Marriage and God

My best friend Carly got married this weekend to a handsome young Ukrainian man named Yada.

It’s so funny because I remember when she first met him at Green River Community College and she thought of him as her “Hot-Russian” friend with a nice car. Little did she know 4 years later he would be her husband. One of my favorite things about Carly and Yada’s story is that it is a testament of how God sees beyond what we can understand and that His plans are much better than ours. God knew all along that Carly would marry Yada. He knew that she would meet him in her statistics class, and He knew that as their friendship progressed over the years, she would fall in love with Him.

I love seeing God’s faithfulness in marriages. It is so evident to me that He really cares about who his children marry and He coordinates all of the details that bring them together. A word of encouragement to all of my single friends….

The Lord sees your life and your situations. He sees your age and the desires of your heart. He also sees beyond all of those things. He sees what is going to happen in your life over the next 5 years, where you will be and what you will be doing. He sees the plans that you have and which ones will change as He expands your vision. Don’t ever think for a moment that you are not in God’s hand or that He is not covering every part of your life. He knows exactly when and how to bring you and your future spouse together and He will orchestrate it at the right time. So be encouraged; God knows what He is doing! Isn’t it comforting to know that our God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours? He sees beyond what we can even image or comprehend.

Song Lyrics

My best friend Carly is getting married in 5 days. I am the maid of honor in her wedding and I will be singing a song that I wrote about marriage. I will blog more after the wedding when I am an emotional basket case and full of overflowing joy because of her marriage. Until then, here are the lyrics of the song I wrote and will be singing at the wedding.

PREFACE : I wanted to write a love song but not one that was mushy or specifically glorifying a person. Instead, this song is about God’s hand in the relationship and how it is by His faithfulness and direction that the two ended up together. The major theme in the song is that He knew they would fall in love.

He Knew

You have captured me
and I wont let you go.
Your impressions stays with me
and with all I am I know;
My faithful Father who sees all of me
brought us together for His glory.
He knew that I would fall in love with you.
He knew that I would fall in love with you.
More and more I see
the Fathers faithfulness.
He watched over me
and keeps all His promises.
All the words that I have prayed for you
He has heard and will carry through.
He knew that I would fall in love with you.
He knew that I would fall in love with you.
Here we stand ready to live
life together
Let us be as one to glorify
our faithful and Holy Father.
He knew that I would fall in love with you.
He knew that I would fall in love with you.

A New Semester...

Today was the first day of the fall semester and my first day as a theology major. I have to admit, I am so excited about this semester. The new degree program that I am in is going to be so cool and I am going to learn so much. I love that I was able to tweak my schedule to allow me to take the counseling and theology classes but also squeeze in a few music/worship classes. It’s a really good mix.

All of my classes are going to be really cool but I am especially excited for two of them. I can tell already that these are going to be two of my favorite classes and I just can’t wait to get learning! These two classes are…

#1 Intro to Counseling – I will be learning counseling from a Biblical standpoint and how to use the Bible for each and every life situation and personal issue. I will also learn how to approach counseling as a pastor. This class is the prerequisite for Counseling Techniques, which I will take next semester, and that is taught by the one and only Glenda Malmin, who is absolutely amazing.

#2 Worship Ministry – This class is going to be so awesome!!! It’s taught by Doug Lasit and we will be learning about worship and how it applies to the local church. We will go through Biblical worship and worship as a lifestyle and also practical things that can be applied to leading a worship team at your church. It is really designed for people who intend on being a worship pastor or administrator because not only will we learn the spiritual side of things but we will also learn the practical things that go on behind the scenes. Things like; mentoring/raising up musicians, team building, scheduling, selecting songs, time frame, ect. One of the best things about the class is that there are only 13 people in it so we will have lots of one-on-one time and we are going to have Darlene Zschech guest teach a class.

I know that this is going to be a very good semester with a lot of growth both spiritually, scholastically and personally. I love that God never stops teaching me new things and that He is always growing me into the person He wants me to be. It’s really cool to think about the fact that God sees you fully developed even when in earthly eyes you are not. I got this revelation this last summer when I was thinking about how I have so much growing to do as a person and there is so much more for me to learn. But it’s awesome to think about how God sees the areas in my life that need to change and He sees exactly how that change is going to happen. He sees the lessons I will learn from, the people who will mentor me, and the decisions that will change my life. He sees it all. I am reminded of Psalm 139 when it talks about how God both precedes and follows you and schedules every day of your life. I love knowing that I am on the right path, the path that the Lord has lead me to be on, and that I am doing His will. Amen! J

Summer Update

I should be exiled from the world of BLOG because it has been nearly three months since I posted anything on this page. The only excuse I can think of is that I have had a very busy and eventful summer which has kept me from blogging.
That said, I have some juicy updates that have developed over the last 3 months. It would take me a lot of writing and you the reader a lot of reading if I went into full detail about each event, so I will list them in no particular order with an exceptionally brief description.

