me to focus on wedding plans/marriage. God’s provision was constant, and though it was a humbling year, I learned to accept help from others and to not be proud.

I worked for a temp agency as much as possible (talk about humbling), and in June 2010 I began working part-time for a consulting firm (huge blessing). In September 2010 I obtained a second part-time job (my current role) and was finally working full-time again. I learned more during that year of unemployment than I thought possible! It was a humbling and faith-filled year.

That brings me to today…I have been in my current role for two and a half years. I have never been recognized or thanked for my work by my supervisor. I do work that a high school student could do. I have never had a raise (and I don’t make much to begin with). I do not use my very expensive, hard-earned bachelor’s degree. I go most days completely unnoticed by my co-workers (and have NEVER been asked to join them for lunch when they go out). My gifts and talents go by the wayside as I watch the clock day by day, waiting for 3:00pm to arrive so that I can do things that actually matter. I feel completely unappreciated and overlooked. I have applied for and even interviewed for MANY jobs during this time period, but God has not opened any other doors. So I have remained here, despite how miserable I tend to be here.

Even my role as a relief houseparent at MHS is largely a “thankless” job (from the students themselves, not from the supervisors or the houseparents…students aren’t going to thank you for disciplining them, haha). Don’t get me wrong–I LOVE it, and it’s highly rewarding to help these students make decisions and learn lessons! My point is that they don’t care about the fact that I’m intelligent, a great musician/vocalist; they don’t really care that I am a good photographer, or that I was once in TIME Magazine. They just want to be fed (they are middle school boys, after all 🙂 ), entertained, and kept safe. Above all, they want to be loved.

So why has God been allowing me to go through these things? I think I’ve determined His reasons…

To be continued…

New Perspective…Part Two.

· 4 Comments ·

(See part one here…)

Yesterday, as I was talking with a dear friend about her potential job opportunities (very prestigious and impressive jobs for which she is perfectly suited), all of the above-mentioned things started to run through my head. As I listened to her speak, I realized that I, too, long to be admired for what I can do–for my God-given gifts and abilities, for what I worked so hard to accomplish in college/post-college. I long to be known as someone who “did something” with her life, whatever that even means. I, too, tend to put my value and self-worth in my career, in how people view me, and what I’ve done, which explains so much about why I have felt so miserable in recent jobs. That hasn’t changed since 2001.

But you know what has changed? In the past year, my desire to be a mother (a stay-at-home one, at that) has increased exponentially (considering that I never saw myself doing that, it wasn’t hard for it to increase drastically). I have come to realize that raising children to love Jesus and to be productive members of society is the greatest possible career that I could ever have. What a stark contrast to how I felt even one year ago.

And last night, it became very clear that God has used the circumstances of the past few years to prepare me for being a mom (No, this is not a pregnancy announcement 🙂 ). From what I hear, being a mother is often a “thankless” job as you continuously and often sacrificially serve your children. Someday, they might recognize the amazing job you did to prepare them for life and to take care of them, but humans are naturally born selfish. They aren’t going to say “thanks, mom, for changing my diaper so that I don’t get diaper rash” or “thanks, mom, for staying up all night with me when I was sick”…that’s just how it goes. They don’t care how accomplished you are and they certainly aren’t going to marvel over your talents. Being a mother is going to require humility, sacrifice, unconditional love, and lots of grace…and I know now that I am much better equipped for motherhood because of the circumstances of the past few years.

Much of the past twelve years makes so much sense now. I was in desperate need of humility, and God brought circumstances into my life to teach me how to be humble. I wish I had been a faster learner! Haha. Not that I’m completely humble–definitely not. But, given where I was in 2001, I have come a long way and my perspective has completely changed. I was so unaware of the grip that pride was holding on my life!

I now view the word “rewarding” completely differently. It no longer means being recognized and praised–it means offering recognition and praise expecting nothing in return, all for the benefit of others.

So, now I have something new to embrace, and something hard with which to grapple. God doesn’t want me to be “famous”–He wants me to make disciples, including my own future children.

I need to remind myself constantly that it doesn’t matter what the world thinks of me, and it doesn’t matter if they notice how “awesome” I might happen to be…

What matters is that I live my life according to the Gospel, and that I share it with others at every opportunity.

What matters is that I find ways to use my God-given gifts and talents to further the Kingdom of God, especially within my own household, without doing it selfishly or for recognition.

What matters are the eternal things, not the temporal.

