Newly In-Loves

So I can't sleep. It is midnight...and I think I'm just thinking about tomorrow. I need to go to the bank....call the plumber...walk...get back on the wagon with my eating right.

I'm thinking of a few people I know who are engaged, getting engaged...ect. I'm thinking about my marriage. I'm thinking about what I would like to tell them if I could be honest, truthful, and blunt.

I think I would tell them...

Four years ago I didn't picture myself here. Grown up. Thinking about kids.

Thinking about a house. Thinking about planning my dinners and grocery lists. I've grown so much since he asked me, while on one knee, to marry him. Marriage isn't what I thought it would be. In a good and bad way.

We have so much passion in our relationship. It spills over and floods my heart. I drown in the happiness sometimes. It's wonderful. That is what I would tell these "newly in-loves."

However, to be honest....The passion spills over in other ways as well. Just as passionately as we are in love....we can hate and be angry just as passionately. It is scary. I think of couples who I can't imagine fighting...the "perfect-we've-got-it-all-together-people." I think that why they might not fight is because they lack the passion. My love and I are so in love and have such passionately feelings for each other, that the enemy uses that against us. We've fought so much more since we've been married than when we dated. I'm sure there are lots of reasons for that...living together...personally clashes...but really, I think its because we live passionately.

So, for the newly in-loves.....Live and love passionately, but don't be discouraged (like I was/am) when you fight passionately too. Learn to forgive. Learn to love even the ugly parts of your partner. That's what I've learned in just 3 short years of marriage.

And read "Sacred Marriage" - I'm reading again and learning and being encouraged with the simple theme of:

"What if marriage is meant to make you HOLY, and not make you HAPPY"

-Just a thought :-)

Because our world doubts...

Luke 28-38- NIV

The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

"How will this be?" Mary asked the angel.....[The angel replied,] "Nothing is impossible with God."

It's True

In your heart you
Hope it's true
Though you hold no expectation
In the deepest part of you
There's an open hesitation

But it's true
Kingdoms and crowns
The God who came down to find you

It's true
Angels on high
Sing through the night alleluia

Heard it told you
Think it's odd
The whole thing fraught with complication
The play begins with Baby God
And all His blessed implications

But it's true
Kingdoms and crowns
The God who came down to find you

It's true
Angels on high
Sing through the night alleluia

-Sara Groves

Sick baby

I could just cry for my little son.....
He's been so sick all day long.
:-(
How I wish I could make him feel better....

So small...

so helpless....

poor little baby. :-(

The Rebel Jesus

I love this song, sung by Bebo Norman on his Christmas CD. I love the idea that Christmas isn't about packages and presents. Christmas isn't about "cheer" or "celebration." It is about Jesus, who was a rebel.

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchant's windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurry into their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
We'll be gathering around our hearths and tables
Giving thanks for God's graces....

...And the birth of the rebel Jesus

O they call Him by the Prince of Peace
And they call Him by the Savior
And they pray to Him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill His churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in Him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber's den...

...In the words of the rebel Jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns

And we guard our fine possessions

And once a year when Christmas comes

We give to our relations

And perhaps we give a little to the poor

If the generosity should seize us

But if any one of us should interfere

In the business of why there are poor...

...They get the same as the rebel Jesus

But pardon me if I have seemed

To take the tone of judgment

For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment

In a life of hardship and of earthly toil

There's a need for anything that frees us

So I bed you pleasure

And I bid you cheer

From a heathen and a pagan

On the side of the rebel Jesus

-Written by Jackson Browne