Week #5 of memorizing scriptures leads us to Matthew 5:3-7 – the well-know beatitudes from Jesus’ sermon on the mount.
Which line is your favorite? I agree with my mom, that it really depends on where I am in my life, but right now, my favorite is “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” I long to see Him. Being pure in heart is a big deal – no small feat. I feel challenged to purify my heart so that one day I can see God. Oh happy day.
Week #4 of memorizing scripture.
This was my pick, and I can’t recite this one without out having to stop after “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” It makes me cry every time. I can’t help but to pause and say, “THANK YOU, GOD!” I mean really, consider that. Enduring the cross. Scorning its shame. That was joy to Christ. Joy. Do we really get it? How can I not have joy if Jesus, who was beaten beyond recognition – you couldn’t even tell who he was – found joy dying for me. Dying for you. Really, what can I face that’s worse than that. And even if I’m facing the lowest of lows, the very bottom of the pit, I can still find joy because He found joy in the cross. His death, His resurrection – that’s how I get to have joy in everything, no matter how low or how bad it may be.
“Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” God cares how you feel, and His son reminds you that there is always a reason for joy. Always a reason to not grow weary and lose heart. Ah, so amazing.
Week #3 of memorizing is Hebrews 4:12-13. This was my mom’s pick, and it was a familiar one – well, at least the first half of it. I appreciate the repetitiveness of some of the scriptures: nothing is hidden; everything is uncovered. It’s nice of God to really hit us over the head with important things. I’m sounding slightly sarcastic, but I’m being completely honest. I really do appreciate when God is overtly clear…helps my stubborn, sometimes-blind self.
I love that the Word of God is so sharp it can divide bones and marrow. This scripture – as well as the Bible on the whole - challenges me to check my thoughts and attitudes.
On the whole, this scripture wasn’t the hardest one for me to memorize, but it is the most challenging spiritually though. To see the previous verses we’re memorizing, check here & here.
My mom decided to begin picking a passage out of the Bible and memorizing one each week. I asked if I could join along, so the past two weeks we’ve been challenging ourselves together. I thought it might be nice to share each week’s passage on my blog – for others to join along or just so I can look back at all the passages we picked.
Here’s the first week, my mom’s pick:
I especially liked that before it says His mercies are new every morning {the part I’ve always remembered and heard repeated}, it says that His mercies never come to an end. Not only does God give us new mercies each morning, but they never come to an end! I just picture blessing upon blessing multiplied each day as new ones begin with the sunrise. The Lord is my portion, and I will hope in Him.<3
Wow, it’s been a while since I last blogged. I’m totally struggling to find time for anything other than the necessities lately. I found out I had a rib out of place, pleurisy & chondritis after a fun trip to the ER this week. Let me tell you, those are super painful issues! Both resulted from my upper respiratory infection a few weeks ago, and there’s really not much you can do to treat them other than rest and treatment for the pain. I’m still dealing with pain, but definitely feeling better. Deep breaths {although they hurt} really helped the most.
Okay, so I apologize for my absence, but hopefully I can get healthy and get back to blogging regularly again!
On to the fun stuff – we attended a local church’s Christmas event that included a live nativity, real camels, chocolate dipped pretzels, crafts, Santa & Mrs. Clause, and free photos. They had a ton of kind, patient volunteers. Such a generous way to show God’s love to the community during the Christmas season!
The girls made little wooden heart ornaments with a baby Jesus wrapped in cloth.
The little one’s face in the pic above cracks me up! The camels pretty much terrified her!
The live nativity was neat, but the little one was still pretty scared of the camels. ;)
She got much happier once we were back inside…
And of course, the little one rarely left her big cousin’s side. They are bffs for sure.
Cate was a pretzel-dipping pro…
And Griff even got in on the action…
The little one, however, just wanted to eat her pretzel sans chocolate…
She loved clapping and dancing while the carolers sang…
We wrote letters to Santa {aka put stickers and scribbled on a paper.}
We even got some photos to take home. Unfortunately the girls were not fans of Santa. {At least they liked the nativity…matters way more anyway! ;)}
The mommas look a little worn out from long days at work, but the girlies look as cute as ever!
We had fun making memories!
