We're Married!!! :)

As of May 22, 2011 she will be known as Mrs. Laura Eley  :)

And Jesus said " Haven't you read that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?  So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate"   -Matthew 19:4-6


Pictures by our friend Jordan Mclaughlin at jmclaughlinphoto.com.

Thoughts from within a week

3 DAYS!!!  :)

Psalm 67 says:

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.  May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.  May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.  May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.  Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless you.  God will bless us and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

This is our prayer for the wedding, that God would be gracious to us and bless us to that his ways would be known among those at the wedding.  As much as we want this occasion and celebration to be beautiful and fun we are praying that the Lord would grow an even stronger desire in our hearts for his glory and his fame.

We have been deeply affected by knowing that the depth of love that we have for one another is but a mere shadow of the love that God has for each of us individually.  We are praying that this knowledge would permeate fortified and calloused hearts, blind eyes and deaf ears all to his glory.  

Thanks to everybody who has been praying for us in this time, your prayers are certainly felt.  This week we have had enough of a to-do list to keep us busy but not enough to stress over.  We are so excited to see everybody this weekend and share this occasion with everybody that can come.

We got our marriage certificate :)

We are down to 17 days now.  School is coming to a close with starting a light load for finals today and finishing up the last few assignments before riding out the days to graduation.  Plans are coming along smoothly for the wedding and stress is almost nonexistent in the mix of it all.  God has continued to show himself gracious in this time and we are so grateful.

Newest exciting news is that we went to the court house in Lynchburg yesterday and got our marriage certificate.  It was fun to get excited about and see it through.  We even had to raise our right hand and swear we weren't lying on any of the information on the form.

"Will both of you raise your right hand?"
"Oh... uh... yea!" *snicker*  :)

Next we stood out on the famous steps downtown and took some pictures with passers-by smiling at us and enjoying our excitement.  It has been great to see others enjoy our excitement and seemingly reflecting back on their wedding day.

We are praying that this time would rekindle love and bring reconciliation and encouragement to couples around us through the whole process.  If Jesus can reconcile us to the Father then restoring a marriage can surely be done as well, and we pray this is faith.

We are back!

So suddenly 90 days has turned into 21 days!  Where does time go?! That I do not know but here is a little update on us.

We are Colorado bound in about 33 days!  It has been an interesting progression of events but the Lord continues to work.  I still have not heard from the internship that I applied for so I am taking that as a no... disappointing, yes, but I see the Lord's hand at work in it.  In the midst of job hunting I made up my mind to go to Physical Therapy school in the next couple years to get my Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) and I do not think that I would have completely bought into this idea if I had gotten internship.  I probably would have pursued any possible option with them and ended up doing something that I really don't enjoy.  Laura is waiting to hear back about an HR job that would be PERFECT! :) She is made for that stuff and I know that once she gets to speak with an organization they will understand that she will be a huge asset for them.

The interesting thing about this whole process is that we are confident that the Lord has everything all mapped out for us and that he will lead us right into the things that he has for us be we have absolutely no idea what that is going to look like.  We are continuing to learn what it looks like to step out on faith and rest in the truth of the character of God.  He is benevolent, perfect love, the creator and sustainer of all creation, the rewarder of those who seek him, etc...  Our pastor mentioned Deuteronomy 29:29 this morning in his sermon, saying "the secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever."  We cannot allow the details and the little questions foster an environment of doubt and anxiety.  We have the truth and the promises of God and that will sustain us when we do not know how to find true north.

Laura and I have thought back and talked about this engagement time, reflecting on things that we have experienced and learned.  People along the way, at different times, have encouraged us to continue to communicate in all of its various forms, topics and levels and this has proved to be one of the most valuable things through this time.  We have been able to talk about many different topics at different times and in varying degrees of details and sometimes this had led us to having to be selfless for a time and other times we just had to get on the same page but in the end all of these conversations have led us to function more and more as a unit.  I have continued to see how much I can trust Laura with my emotions and insecurities.  When we got engaged I would have had no hesitations in saying that Laura was my best friend and the same still stands today but now I also know that she is my companion and my helper.  She is a safe haven for me.

The remainder of our undergrad career is summed up in a short to-do list and our time as singles is now measured in days.  This is going to be a whirlwind but I can hardly wait to see what the Lord has in store for us next.

