Making Me New

Last night I was listening to the radio on my way home from youth group. The sound Lift My Life Up came on by Unspoken. Maybe you've heard it, maybe not. As I was listening to the lyrics I realized how much this song reflects my life right now. If you haven't heard the song you can listen to it here: Lift My Life Up.

The song starts by saying:

You brought me this far

So why would I question you now

You have provided

So why would I start to doubt

I've never been stranded

Abandoned or left here to fight alone

So I'm giving you control




I lift my heart, lift my heart up


You can have it forever

All my dreams, all my plans
Lord

I leave it in your hands


I lift my life, lift my life up


Have your way in me
Have your way in me


If peace is a river


Then let it sweep over me


I'm under fire
I know it's refining me

When I hear you calling out


I follow now wherever the road may go

I know you're leading me home

In an earlier post I wrote about starting a new job. I wrote about how I had this perfect plan lined out to teach in a classroom and to finish my Master's Degree in Literacy. Then God took me a whole different direction. A direction I never would have pursued on my own. As I've started this new chapter in my life, I feel it now more than ever that I need God in every area of my life. I need Him in my marriage, in my friendships, in my job, and in our youth group. Without God being at the center of everything I do, I am worthless. There are so many days I wake up and get to work and think I am so unqualified for this job, yet God continues to give me peace and wisdom. There are days where I don't want to love to those around me, and God reminds me to walk alongside of them and love them. I am realizing the beauty of simply walking with people where they are. There are days when I don't want to serve Chris and I want to be selfish, yet God reminds me that I am serving Him through serving Chris. I know that God is stretching me and continuing to mold me into the person He wants me to be. This song is my prayer. That I would honestly lift everything in my life up to God, that He would have His way in me.  I know that He is making me new and it is such a beautiful experience. 

The Blessing of Family...

The dictionary definition of family is "a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household." If you were an education major, you would have taken a whole class on how family dynamics have changed over the years. I believe a better definition for family is a group of people who love one another and take care of each others needs. A family is supporting, encouraging, and above all, a place to feel safe. According to my definition, a family may not necessarily be parents and their children. It could be friends, other relatives, or even church members.

I learned this most recently when I went away to school. I was far away from my family, but I soon met others who would join my family. It's almost funny how some of my friends and mentors seemed more like family than some of my own relatives. I formed deep, real, raw relationship with people who to this day mean the world to me. They have poured into me and have helped shape me into the person who I am today and I can not thank them enough. They will always be family to me.

I write this today because lately I have felt overwhelmingly blessed by my family. My family from school, which I am still in contact with, but also my family at home. I'm not only blessed to have my entire family (extended) in St. Louis, but also Chris' parents. I am very thankful for the healthy relationship we are able to have with both of our families. I cannot describe to you how supportive and encouraging our families have been - throughout our whole lives, but especially in this new season for Chris and I. I gained a great deal of respect for both my parents and Chris' during the wedding planning. We had heard many horror stories about families fighting and disagreeing about wedding plans. Both of our parents were there to help and assist but they allowed us to make all of our own decisions without judgement. That may seem small, but it is a HUGE blessing. Planning a wedding is stressful enough, but having the pressure of pleasing other people while doing it is just not needed.

Our families are not only supportive in the big things, but the small things as well. They are constantly checking in on us, praying for us, and inviting us over. We had a church event last night and my cousin brought his kids out for it - which was awesome! Chris is getting ordained this Sunday and both of our families are coming and then going to dinner to celebrate. Both of our families helped us move in to our new apartment and did everything they could to help! These are just a few examples.

I don't write all of this to brag about our families. I have just come to realize what a HUGE blessing it is to have two families who are so encouraging and supportive that I had to share. It is a very rare treasure and I thank God for giving us the families that He did.

Summer Adventures

When I originally started this blog, I intended to use it for more of an artsy release type of thing, but now that I am out of college and living far away from my dearest friends I decided I want to actually start writing about my everyday life so they can keep up in a simple way. Sometimes there is just too much to share over one Skype call.

Today at work, I was writing the date down and I was shocked that we are already halfway through August. I seriously don’t know where the time has gone.  We’ve been extremely busy and a lot of people have wanted an update on what’s happening in our world. So here is a breakdown for those of you who want to know!

