Life is Calling

Spring break is 3 days away. The end of my college career is swiftly coming upon me. These past few months have been a whirlwind of choices, mistakes, discoveries, wants, wishes, and needs. I can't clearly say yet whether they are all good or bad or both, but I can say Aaron and I have not yet landed.

It's my fault too. I am so eager to discover my calling and jump in head first that I forget being a grown up means more than getting to do what you want. Being married means I have to think of my husband, and being a Christian and called into ministry means that God is who I look to first for all my steps. Experiencing the doldrums of last semester left me convinced that the next step in the process was going straight to seminary. As soon as everything looked like it was locked down, I was fortunate enough to cross paths with a pastor whose first impression on me never left my mind. Through conversing with her and believing in my gut, Aaron and I made the decision to pull back and reassess where God was calling. In other words, we made the decision to not make any decisions yet.

That sent me on a frantic search for direction. Was God leading us to seminary in the fall or an internship 20 hours away from home, or to just stay put in the place I have always known, or what?!?! It seems like when I want God to holler down to me through thunderbolts and lightening He never does. He gives me feelings and randomly things just happen.

For example, Aaron and I were trying to decide what the best time to buy plane tickets was for flying out to Colorado and we were freaking out about money. All the sudden, on a walk we were taking with some friends, a twenty dollar bill pops up. This translates to me as God saying, "Don't Worry About It!"  When it came to seminary, Aaron and I weren't sure if Asbury would be the right fit. After about 2 hours on campus we knew it was going to be a wonderful place for us to be when the time was right. The community and Holy Spirit were definitely thriving on that campus, and God used them to replace all the doubts that had crept into our minds about it.Then I started freaking out (can you tell I like to freak out?) about whether or not I could even get an internship, I was having a hard time finding good options for us and in the course of 4 days 2 huge opportunities besides the one I was already looking at just fell into my lap. God is AMAZING!

So we still don't know where we are going or what will happen in the next 2 months, but this process has shown us and me specifically a few huge truths about God. I have always known these, but experiencing them in new ways gives us a new perspective as we walk through life.

1) He will not leave you- even when I was the most confused and vulnerable He showed me love and gave me assurance of His calling on my life.
2) He is bigger than all the problems you can conjure up- I am good at stirring up problems internally and externally (just ask Aaron ) and He always delvers peace and assurance into my heart.
3) He is Good- When I think I am the worst of the worst, and will never amount to anything as a pastor He shows me His goodness and reminds me of the value I have just because I am made in His image.
4) He Loves- Above all things this is what God keeps drawing me back into. His love heals, overcomes, directs, and delivers. He has loved me so deeply and for so long. I could get lost in His love forever.

Praise Him from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below.

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Amen

Love Feast

So this week was host to a special holiday that a lot of people like a lot. Valentine's day has always had the potential to be my best friend and my worst enemy. In recent years it has been in the passenger seat since Aaron and I's anniversary is on the 16th. We haven't really celebrated it until this year. Instead of a day though we had an entire week. The 6th was our 6th month anniversary of marriage, the 14th was Valentine's day and the 16th is our sweetheart day so we had a lot to celebrate! Okay, it wasn't non-stop fun the whole week, I mean we still had work and classes :) but we did find time to have great talks, give gifts, and finally have some time for us to be us. So here is a little peek at our love feast :)

We celebrated Valentine's Day at 12:15 am when Aaron got home from work on the 14th :) We couldn't wait!!

He got me awesome headphones, a chalkboard mug(how sweet is that!?!?!) and a box of giant cookies.

I made him a mousepad with one of his favorite pictures from our honeymoon on it :)

Today we celebrated our sweetheart day with caramel macchiatos after our classes got out. Yum!

and then I somehow talked him into cleaning with me and he dusted our ceiling fans. He turned into a dust bunny in the process. A very cute and grumpy dust bunny :)

Then we went on a walk in the beautiful weather we are having.

We had dinner with Becca Bee at Casa Brava!

I thought I had a ton of food...

And then I saw Aaron's plate!

We are currently being lame and doing homework/ random projects we have been needing to do for awhile, but the best part is we are at home together relaxing and that is my favorite. I really, really, REALLY love this guy!! I can't believe we have been married six months already :)

Aaron's First Haircut

Aaron refuses to go to a barber. His mom usually always cuts his hair. Unfortunately we haven't been able to see Margie in a long time and Aaron's hair was getting pretty crazy. So the poor guy had to let me attempt to trim his locks for the first time. Honestly I didn't know how I was going to do, but I had hope. I guess I will let you be the judge of it... :)

Getting ready.

My tools.

He is super excited :)

First cut!

I had started giggling and saying "oopps" by this point and Aaron's expression reflects his feelings about that.

All done with the back... I think :)

All done! He hasn't seen it yet so he is still skeptical.

Lots and lots of hair puffs.

Okay it might look terrible in the photos but I assure you Aaron approved and it actually looks pretty good. It turned out much better than the first time I cut my little brother's hair. Let's just say Mattie's hair was edgy before edgy was cool :)