1. To-A-Ler – That is the “couple name” given to Taylor and me at PBC because we are an official couple. That’s right; I am dating the one and only Taylor Murray. This all happened at the beginning of June (June 5th to be exact) and has been running strong ever since. He is awesome and our relationship is a total God thing

2. Vision – God has expended my vision and given me little glimpses of what He has in store for me. I’ll elaborate more on that later, but it’s pretty cool.

3. Major Change – I have switched majors from Music with an emphasis in songwriting to Theology and Pastoral Counseling. This was a pretty tough decision because I love music so much but this last year God has been stirring a desire in me to pastor so it made perfect sense to take classes that will equip me to do that. I will still be taking some music classes though, but my degree will be in Pastoral Counseling.


That’s all for now. Each of these three updates has brought many new things to my life which I will blog about a lot over the next year. I am so excited for this year and I promise I will be faithful to this blog even if no one reads it.

Until next time.

Friends

I love old friends. There is something really special about relationships that have history and are still strong. I went home this last weekend and was able to spend some time with friends that I have known and been close to for several years. Our relationships are so low maintenance now but that is only after years of working on them. They have reached a point where they are not based on how many hours a week we talk on the phone or how many times we hang out; but instead it’s based on a genuine care for one another that is not dependent on anything. It was so interesting because although we had all changed a great deal since we first met each other, our friendship remained the same. It was as if there was never an absence in our time together.

Relationships are so special; I realize this more and more everyday. I cherish the friendships that I have and look forward to the years ahead and the memories that will come with them. It is so great to be able to share life with the people that you love.

Nerds

One thing that most people may not know about me is that I am a closet nerd. I grew up watching Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Men, Ninja Turtles, and every other nerdy show known to man. So naturally when a movie comes out that is made after one of my favorite childhood shows I can’t help but be overly excited.

For example: When King Kong came out back in December, I went to the midnight showing and got there 3 hours early just in case it was sold out. I also wore a costume, (I was a Jedi). However, I was not alone in this… I was accompanied by my brothers who were dressed as a gorilla and a dinosaur, my friend Travis who was a ding-dong (get it? King Kong/Ding-Dong…hilarious!) and my Dad who tried to pretend that he didn’t know us.
It seems that I do pretty well with convincing people that I am normal until a new sci-fi movie comes out. Then, without even realizing it, I pop back into nerd-mode and organize trips to the opening night in costume…which just reveals to the world that I am a big nerd. This recently happened with the arrival of X-Men…I’ve seen it twice already.

Just to set the record straight, I am not ashamed of this. The purpose of this blog is for me to express the fact that I accept my nerdy self. I will continue to do weird things like wearing a banana costume in downtown Portland (I did this a month ago) or having a matrix extravaganza (I did this 2 weeks ago). I am a nerd, and I am proud.

Seasons

School has been out for exactly 2 weeks and the reality of summer has finally set in. During the last week of school I was totally ready for school to be out, anticipating a summer filled with carefree bliss and relaxation. However, after the thrill of no school wore off, I find myself more aware of just how much I miss my home. Portland is not home to me, and although I love being here every time I visit home I am reminded of just how temporary my stay in Portland will be. I love my home in Maple Valley. Something in me relaxes every time I drive home and race down the familiar Maple Valley highway which leads to my house. Maple Valley is my home and part of that is because it is where my church is. I absolutely love my church and a new passion has been growing in me this last year to see my church thrive. I can’t describe it, but it grows everyday. Although my desire to back has been continually growing, I know that it is not time yet. There are still things for me to learn and absorb here at PBC. I accept that and I am completely content being here.
I love how God makes transition easy. I am in such a wonderful season of life right now and am enjoying every second of it. But I know that in a few years this season will be over and it will be time for me to move on. Although I don’t know where I will be 5 years from now, I know that it will be great and even better than where I am now. It is so comforting to know that God’s hand is on my life and that I just need to trust His guidance.
God is so good and so faithful. Praise God.