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)

A Choice Worth Making

As I read 1 Peter 1:13-25 today, I began to think about the magnitude of impact that our faith really carries with it. Before salvation, we were hideous, treacherous villains who deserved nothing more than death and eternal separation from God. We were slaves to our sinful and fallen natures, and completely out of control of our own desires (which ironically enough, was the complete opposite of what we were led to believe). But when the God of the universe came to Earth in the form of a tiny baby who would eventually sacrifice Himself for our redemption, we were finally able to grasp the heavenly promise that had existed from the beginning. If we choose to surrender our lives to Him, contrary to popular opinion, we find a freedom that is beyond our wildest imagination. It is the freedom to live for the purpose for which we were originally created, the freedom to embody all that it truly means to be a real human. It is the freedom to stand in awe of the beauty and holiness of God, and to see Him for the wonderful, perfect God that He really is. Although submission to Christ leads to a life that begs questioning and skepticism from the world, and although the path can be painful, it will always be worth it. Daily refining for the purpose of reaching our full potential in Christ is a small price to pay for the riches and satisfaction that it will bring, both along the way, and once we reach heaven. Definitely a choice worth making!

A New Perspective

I realized something about myself today. I was busy day-dreaming about what our life will be like next year at this time, and it hit me...I've been so busy dreaming up everything that I want in marriage that I've gotten distracted from the one thing that truly matters...namely, whether or not God is honored by it. You see...it really couldn't matter less what color our curtains are or where we get to go on vacation or even whether or not he'll like my cooking. I mean, it does, but not when you compare it to whether or not we're allowing God to work through us to minister to a lost world. And it's not even something that needs to wait until we're married. Even now, we need to be conscious of how each detail of our relationship reflects on God, because we do claim to follow Him. It only makes sense then, that we would want to work (through His grace) to reflect the wonder, the boundless love, and the purity that Jesus shows to His bride, the church.

And so with this new perspective, I am praying that God will keep me grounded and help me to stay focused on the things that truly matter most. I really do desire for people to be able to look at our relationship and be pointed to the cross. Any prayers that you feel led to offer on our behalf in this area would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to invest in us!

My Turning Point

"Here, Lord, I abandon myself to thee. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed. Now I give it up to thee. Do thou take entire possession of me. Work in me all the good pleasure of thy will. Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seemeth good to thee. I leave myself in thy hands, and I believe thou wilt, according to thy promise, make me into a vessel unto thy own honor, 'sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.'"

~Hannah Whitall Smith

Worshiping by Protecting My Down-time?

On Thursday night, we had our RA meeting at Dean Gibbs' house, and it was inspirationally challenging to listen to her speak on the issue of spiritual growth and development. One principle she addressed was that of down-time, and the need to incorporate it into our daily lives. As a constantly on-the-go girl, it's been hard for me to even fathom that it could possibly be acceptable not to have every single moment of my day planned. However, Dean Gibbs raised the point that it is absolutely crucial to protect our down-time on a day-to-day basis (this being different than setting aside a drowsy 15 minutes before bed for devotions). By down-time, I mean anything from a nap to extended prayer time...whatever God happens to lay on your heart that He wants for you.

It's hard for me at first to accept that it is good to say no to people's requests sometimes, but I really felt challenged by this, that it is okay, and God wants me to sometimes. And honestly, it makes sense too, that He would rather have me be able to give 100% to the tasks He has laid out for me rather than an exhausted 50% because I have my heart set on meeting every person's expectations. Does this mean I will become lazy? Not at all! But what this does mean, is that I'm going to try to keep my commitments to a level that is humanly possible and allow "sabbath" time to allow God to keep me spiritually, emotionally, and physically healthy. I'm excited to see how He uses this new commitment for His honor and glory!

A Dream Come True

This isn't anything that happened recently, but it is totally something that God deserves a lot of public credit for, so I wanted to share. If you know me, you already know that I was born an only child. What many people don't know though, is that I spent my entire life wishing and praying for an older brother. Obviously, this is a little bit of a physical impossibility, but I figured it was worth asking anyway. Wouldn't you know that all along, God had it in His perfect plan to answer my prayers?

When I came to Cedarville as a freshman, He had two of the greatest guys I've ever met right here waiting for me. Almost as soon as we met, they adopted me as their little sister, and I finally had the big brothers I had always dreamed of! Now that they've both graduated and started their actual lives, we still are able to keep in touch, and honestly those phone calls are always one of the biggest highlights of my week. I adore these guys, and praise God for bringing them into my life. Thanks God, for answering our prayers before we even think to pray them!

Trusting in THE Sovereign Shepherd

One thing that I have been struggling with lately on a more superficial level is frustration with trying to plan our wedding long distance. See, I'm the sort of girl who likes to grab a project like this by the horns and carry it all the way through to completion. Because of that, it can be almost agonizing sitting here in Ohio, feeling like there are things that I need to be doing and not being able to because I'm long distance. But if I think about it in a more general, yet deeper level, this is something I struggle with quite a bit in many aspects of my life. I'm the type of girl who wants to plan every last detail of everything, and it makes me restless if things are left up in the air.

God is so faithful to teach us as we actively seek Him, though. This week for our small group Bible study, we were studying the unique attributes of God, with two of our foci being His sovereignty and His provision. As I was reading through Psalm 23, He really impacted me with the truth that He already knows every little detail of my entire life. His plan is perfect, will only benefit me and not harm me, and absolutely nothing that will ever come up has not first passed through His loving discernment as to its appropriateness for my spiritual growth. What a freeing knowledge it is that rather than worrying about details that I cannot yet impact, I am liberated to spend each moment of the present loving and honoring Him with all my heart! How wonderful to know that we do indeed follow a good and sovereign shepherd.