Undefiled Beauty

I've been really studying the beginning of 1 Peter this week, because we're starting a new Bible study for the fall term of Sunday school. I'm not sure how all of the versions line up, but I was really struck by the triad of words in verse 4, I think, describing our eternal inheritance with Christ: imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (ESV).

Maybe it's because this time of year always catches me soaking up more than my fair share of the natural beauty surrounding our home, and it just seems so wonderful, so sacred, and yet...it's not undefiled. If such beautiful and breathtaking scenery here on our fallen Earth can be so captivating, can you even begin to imagine the magnitude of that which is completely and totally undefiled and fresh and new in Heaven? I could get lost for hours trying to wrap my mind around that picture!

It could be that, or maybe I'm still reflecting on my recent baptism. As I was sharing my testimony with the congregation, the thought completely overwhelmed me of what a beautiful redemption Jesus has already started (and is continuing to work) in my life! My past was so painfully ugly, and I don't say that because I still feel guilty (actually I feel quite forgiven!), but Jesus has taken away all of that filth and blossomed some of the most beautiful and cherished realities that any human could ever imagine (I use the word blossom as a verb, because every time I try to come up with a better description, all I can see in my mind is a big flower blooming in some sort of time-lapse sequence!). What I'm trying to say, is that I can hardly wrap my mind around a redeemed sort of beauty, but to imagine one that is completely pure and undefiled in the first place...wow!

So anyway, those are my current thoughts. If I blog more in the next couple of months, there's a good chance that my words will still have something to do with 1 and 2 Peter, but that's just a risk that comes with the adventure! :oD

His Faithfulness Continues!

God can be so good to provide tests for us quickly and faithfully so that we don't have time to wander away and think that we're being self-sufficient! This Monday marked the first day of Jesse's work as a full-time employee, rather than as an intern (which he has been all summer). With it came a significant raise, so we are more than a little excited...especially since student loans come due in November. Admittedly though, it was tempting to think we were taking care of ourselves and had the whole "life" thing well at hand.

Thankfully though, our God is faithful in not letting our feet slip. Within an hour of beginning to celebrate the raise we got the estimate for the body work on the car that wrecked in July (half our bank account) and the alternator died in the other car (another pricey repair). Originally, we thought it was just the battery, so my job was to drive it into town (about a 40 minute trip) yesterday for repair. There wasn't much gas in the tank, so I was really nervous the whole way...I couldn't stop for gas because the car wouldn't start back up again. Finally, I made it to Pep Boys, and the car just coasted into the parking lot and died right in front of their service entrance. So not only did He get me exactly as far as I needed, but He even parked the car where they could get to it easily! The people there were so friendly and helped me figure everything out (another concern, since I couldn't reach Jesse at work) and save quite a bit of money!

God has really blessed us over the past few months, and we'll still be more than able to make ends meet, but it sure is good to know that He's looking out for more than just our physical comforts. Our God loves us enough to look out for our spiritual well-being, day-in and day-out. Isn't that something worth praising Him over?! :o)

Cherished Connections

I happened to pick up this summer's "Our Daily Bread" while I was cleaning this morning and skimmed through it until I found today's date. It seemed to be worth posting on here, in honor of the many friends of this type that have come into my life so far, and for the ones who will in the future. I feel truly blessed to have been given so many cherished connections!

"When I heard that David was in the office for a board meeting, I was excited. He and I had a mutual friend, Sharon, who had died several years earlier. We had a few minutes to reminisce about her and her love for life and God. What a delight to connect with someone who has loved someone you have loved! There's a special bond because you love to talk about that cherished person.

"Those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior have even stronger ties. We are forever connected to Him and to one another. 'We, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another,' Paul says in Romans 12:5. We've been 'born of God,' and we love those who are 'begotten of Him' (1 John 5:1).

"When we get together with fellow believers, we have the opportunity to talk about the one we love -- Christ -- and of the love, forgiveness, and grace we have experienced in Him because of His death and resurrection (4:9-10). At such times, we can encourage each other to continue to trust Him and spur one another on to be faithful in our walk with Him.

"This coming Sunday and throughout the week, let's remind fellow believers of all that Jesus has done and of how truly wonderful He is." --Anne Cetas

"If He brings you to it, He will bring you through it."

This was the title of the sermon at our church yesterday. We had a guest speaker from Canada who was going to share his testimony of how God has brought him through his journey with cancer. Sadly, he found out about a week ago that his cancer is back after about a year. Despite this however, he is able to answer questions of "How are you?" with an honest and heartfelt "Top shelf." He shared about how he had gone through times of anger and depression, but through it all there was strong evidence of God working in his life. For this coming season of sickness, while frustrated at the situation, he talked about his eagerness to see God at work again, and the changes that first had to be made in his heart to get him to a place where this can truly be his attitude.