Countdown!

t-minus 90 days and counting...  May 22nd can't get here soon enough!  Oh the joys of patience in the midst of a fixed timeline.  My family is giving us our first shower this coming weekend and Laura's parents and sister are going to be in town, it should be a fun filled weekend.  I am anticipating a little more reality to settle in as a result of the shower.  Lord, please glorify yourself, not only in this marriage but also in this wedding process.

A Little Consideration

When I return to the Word it is easy to see why a Christian is called to be humble and selfless. We have done nothing right and yet have everything good.  I have done nothing right and have everything good, so I have nothing to boast in and everything to give.  I have been able to tell, most of the time, when Laura or I have been out of the Word for a time because we begin to veer from these traits.  We both become selfishly focsed and desire that the other would meet our needs and be attentive to us.  We both begin to draw attention to ourselves to build ourselves up.  In this moment we begin to crawl back onto the throne of our hearts and deny the Lord glory so that we might receive it for ourselves.

This realization has fleshed out a truth that I knew, but did not fully understand. I agreed with, but could not give a satisfactory answer as to why.  This truth was presented to Laura and I during our premarital counselin- The most important thing that we can bring to our relationship is our personal relationships with the Lord.  By falling more and more in love with the Lord and understanding more and more of who he is and what he has done I lose sight of myself.  Once I lose sight of myself, the Lord can do anything He wants through me. The moment I resist sanctification and the Spirit’s prompting to act is the same moment I become aware of and consider my own desires again.

I always seem to maintain a level of skepticism toward an idea as long as it remains theoretical. Once it is tested and proven on some level, an idea begins to gain my allegiance.  This is the same way I felt at first with the book Love and Respect. This was not because of the content, but just because I am empirically minded and skeptical.  My skepticism has almost subsided since I realized something and that something is that the one thing that melts my heart more than anything else is Laura's consideration for me.  She maintains an awareness of the things that she says and the attitude that she maintains towards me and she does not wait for me to address something for us to talk about it.  Her consideration of me shows me respect and it comes through selflessness that can only be maintained by a proper mindset fixed on Truth. Her respect for me transposes to respect for our relationship.  When we both place value on our relationship we both take ownership and we become teammates.  Laura does not wait for me to address an issue hoping that it will pass by. She takes ownership as well and we talk about it.  One reason that this means so much to me is because there is a lot of truth in the fact that a man can be crushed and nobody ever know.  Even the most masculine and solid men have a hard time talking about the things that, in some way or another, hurt their feelings because we are not taught to be, much less how to become, vulnerable.  In my mind that is to victimize myself, but when Laura wants to know how I responded to something she said it gives me freedom to explain without being a victim.  When Laura considers and respects me there is a level of love that wells up inside me that I cannot anticipate.  It is a self-feeding cycle, either for intimacy or for distance.

When I show Laura that I love her and she shows that she respects me, I long to be with her. I thoroughly enjoy being with her because it becomes a safe place for me.  I have also noticed the opposite to be true.  The only times that I have been resistant to Laura (spending time with her or meeting her needs) are when she becomes selfishly focused because of time spent away from Scripture.  I become the same way.  When I am apart from Scripture I become selfish and demand respect and recognition for what I am doing at the present time.  Left to ourselves we resist each other. This is because whatever gets our attention is the only thing that will keep our attention. 

Ephesians 5:33

2 Years

So today two years ago I nervously asked Laura if she would date me.  At that time I had the highest view of Laura and the lowest view of myself.  I honestly thought that she was selling herself short but she was insistent in her view of me and I thought I would be a fool to let this opportunity pass by.


Now, two years later I have an even higher view of Laura but I also have a better view of myself.  Laura has stood beside me, supported me, spoken powerful truth into my life, provided me with a place to be completely vulnerable and she has offered her loving arms when I have not known what to do with myself. 

She has shown me respect and empowered me to lead us against culture with a vengeance.  My respect for Laura grows each day because of who she is in light of the Lord.  He has used Laura to redeem so many things in my life up to this point.  Things that she has said or the way she has responded to me telling her something have broken me because of the way that they reflect the way the Lord has responded to me and shown me love continually.  The Lord has used her to be a major agent of change in my life and I trust her completely in that.  I know that she will be the one that can hurt me the most because she will be closest to me but I trust her completely.  I can hardly wait to spend the rest of my life with such an incredible woman.

We will continue to move forward relying on the grace of God to get through each day and through each circumstance that comes our way.  We will fight the pulls and strains of culture on our life together and separate and we will pull closer together as times try to pull us apart. 


I can't wait for her to be Mrs Eley :)

Happy two years my love...