Our 1st Anniversary

Monday was our one year anniversary and we spent it in Chicago, IL.  We've been visiting Jeremy's family this week (and fly home tomorrow), and we went and stayed the night in the city for our anniversary. 

We had such a wonderful time!  We enjoyed shopping on the Magnificent Mile (or more so State Street -not as fancy!), eating at a Brazilian steakhouse (Texas de Brazil), walking around the parks, seeing the Buckingham fountain lightshow, and much much more! 

I'll post some more about our trip and our anniversary in the next few days! 

This year has been one of twists and turns and the Lord has guided us into HIS plan all along the way.  I am thankful to have a godly husband who loves and cares for me, and leads our family in the way of the Lord.  Jeremy, I love you with all of my heart and am so looking forward to a lifetime of anniversaries with you! 

Honeymoon

Jeremy and I are back from our wonderful honeymoon in Savannah, GA.  We stayed for 8 nights, and absolutely loved the city!  I seriously think it is the most beautiful city that I have ever seen. 

We stayed in a bed and breakfast in the Victorian District called The Galloway House.   This is the front of the house- it is a beautiful plantation style house that has been lovingly restored.  Don’t you just love those porches?

We stayed in the apartment in the carriage house behind the main house.  You followed a path through the back garden to our little slice of heaven…

Inside there was a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bathroom.  It was nice to have more than just a hotel room. 

We really loved this little desk in the bedroom.

Don’t you think the little kitchen is cute?   I love the cabinets and wood countertops.  They are from Ikea- the name was inside the drawers.  

 

And here we are after we first got to the B&B- a little tired from the drive but happy to be on our honeymoon!

 

We’ll be posting more pictures from the week in the next few days! 

Our Wedding Day

It’s finally here.  Today I become Mrs. Jeremy Jenkins.  This is a day I’ve dreamt about, planned for, and prayed over for a very long time. Today I will walk down the aisle to the man I love and make a covenant with him before God to love and cherish him for all of my days.  It will be an honor for me to do just that. 

“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband” Proverbs 12:4

I pray that I will be a crown upon Jeremy’s head, a wife who will respect him, and in whom he can fully trust.  I know no greater privilege than to be his helper and companion. 

Today as I wear white as a symbol of my commitment to purity, I am reminded of my sweet and loving Savior and His precious sacrifice to cleanse me of all unrighteousness.  Our marriage is to be a reflection of the relationship between Christ and the Church.

Ephesians 5:25-27, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but hat she would be holy and blameless”

Jesus, thank You for Your grace and mercy.  Today I purely present myself to my husband.  One day, because of Your blood, I will be able to purely present myself to You, sanctified and holy.  May our marriage be a sweet reflection of Your love. 




All photos by Chris Zachary Photography

In the Center of God's Will

source

Life never seems to turn out like we plan, does it?  We chart out our path, thinking, for some reason, that there will be no twist and turns along the way that we can't see.  Life just hasn't worked out for Jeremy and I like we envisioned it a year ago when we got engaged.  We had planned for Jeremy to find a full time job in the ministry sometime in the Spring semester of his last year at Liberty, for him to start a job a couple of months before the wedding, and for me to move in to whatever apartment or house he had found after we got married.  It seemed like a good plan.  It seemed like a God-glorifying plan.  But it wasn't God's plan, it was ours. 

"The mind of man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps."  Proverbs 16:9

We started applying for jobs in November.  Seven months later, we still don't have a job lined up.  I don't think I ever thought to myself that it could possibly take this long to find a job.  But when you're working with churches, the timelines can sometimes be drawn out.  They accept resumes for a month to 3 months, they interview for one to two months, they do second rounds of interviews with a few candidates, lasting another month, they pray about it for a few weeks, they have the final candidate come to meet the congregation, the congregation prays about it for another week, and finally the church takes a vote.  Next thing you know, its been 7 months since you first sent your resume to the church.  It's hard.  But it's life, and it's the way it has to work.  We just for some reason didn't expect it. 

We've had things seem so sure, totally expecting to have a job within a couple of weeks, and then something out of our control happens. We've learned to accept that nothing is a sure thing.  Even with the prospects on the table right now, we know nothing would be finalized probably for another month. 