The message came at a really good time for us, because Jesse had just been in an accident the day before. He was coming home from a wedding in Delaware and hydroplaned into the guardrail as he was exiting I-95. The car is a little worse for wear, but he's fine. It was hard to figure out what I should be feeling. Obviously I was really thankful that he was okay...he means infinitely more to me than any material possession. At the same time though, I was disappointed because it looks like all of the money we got for wedding gifts will now be going toward getting the car fixed rather than setting up our home, which I was really looking forward to doing. It caught my attention in the sermon when he shared a quote he had read saying, "For every pagan diagnosed with cancer, there is a Christian in the same circumstances charged with the responsibility of showing how Christ enables us to react and respond." (That wasn't word for word, but I think that was basically what it said). I don't know about the statistical accuracy, but it did shed a whole new light on our circumstance.

We kind of suspected that something would happen eventually...meaning that everything had been falling so perfectly into place and we found ourselves constantly needing to pray that God would reveal to us that we are not self-sufficient and that all that we own is really His. Now He has blessed us with the opportunity not only to see that prayer answered, but with the chance to show faith in Him through challenges! I know it's not as "big of a deal" as being diagnosed with cancer, but I have to believe that our God is just as capable of and worthy of being honored through this situation too!

So for answered prayers and strengthened faith we are thankful indeed...now comes the exciting part of seeing what God chooses to do! :D

A New Chapter

It's hard to believe that we've been married for almost one month already (on Monday)! Some things still feel so new, and others seem like this is the way that it's always been, which I like. God is continuing to teach us how to depend on each other where we used to rely on our families for everything. Despite this, we are both very thankful that both of our families are so close...we would really miss them! I know that lots of people are excited about the chance to finally move away from home and start fresh, but that is definitely not the case for either of us! We love our Lancaster County!

Lots of exciting things have been happening since our wedding day, including a wonderful 10-day honeymoon to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Incidentally, the summer is their off-season for tourism, so many days we had an entire beach to ourselves and it was absolutely beautiful! The only little glitch was that our airline went on strike before we could fly home, so we had to do some last minute scrambling to find another flight for that Wednesday (Jesse's sister was getting married that Saturday!). We made it home though, and jumped right into wedding preparations for Zach and Katrina's big day. That was an absolutely gorgeous wedding, and I'm really excited to not only have 3 new sisters now, but a new brother as well!

The next day we got to host our first get together at our new home (with all of our unpacked boxes cleverly stashed in unused rooms) for Father's Day, and Jesse proved his genius at the BBQ. Last Thursday was his company picnic at 6 Flags, which was fun because Zach and Katrina and Zach's parents were there too! I'm slowly getting everything unpacked, amidst studying for the NCLEX (July 28), and trying to remember what all I need to change my name on! Finally, Jesse and I are playing another season of church volleyball this summer, and this week won 2 of 3 games! It's so much fun to get to hang out with our friends every week! God has blessed us richly and continues to do so. We're really enjoying learning how to honor Him in this new chapter of our lives.

Here are a few pictures of our wedding and other things that have been happening:


I really liked my bouquet, but I'm sure it must have weighed 10 lbs!


Mommy and me before the ceremony.


Daddy and me before he gave me away.


Our first kiss EVER!


The new Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Bender!


We're married!!!


Our new family.


All of our wonderful friends that were in our wedding!


Our first dance had a lift...Dancing with the Stars would hate us!


The finale of our dance. :)


Jesse and I in the Virgin Islands.


Our own private beach!


All of us Benders at Zach and Katrina's wedding.


My new brother and sister!

A Mini-Lesson from "The Secret Life of Bees"

One of my favorite parts of summer is sitting down with a good book, and by good I mean something other than a textbook for a change. The first book on the docket this year is The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. I'm currently only about halfway through, but am thoroughly enjoying the story. I wanted to post just a tiny piece of it that really spoke to me tonight and encouraged me to refocus on where my priorities are:

"How come if your favorite color is blue, you painted your house so pink?"

She laughed. "That was May's doing. She was with me the day I went to the paint store to pick out the color. I had a nice tan color in mind, but May latched on to this sample called Caribbean Pink. She said it made her feel like dancing a Spanish flamenco. I thought, 'Well, this is the tackiest color I've ever seen, and we'll have half the town talking about us, but if it can lift May's heart like that, I guess she ought to live inside it.'"

"All this time I just figured you liked pink," I said.

She laughed again. "You know, some things don't matter that much, Lily. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the over-all scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart -- now, that matters. The whole problem with people is --"

"They don't know what matters and what doesn't," I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.

"I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."




Sometimes I just love the way a book can speak wisdom into your life. A book can be a gentle message from a friend, or it can hit like a Mack truck, but in the end it hits, and that's what's important. Looking forward to a summer filled with many more lessons like this one. :o)

Pre-Wedding Bug...