What matters is that my value and self-worth come from God alone and not from anything that I have done or will do.

Day Two: I’m Thankful For…Provision.

· Leave a comment ·

Preface: I thought it was fitting to express my thanks during the month of November for something new each day, as so many others have done before me. I’ve never taken the time to do this, and it will be a challenge to blog each day, but it’s so important to recognize the blessings God has given us! 🙂 These are in NO particular order…

God richly and abundantly provides for the NEEDS of His children, and I am so thankful for that. I am so thankful for the jobs that He has provided for us that have allowed us to pay off all of our credit card debt this year! Even though my job may not be the career I’ve always dreamed of, it has enabled us to work diligently at becoming debt-free and it is one way through which God has provided for us.

Looking further back, I can see His hand in so many times of personal need before marriage. I was unemployed for so many months yet never went hungry or without shelter. Through those experiences He taught me to rely on Him FULLY for provision, as well as the importance of living frugally, and those are things we strive for in our marriage as well. We work hard to be good stewards and we trust that our needs will be met…and they always are! This is one reason why we love “budget day” (which is every other Wednesday): Budget Day is a huge testimony of God’s faithful provision!

I’m also thankful for the provision that He provides so that we can give back to others who are in need. He is so faithful to provide! So many people allowed themselves to be used by God during my time of need, and I love that we are now in the position to be His hands and feet to others during their time of need. I’m so thankful that He has created such a wonderful community among Christians…a community through which we can humbly admit our needs and allow others to step in and help us.

God is our Provider…

Day One: I’m Thankful For…Jesus.

· Leave a comment ·

Preface: I thought it was fitting to express my thanks during the month of November for something new each day, as so many others have done before me. I’ve never taken the time to do this, and it will be a challenge to blog each day, but it’s so important to recognize the blessings God has given us! 🙂 With the exception of this first post, the rest are in no particular order.

I am so unbelievably thankful for Jesus and His unconditional love. I am so thankful for His grace, His provision, His guidance, and His mercy. He is truly the source of my joy and my strength! He has never failed me and has kept every promise without fail. He sustains me when I am weak and guides me when I am clueless (which is SO often). He is faithful and His wonders never cease.

I could write for hours about all that He has done, but I will leave it at that for now. 🙂 He is the source of every other post that will follow because He has given me everything that I have and has made me everything that I am. And I am thankful.

Reminiscing…

· Leave a comment ·

I love going back and reading old blog posts, especially from the summer of 2004. It was a summer of so much personal and spiritual growth!

Today, as I was looking at my blog for a specific reason, I came across this post from May 29th, 2004:

So I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to post some Elisabeth Elliot quotes…and I will. 🙂 I wish I could post them all, but no one wants to read all of them. So here are a few, my favorites–and the ones that spoke to my heart so clearly.

“Taken in a spirit of trust, even loneliness contributes to the maturing of character, even the endurance of separation and silence and that hardest thing of all, uncertainty, can build in us a steady hope.”

Loneliness is difficult–but it is something we all face at one time or another. God is teaching me each day that I need to find my fulfillment in Him, because no man can complete me fully…only God can. And if I learn to rest in Him, then I will be able to more fully love the man I will marry someday.

“Suppose He should ask me to wait five years? It stuns me to think of it. Yet–could I imagine that the mercy of God which has stretched to me from everlasting to everlasting could be exhausted in five years?”

That quote especially spoke to me because I’ve already been waiting almost 6 years…and often the thought that I might be waiting another 6 makes my heart despair…but this quote has caused me to think a great deal about this, for whomever God has for me will be worth the wait, no matter how long it takes. I just have to be patient, learn to be “content whatever the circumstances” as Paul tells us…because really, what is another 5 years? It’s not like those years will be a waste by any means…so I need to remember that it is okay to be single, it is okay to be uncertain about the future, because God knows and is in control.

I found this worthy of reposting, because that was almost 5 years to the day that I started to become friends with Brennan…my future husband. 🙂 I’m so glad that God prepared my heart even then to wait “another five years”. 🙂 Believe me, he was well worth the wait!

So, I’m Engaged… :)

· Leave a comment ·

I’m engaged! It doesn’t feel real. I have waited so long for God to bring my future husband into my life, and it is still sometimes hard to grasp the fact that I KNOW him. That he is mine. 🙂 And what a journey it has been to get to this point!