I'll just be honest, it is hard to deal with the questions, it is hard to deal with people not understanding.  It is hard to hear the question, "so where are you going to be living" one week before your wedding and not be able to give someone an answer, and then have to deal with the look of shock and almost panic on their face for us. 

We have heard many times over the past few months that God will put us where He wants us, and that He has a plan for us.  I'm grateful to be marrying a man who has reminded me that we don't have to wait until we find a job to be in God's will.   We know that we are in the center of God's will right now, a week away from becoming husband and wife and neither without a job or a place to live.  For some reason, this is where He wants us right now.  We don't understand it, but then again who can understand God's plans. 

"Man's steps are ordained by the Lord, How then can man understand His way?" Proverbs 20:24

We are waiting, hoping, and praying.  We've accepted that God's timing isn't the same as ours, and that our plans are not always His plans.  Look at God's promise to Abraham that He would give him the promised land.  What Abraham didn't know was that he was just a small little part of that plan, and that it would be almost 500 years before his descendants came into the land promised by God.  God hasn't ever worked on our time schedules.  We're choosing to have faith, to cling to one another, and to walk through the uncertainty together, knowing that we'll walk out stronger and closer at the end because of it. 

It's kind of exciting though, too.  We basically get an extended honeymoon, a time to focus on us and our marriage for a while without the distraction of going to work everyday and having to deal with the challenges of a new job right when we have a new marriage.  I think it's in a way a blessing in disguise, not one we would have choose, but a blessing none the less.  We know there are stressful days ahead, but also fun and exciting ones. 

We're taking it one day at a time, assured that we are right where we are suppose to be, walking in the center of His will, putting one foot in front of the other, and trusting that the Lord will provide.   

We ask for your prayers, that God would reveal His plan to us and that He would provide in whatever way He sees fit.  Be praying for us, one week from today we'll be getting married.  We have a lot to do between now and then, pray that we will be preparing our hearts while we prepare the details.

The Real Meaning of Marriage

It seems we can't get away from all the hooplah about the Royal Wedding, can we?   I have yet to turn on the tv since last Friday without seeing photos of it.  Yet I was one of the people who woke up early to watch the royal affair.  It really was beautiful and Kate looked wonderful didn't she?

Too often brides and everyone around them get so caught up in the details and planning that we forget the real significance and importance of the wedding- uniting a man and woman as one before God. 

I love what Mary Kassian had to say on The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood's blog  about the Royal Wedding and about marriage in general.  Check out her post here.

I loved this paragraph from the post:

"God created manhood, womanhood, marriage and sex because He wanted us to have symbols, images, and language powerful enough to convey the idea of who He is and what a relationship with Him is all about. Without manhood, womanhood, marriage and sex, we would have a tough time understanding concepts such as desire, love, commitment, fidelity, infidelity, loyalty, jealousy, unity, intimacy, marriage, oneness, covenant, and family. We would have a tough time understanding God and the gospel. God gave us these images so that we would have human thoughts, feelings, experiences and language adequate and powerful enough to understand and express deep spiritual truths. The visible symbols display and testify about what is unseen. That's why the symbols are so very important."

As I plan for my own wedding, this was a nice reminder of the true meaning of marriage today.  I hope it will be for you as well.

Free Books

I came across these wonderful books on prayer the other day by Andrew Case. He has graciously provided them free to download on his website. 

These books are practical and Biblical guides to praying Scripture for your husband, wife, or children.

Water of the Word is a prayer book for husbands to help them intercede for their wives, Prayers of an Excellent Wife is a prayer book for wives to help them intercede for their husbands, and Setting Their Hope in God is a prayer book for parents to help them intercede for their children.

I have started using "Prayers of an Excellent Wife" in my prayer times, and I love it!  It really helps you to focus on praying daily for your spouse (or in my case fiancé), and comes straight from the pages of Scripture.  Download your own here.

Here is an example of a prayer from "Prayers of an Excellent Wife" based on Nehemiah 9

"Sovereign Preserver,

Let my dear husband stand up and bless You our

God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be

Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and

praise. You are the LORD, You alone. You have made him.

You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all

their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all

that is in them; and You preserve all of them; and the host
of heaven worships You.

Thank You for preserving my husband, for keeping him

as Your chosen, for directing his steps on the narrow way.