The past two weeks have been challenging. Last Monday night, I came home from my women’s bible study meeting, and I went straight to bed with a blasting migraine. I’m so thankful that I don’t struggle with migraines regularly; they are so crippling! Once the migraine faded around noon the next day, my throat started hurting. I quickly realized I was getting sick, sick, sick. Sore throat turned into sinus pressure, to me losing my voice completely, to coughing, to congestion…lots of fun stuff.
Also last week, Eugene had to leave for a five day school trip to Washington DC with 8th graders. He left early on Friday, and I had a huge event for around 400 people to work Saturday until around 1am – oh, and did I mention I’ve been wicked-sick and during the event, my eye started turning red? I made it through Saturday’s event, down a staff member because his grandma was rushed to the hospital about 30 minutes after the event started, and the little one had a blast playing with her cousin while my sister kindly watched her.
The little one woke up relatively early on Sunday, as usual, so we headed to church. I caught my nurse-friend in the hall at church to ask her about my eye, and she broke the news to me that it was probably pink eye. Bummed, I picked the little one up from the church nursery, left church early, dropped her off with Eugene’s family, and headed to urgent care for my cold and eye issues. The doctor diagnosed me with laryngitis, upper respiratory infection, and an eye infection. {Awesome.} He gave me a prescription for my eye and a back up Z pack prescription to hold on to, but said the rest of my ailments should heal on their own.
Now it’s Tuesday. Eugene’s ETA keeps getting pushed later and later, and I’m pretty sure I have an ear infection and my other eye is infected too.
So why am I sharing all this crummy stuff with the title of the post “Thankful”? Because, despite all this junk, I haven’t felt too discouraged through the past couple weeks. All I can think of is how grateful I am that I am usually very healthy. I haven’t been on a prescription for well over a year, and I rarely need to go to the doctor. I have two eyes that see perfectly normally, a throat that usually produces a clear voice, a head that is typically pain-free. I have a job that provides extra for my family, and only requires me to go in the office a few days a week. I have a family who is willing and eager to watch the little one any time I have to work or go to the doctor. I have a husband whom I miss incredibly when he’s gone. {I don’t take that for granted…I know wives joke about wishing their husbands would go on a trip, but I was dreading him leaving!} I have technology to watch my little one and her daddy FaceTime and sign “I love you” to each other while he’s miles away.
I have so much to be thankful for – even in a week full of crud.
Have you read One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp? It’s sooo good. It’s all about how to “wake up to joy and grace and beauty and all that is the fullest life when I must stay numb to loses and crushed dreams and all that empties out.” It’s about giving thanks for everything, all the small details, every little moment. And I’m not one who throws this phrase around, but it’s life-changing. Not big, hit you over the head, and scream at you life-changing, but whisper in the background, squeeze your hand gently, right when you need it most life-changing.
I read it once for pleasure, and then a second time to take notes {20 pages of notes!} I love Ann’s style of poetic writing. I love her rich way with words to simplify an incredibly profound way of thinking and living to be understandable, relatable, manageable. It’s partly because of this book, I’m sure, that I’m able to keep a grateful heart and a thankful outlook through crummy week’s like this one. I may do a whole post later of my favorite quotes/passages from the book, but for now, I’ll just share a few for safe keeping here on my little blog.
Oh I pray that I will see deeply, thank deeply, and feel joy deeply. If you haven’t read One Thousand Gifts, now is the perfect time of year to dig in and enjoy it. What a blessing this life is, every little moment, the sweet spots as much as the painful ones.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends.
It’s Thursday, I know. But yesterday was Wednesday, and it reminded me of a post I’ve been wanting to write for quite some time. Do you remember when I posted my kitchen update photos? Well there’s a print that wasn’t highlighted, but one that I absolutely love in my kitchen.
I forget how I came across frenchpressmornings.com, maybe Instagram, but every Wednesday the blogger posts a free printable verse. She calls it “Encouraging Wednesdays,” and I absolutely love it. The print hanging in my kitchen is hard to see from the photo above, but it can be found here, and she has a ton of beautiful prints to pick from. 4x6 prints are free, but she has larger sizes to download in her Etsy shop.
A few weeks ago, I posted this messy photo on my Instagram of one of my favorite verses lately,
and she made this beautiful art with the scripture…
I printed the free 4x6 & framed this one for my mom who keeps bees & harvests honey for a hobby. {Perfect.}
And when I saw this week’s that is perfect for my favorite holiday – Thanksgiving – I knew I had to share. How beautiful is this!