Two years ago, I was still living in Southern California, preparing to move to Pennsylvania that summer. I did not move with any intention of finding a husband (though it wasn’t something I objected to 😉 ), but God had other things in mind! I started going to East Shore Baptist Church in August 2008, but didn’t become active until January 2009.

I met a woman named Amy, who was fun and kinda crazy (just like me!), not knowing that she had an unmarried son. She invited him to attend ESBC for Easter (all of this without me knowing a thing, thankfully…being set-up is very awkward), and that’s where it all began. April 12, 2009. I was really tired by the time the 3rd service that day was over, and wasn’t really looking to talk to anyone (I’d been up since 4:30am). Amy called me over to meet her son, so I obliged. I said hello, invited him to join the new singles’ Sunday School class I was starting in a few weeks, and that was it. If you ask him, he says that I was grumpy that day. 🙂

By the end of May, I was beginning to be intrigued by this young man, but still didn’t think a relationship was in the future. He was sick one weekend, so I took him some homemade soup and some salad from my garden. He will tell you that was when he began to think that maybe I was worth pursuing. 🙂 Food really IS the way to a man’s heart! Haha.

We started dating officially on July 19th…

…but on July 14th, I wrote in my journal that I knew he was the one that I would marry someday. I just knew. I had never really thought that it was possible to “just know”, but I can now testify that it’s true!

Things just clicked. We could talk for hours, and only stop because we had to work the next day and had to be responsible. He had (and still has) such a heart and passion for the Lord and for serving others. We had many common interests. And I “just knew”.

Oh, and he just happens to fit the list of 24 things that the Lord laid on my heart in 2002, things to look for in a future husband. He fits them ALL.

On August 24th, as we started going through a book called “101 Questions to Ask Before Getting Engaged” (excellent book, by the way), I decided to be bold and ask the question to which I already knew the answer: “Do you see us getting married?” Without hesitation, he said “YES!” So, if the definition of being engaged is that you have decided to get married, we’ve been engaged for months. 🙂 He asked my Dad’s permission to ask for my hand in marriage when we were in California for Christmas, so I knew it was coming soon…

…but I honestly didn’t expect it until late February or even March. And I was content in waiting! I knew that he wanted to surprise me (and I wanted to be surprised).

The entire day today was perfect. We had a few errands to run, including going to Chocolate World (because Hershey now has Dark Chocolate Pieces and we decided that it was a necessity, haha) and riding the ride again. It was a day of enjoying each other, and a day filled with simple joys–which we both love. It’s all about the little things.

We came back to my house and hung out for a few hours before heading to church so that I could practice with our worship leader (for the concert we are having on February 5th to raise support for my Israel trip). We entered the sanctuary, and no one was there yet. So, as we were taking off our coats, and I was getting my stuff together to practice, he said something (can’t remember what) to get my attention. I looked over, and saw a box in his hand. A little black, velvety box, that could only have one thing inside: a ring! He got down on one knee, about 10 feet from where we first met on April 12, and asked me to marry him. I was completely surprised!! And it was perfect. Intimate and simple. Simply perfect. We celebrated by getting Blizzards from Dairy Queen, and by going to my best-friend’s house (at her request/demand! Haha).  Again, just perfect.

We had already decided on the song for our first dance months ago–“I Thought I Loved You Then” by Brad Paisley…and that’s part of what made the proposal even more PERFECT!

I remember taking you back to right where I first met you
You were so surprised
There were people around
But I didn’t care I got down on one knee right there
And once again I thought I loved you then

It’s amazing to think that God set our love story in motion in 2002, when He brought me to Williamsport to be a summer missionary…twice. God brought me back to Pennsylvania in 2008, and it is so amazing to see how His hand was in EVERYTHING. I can’t imagine my life without Brennan, and I am so blessed to be the future Mrs. Brennan Brackbill. 🙂

And now you know the rest of the story. 🙂

283 days!

Tuning forks…

· Leave a comment ·

Being a musician, I am familiar with the tools and the gadgets that help an orchestra to be in tune. This quote from A.W. Tozer is something to which I can easily relate…so I thought I’d share.

From The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer :


“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned

to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other?

They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other,

but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.

So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking

away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than

they could possibly be were they to become ‘unity’

conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

 

WOW! I love that quote!

If we all have our eyes upon Jesus, and use Him as our standard for everything, then we will be in tune with those around us…our churches will be unified…

What a marvelous thought…