Bleh. I don't like feeling sick. It's not bad-sick...just a nagging cold. It all started the night of graduation when I got this amazing peach soda at Red Robin. I really, really liked it and was excited for my mom to try it as well. I neglected the fact that my mom had a cold and offered my straw (I mean, I had just graduated college. I was invincible, right? Hehehe.) Well, it turns out I wasn't. Invincible, that is. I got the cold sometime last week and now my voice is on the fritz. For the first time in my life I'm actually worrying about when it will come back. It would be so sad if I had to whisper my vows in 3 1/2 weeks! I'm also trying really hard to regain the 10 lbs. that mysteriously melted away over the course of spring semester. Of course...this is being hindered by the fact that all this drainage is making me sick to my stomach and taking away my appetite. Bleh.

A Trustworthy God

Over the past few weeks, God has been placing people and circumstances in my life that have been teaching me a lot about trusting Him to provide the right things at the right times. The most recent example of this, of course, has to do with graduating from college. In this first week of "adulthood" I have been stressed out, burdened down, and altogether a worrying mess about how I'm going to find a job, how Jesse and I are going to make it on our own, etc. Some of these fears, I have felt, were well-grounded, others not so much. Regardless of the roots of these fears, one piece of advice has arisen in every conversation I have had about them. "Trust God, and wait on His perfect timing."

It was honestly (and sadly) ridiculously difficult for me to do this, and I had to spend a lot of heart-felt prayer time asking God to help me trust...which seems kind of silly if you think about it (I know academically that He is totally trustworthy, but I still need help living out any sort of belief in that?). Regardless, He was faithful, and helped me to open up to my parents about how afraid I was about upcoming life...which was a big deal...because I don't generally tell people about the things that I worry about. It turns out, parents can be an amazing support system, and sometimes just having them there and knowing that they know you're afraid actually sets them up to give you the courage to press on. So side lesson: parents can be a much bigger blessing than we often realize (and they don't think you're dumb for wondering how you're going to make it!!!).

Anyway, I side-tracked. What I wanted to say was that after all this learning to actually trust God business (and not just saying it), He very faithfully provided for us! In the rough-cut budget we had worked out, there was a specific amount short that we were falling on our monthly allowances, and I was really worried about this. God was so amazing as to bless me with a housekeeping position that will work around any potential future nursing positions for that exact amount! I was basically floored. And then just to put the cherry on top, I had another offer to do some work for someone too. As if He hadn't already blessed us enough! Sometimes I think God just likes to amaze us and then sit back and laugh because He knew He was capable all along. (sigh) Sometimes I'm amazed at just how small the capacity of this human mind is... :o)

Resolutions for a 22nd Year

Wow, 22...can you believe it?! I think this is the first birthday that sounded really adult-like to me. 21 just sounds like the typical crazy college kid age, but 22 just seems...not old!...um...more mature?

I can never think of resolutions on New Year's, but February 3rd's close enough that I think a new year of my life counts just as much. So here goes:

1. Learn to love people. I'm sick of living passively day-by-day. I want to invest in someone, even if it hurts. I want to have a relationship real enough that I can feel another's burdens and also have my heart dance in their joy. I've never done that before.

2. Practice the art of seriously studying the Word of God. I want to know Him intimately and have Him shape and mold every aspect of my tiny existence. I want my life apart from Him to be nothing, and to know that I could never live without Him.

3. Lastly, I just really. really want to marry the man of my dreams this year. I love him so much.

Well, there you have it. They're not all specific goals, but they are pointed enough so that I will know for sure if I am growing in them. Hopefully, I will remember to update this a little more frequently so that you know how things are going in these regards. Here's to the upcoming year!

Joy Comes in the Morning

Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Let every breath proclaim blessing to Jesus' name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Don't let yourself forget all of His benefits.
Though we are sinful, He heals our disease.
When we are captive, He sets us free.

And weeping may last for the night, joy comes in the morning.
With mercy the Giver of Life remembers His children.
And God makes and takes our transgressions as far as the east from the west.
All that He does is blessed,
O, bless the Lord!

Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Your days are fading fast, only His fame will last.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
His love will never end, trust your unfailing Friend.
Though we are sinful, He heals our disease.
When we are captive, He sets us free.

And weeping may last for the night, joy comes in the morning
With mercy the Giver of Life remembers his children.
And God makes and takes our transgressions as far as the east from the west.
All that He does is blessed,
O, Bless the Lord!

And weeping may last for the night, joy comes in the morning.
With mercy the Giver of Life remembers His children.
And God makes and takes our transgressions as far as the east from the west.
All that He does is blessed,
O, Bless the Lord!

**Lyrics to O, Bless the Lord (by Harvest Bible Chapel)