Honeymoon – Directly after our wedding (which was everything we dreamed it would be – thank you to everyone who came and made it so incredibly special) we went on a week long vacation to Jamaica. The island was absolutely breath taking, the food was amazing, and I loved getting to hang-out with my husband for a week straight with no distractions! We made a deal to go back to the same resort for one of our anniversaries, but we didn’t decide on any specific one!

Trips – Pretty much right after we got back from our honeymoon we left for 16 days with our youth group. We spent the first week at the Christ In Youth (CIY) Conference in Tennessee. We had a blast getting to know our sponsors and students better. Directly following that week, we left for Chicago for 9 days where we got to work with an organization that works with refugee families. We got to experience many different cultures, religions, people groups, and foods. It was an amazing trip and a great learning experience for everyone. Although both of the trips were awesome, we were excited to return home and get into a normal routine.

Our Home – Two days after returning home from our trips, we moved into our new home. We absolutely LOVE it here. We finally have everything unpacked and decorated how we want it. We bought paint the other day and we are planning on sprucing it up a little. All white walls are a little blahhh. I’ve really enjoyed getting to cook and bake for Chris. All of my meals have turned out well, except one. I over-slept from a nap and burnt our pulled pork in the crockpot L … the awesome thing about my husband is that he will eat it anyways! –That’s when you know you’ve found a keeper because I didn’t even eat it! One of the cookbooks I’ve been making things out of is called – Cooking with Flavor. It is simply amazing. Knowing how to use spices makes your meal go from bland to grand!! I would highly recommend this book!!

The Church – Chris has now been the full time Youth Pastor at FCCF for almost 3 months and he loves it. We could not ask for a better church. The staff is amazing, the members are amazing, and our students are amazing. It’s hard to describe, but we both feel such a strong sense of unity within the church and we could not be happier to be there. I am currently teaching a 7^th grade Sunday School class (they’re crazy, but I love their high energy – most days) J and we are planning on going to a young adult/married couples small group starting up in September, so a lot of really fun stuff is happening.

Work – I recently started training for my new job as an ABA Therapist. So far I am really enjoying it and only working with two clients. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks and having a more normal schedule, but other than that I am just jumping in. It is definitely a fun experience, but it also has its challenges! I am really thanking the Lord for bringing me down this path, as well as Chris for supporting me 100% in taking a step of faith. 

Two exciting things this month: 1. We get our wedding pictures TODAY!! 2. Chris is getting ordained this month! (So extremely proud of him!)

So that is kind of our life in a nutshell as of now. We are staying really busy between work, church, family, birthdays and friends. It’s nice when we just have a night to relax and cuddle up on the couch. We have a lot of fun things coming up in the next few months and we’re really looking forward to celebrating them together!!! 

The Next Chapter...

As many of you know, I graduated from Missouri State University on May 17 with my Bachelor of Science in Education. Let me just say, it is an awesome feeling to be done with school. My plan was to enjoy my summer – get married, help out at the youth events, hangout with friends, you know, the usual – and then I would get a teaching job and start my first year of teaching in August and eventually finish my Master’s Degree in Literacy. That was the plan and I was set that it would happen.

As the weeks passed, I wasn’t hearing from any schools. I eventually got one interview, but they ended up going with people who had more experience. Surprisingly, I wasn’t really upset because I had been praying A LOT about getting a job.  I got to a point where I felt very content with whatever happened and I had peace knowing fully that God would provide when the time was right.

Weeks went by and nothing new came my way. I began praying that God would show me if I was supposed to be doing something else. I had no clue what I would even want to do, except teach in a school. After a few weeks of prayer, I really started to feel a pull towards working with kids with Autism. I had been babysitting two families who have autistic children for two years and had really fallen in love with the kiddos and working with them. One of the families happened to be looking for a new behavioral therapist. I kind of pushed it aside, but it kept coming back up in my mind. Many things happened within the next month that I believe were clear signs that I should pursue my passion for working with kids with Autism.

So, with all of that being said, I am happy to say that I will be taking a job as an Applied Behavioral Specialist. I am so excited for this new learning experience in my life. I have to admit, it is a huge step of faith to start a career that I was not planning. I have committed to the families and if I were to get a call about a classroom job, I would have to turn it down and that was hard for me to swallow at first, but I am trusting that this is the path God has for me right now and I am so excited. I am excited to get to know my kiddos better and to help them become the best that they can be. I am also excited to have a more flexible job schedule so I can focus on making my marriage Christ-centered and being able to help support Chris in the youth ministry.