Please continue to preserve his life! For You are the LORD, the

God who chose him and brought him out of darkness and

made his heart faithful before You. Thank You that You have

kept the promises that are his in Christ Jesus, for You are

righteous. I praise You that You are a God ready to forgive,

gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in

steadfast love, and have not departed from him. Even when

he strays and his heart grows dull, You in Your great mercies

have not forsaken him. Therefore, keep on making a name for

Yourself through him, and instruct him with Your good

Spirit. Amen (Nehemiah 9)."

(Page 19)

Lessons fom Ruth Bell Graham- Part 1

For Christmas I received a copy of "It's My Turn" by Ruth Bell Graham, evangelist Billy Graham's wife. It is a great easy read and is full of practical wisdom and advice for wives and mothers.   For my own benefit as much as yours, I am going to share some of the bits and pieces that I highlighted when reading it.  There is so much to share that I'll break it up into two posts. 

I know there is a lot, but there is so much to learn from this amazing woman of God.  As Jeremy is applying to youth pastor positions, I've been thinking a lot about being the wife of a man in ministry and what that will mean for our family.  It will be an amazing privilege to serve along side him, but I know that there will be challenges.  Who better to learn from about marriage, ministry, and family than the wife of Billy Graham?

"You have heard from one who has had  generous portion of the earth for his parish.  You are about to hear from one who had their home and their five children for hers.  The size of the parish is immaterial. But the message and the goals have been essentially the same."

"I have learned much from others.  But I have learned the most from an old, eternally contemporary Book and its Author."

"One's spiritual survival and growth is not necessarily dependent upon one's rots, or the environment within which one grows:"

"Daddy and Mother were of the strong opinion that life is a battleground and that home life and schooling should be the training ground"

"If God could be reached only through intellect, then where would the brain damaged, the mentally retarded, and the little child"

"True scholarship and deep love for God frequently going hand in hand"

"Gently, tactfully, persistently, I tried to suggest and then to persuade Bill that perhaps he, too, should go to Tibet as a missionary.  It was obvious that I was doing the calling, not God.  Weeks passed.  Finally Bill turned to me: 'Do you believe that God brought us together?  I did-unquestionably.  'In that case,' Bill said firmly, 'God will lead me and you will do the following.'  And I have been following ever since."

"When two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary."

"It is good to know how to disagree and when [with your husband].  Here are a few suggestions out of my own experience: First, define the issue (and make sure it is worth disagreeing over); next, watch your tone of voice and be courteous (don't interrupt, and avoid rude, unkind, or unnecessarily personal remarks); third, stick to the subject; fourth, stick to facts; and fifth, concede graciously.  As for when to have a disagreement, this takes both sensitivity and ingenuity on the part of the wife as well as the husband.  For one thing, it is not wise to disagree with a man when he is tired, hungry, worried, ill preoccupied, or pressured. Nor does it pay to argue with your husband unless you are looking your very best.  And avoid arguing when you are boiling mad over some issue."

"Adapting to our husbands never implies the annihilation of our creativity, rather the blossoming of it"

"Young husbands seldom mean to be cruel, but being new at the business of marriage, and unable to see things the way new brides do, they can be thoughtless"

"A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.  And after the forgiving comes laughter, a deeper love- and further opportunities to forgive"

"A woman assumes the household responsibilities to free her husband for his"

"Pity the married couple who expect too much from one another"

"It is a foolish woman who expects her husband to be to her that which only Jesus Christ Himself can be: always ready to forgive, totally understanding, unendingly patient, invariably tender and loving, unfailing in every area, anticipating every need, and making more than adequate provision.  Such expectations put a man under impossible strain."

"God created us to be a 'help meet' for our husbands...Since every man is different, needs will vary.  So it is up to the wife to study her own husband to discover how she ca best meet those needs.  And she is to adapt herself to him.  Now, this takes skill and imagination.  It keeps a woman feminine."

"Too often, early love is a mirage built on daydreams.  love deepens with understanding, and varying viewpoints expand and challenge one another.  So many things things improve with age.  So it is with marriage.  Those who abandon ship the first time it enters  storm misses the calm beyond.  And the rougher the storms weathered together, the deeper and stronger real love grows."