Oh, also, it may sound like it, but I wasn't paid to write this. I don’t know the blogger, but I just think her free prints are awesome & worthy of sharing with ya’ll. I hope you’ll head over to French Press Morning’s website and print some lovely prints to keep the truth on your heart {and around your house.} ;)
Completely random note to end with, but when I was pulling the kitchen photos from this summer, I saw this one.
Oh my, how cute are those little thighs!
The past few weekends have been centered around family. Most Fridays we have pizza night with Eugene’s family. Sometimes we even get to bring Cate along, and the best cousin friends {I’ve got to come up with a better name than that} get to enjoy a pizza picnic…
The little one met her Great Great Uncle Bob & Aunt Bobbie as they visited from Michigan{along with her oh-so-loved Great (Grandma) Goldie, Grandma, Grandpa, MamaSissy and Cate}. She loved looking through Uncle Bob’s pictures on his camera…
Also during the visit, Eugene got ambushed by the wild girlies…
We attempted a family picture since we were dressed for church that morning. This is the best we got – hair in my face & a scowling little one.
We also got to be there for Auntie Heidi’s senior night for soccer…
The little one loves being outside, and especially loves dancing to the warm-up music, so she’s usually a happy camper at soccer games…
We also tried to visit Eugene during our lunch break a few times. He has been working so hard teaching, coaching golf, and coaching baseball, so there were quite a few days he would leave before dawn and not get back until 9 or 10 at night. Since he didn’t get to see the little one those days, we’d attempt to do a quick drop in to surprise him with a hug. I’m not sure who liked it more, the little one or her Dada. ;)
I’m thankful we live close to both our families, and that our weekends are filled with visits from both sets of parents/grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters. It’s been fun watching our immediate family shape and mature as the little one is growing. I’ve been thinking lately about family legacies. We leave a legacy for our families whether we plan to or not and whether it’s positive or not. I pray that Eugene & I are intention about what we want our legacy to be. We’re young, but I want to be cautious not to let my legacy just be a haphazard summary of our busy lives. I want a purposeful {not to be misunderstood for perfect} legacy, one that whispers grace, and mercy, and love. One that is real and raw, showing beauty through honest ashes. One that prioritizes the eternal over the temporary. One that sings God’s song through our children and our children’s children. I’m thankful for those in my family who have left and are leaving a purposeful legacy. And I’m thankful to live everyday moments with them along the way.
First, I want to follow up the title of “We’re debt free!” with the most important phrase of this post: to God be the glory! Eugene & I are so happy to share that we are debt free, other than our house mortgage!
Honestly, this is awkward for me to share , but I’m doing it in hopes that it might encourage someone who is aiming for debt-free too. {If that’s you, press on! You can do it too!}
How about we start with the facts, the cold-hard numbers:
I graduated college 5 years ago, Eugene 3.5. He had a little less debt than I did, but we were pretty close in amounts. I paid a few small loans off before we were married, but after the wedding, we combined accounts and incomes.
In four years of saving through college and five years of working full-time, we’ve worked to pay off almost $60k, and to God be the glory! I know a lot of people have much higher college loans, but I’m pretty proud of managing that much in only 5 years with being laid off, working starter salaries, buying a house, putting probably close to $30k cash into it {if not more}, having a baby, etc. In that last year, Eugene & I got really focused on the goal of paying these loans off. Just from August of last year to today, we paid over $38,000 towards our debt. That means that we were basically living off only one of our incomes for a year, while applying the other completely to our loans!
God is pretty awesome in the details of it all. One small example of this – for instance, we thought we had another 6 months before paying it off, but I got a bonus type of payment this month that was almost the exact amount still owed. God’s so cool.
Check this out: good ol’ Sallie Mae actually owes me! How stinkin’ fantastic is that irony!?
To a lot of people, this is probably no big deal, but to me, it’s HUGE. I’m a little leery to share all this, mainly because I don’t want it to sound like I’m bragging. This is not my doing, none of it. I will boast in the Lord. It’s purely God being the great Jehovah Jireh once again. {PS that’s my favorite name of God. You can probably guess why. :)}
I’ve mentioned our goal to pay off our college loans numerous times on this blog {here about house purchases, here when we first looked at buying a house, here when I had to keep learning how to trust God with my future, here about 2 Corinthians-type of hardships}, but I haven’t really gone into details of my personal journey with debt.I guess now is an appropriate time to share with you.
My biggest source of struggle in life - with doubt and disbelief, anger, hatred {you name it} - has always been directly tied to my large amount of college debt. I chose to attend a very expensive private college. Many, maybe even most, of my classmates didn’t have to worry about college costs thanks to their parents’ or scholarships covering their tuition {usually the former}; however, I knew going into my first day at college that I’d be bearing the full weight of any expenses from my four years at college. I volunteered a lot in high school and got solid grades which garnered me a decent scholarship, but I was still looking at a big chunk of change due for each semester.
I took out the usual college loans: the dreaded Sallie Mae, federal loans, and private loans. I met with someone in the financial aid office at least once every semester, asking if there were any unclaimed scholarship funds that I could get {surprisingly, this occasionally got me additional “free” money through small local scholarships that no one applied for.} But after every routine meeting with a financial aid officer, I distinctly remember walking to a particular secluded set of steps on campus and just flat-out bawling my eyes out at the thought of my increasing debt. I felt completely weighed down and constantly enslaved to the debt…worst feeling ever. I really struggled under the burden of knowing I owe so much money for at least 30 years after graduating. I also struggled with the whole convoluted system of needing to go deep into debt to make decent money.
As a side note, it’s important that I mention here that I don’t regret my college choice. I prayed about my choice. I priced out state schools too, and because my community service scholarship and FAFSA, which provides financial assistance according to your parents’ income {which is a total crock if you’re parents aren’t paying for you, but I understand why it’s set up the way it is} I still think I made a wise choice. My senior year of college I was blessed with leading a small Bible study with my teammates, which really confirmed my purpose for picking that university.
About a year after I graduated college, a church women’s small group I attended did a study on idols. We talked about how an idol isn’t just a gold statue you worship, but it’s actually anything that distracts you from focusing on God. Money/debt – that was my idol. God really worked on me over the last 9 years to daily give up my worry for making and saving enough money and to trust Him to take care of me. He always has. He always will. Why still worry about money? I’m glad to say that I’ve really come a long way in defeating/removing my idol. Eugene’s really helped me in that too; he’s a good saver and a wise spender, but he doesn’t let money stress him out or take over his thoughts like I have in the past.
While God was working on me internally, I was working, working, working externally too. Each time I sat on those campus steps, I prayed through my tears that God would allow me to pay off my college loans way earlier than the typical 30 year life of loans. I prayed for wisdom in my financial decisions too. So how did He provide? It’s not rocket science, it’s tons of prayer and a lot of discipline & sacrifice.
Now, Eugene and I save by buying only used cars that we can afford to pay in full at the time of purchase. We bought a foreclosed house {one we could afford on just one income} and DIY’ed anything we could to save a buck. We have the lowest/cheapest internet and pay-as-you-go cell phones. We shop for groceries at Aldi {which is cheaper than coupons for me}, pack our lunches every day, and we rarely go out to eat – especially without a coupon or gift certificate. In our four years of marriage, we’ve gone on just two vacations: our honeymoon {which God gave us a tax return check that paid for the entire trip!} and our Florida vacation {which we stayed with friends and kept expenses super low.} We open our windows lots instead of running air, we don’t buy new clothes often and when we do it’s always clearance, we shop consignment sales for kid stuff and furniture to renovate. And we don’t EVER buy anything we can’t afford at that moment. No car loans or engagement ring loans for us! We also save for our retirement, taking full advantage of employer matches…that’s free money!
I don’t necessarily follow Dave Ramsey’s method, but I really like his catch phrase “Live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else.” It’s right on. And honestly, I don’t feel like we’ve been living bad at all. I love our life style, and we’re perfectly comfortable!
I guess that’s the biggest set of tips I can give. Oh, and I think I’ll get a job at a university so my kids can go free! ;)
It’s so freeing to know that we’re out of debt, and that we’re aspiring to use the money God’s given us to bring him glory. Now that we don’t have to keep paying Sallie Mae, we can hopefully do that even more.
I’ve been waiting so long to say those three little words. Such a huge statement. A big proclamation to how awesome God is – my great provider! I’M DEBT FREE!
While this is such a huge moment for me, for us, I’d be remiss to not mention the even more significant debt that Christ paid for me. He has paid my sins. I am no longer a debtor to sin, but alive and free in Him. Thank God that I’m debt free in more ways than one! :) He is so good.
