TV Night!

So It's Wednesday, which means a night of television for Steve & I. American Idol & Sons of Guns come on tonight. I must say we love both of these shows! And of course we DVR them both and start them late to avoid commercial watching! :)

I pretty much like all of the contestants on American Idol this year. I suppose the top 5 according to Mr. & Mrs. Wright are Pia, Paul, Lauren, Scotty, & Casey. That's in no particular order because it changes week to week. But Pia is pretty consistently at the top for us! And I must say we don't hate Jacob, James, & Haley. They could easily bump someone from our top 5 and make their way in! Looking forward to hearing some Elton John picks tonight!

Now if you don't know what Sons of Guns is, you are not alone. Until I got married less than a month a go I had no idea. It's about this guy who owns a gun shop in Louisiana, Red Jacket Firearms, and his staff. They basically build guns and modify guns for various customers that come in. Their customers range from a man who wanted to help a wounded soldier with only one working arm get back into hunting to the local police department. It is actually pretty interesting and I must admit I actually look forward to watching it now!

So if you have no Wednesday night television plans, I recommend you check out these 2 shows! Good shows for both husband & wife! :)

Commitment?

A good friend came over for a visit at the new house today. It was so good to hang out and have good conversation! This is something I have missed since moving to Troy. Of course I see Steve & we have good conversations with each other, but it's still important that both of use have friends we spend time with. Not trying to be one of those couples that cut themselves off from the rest of the world! :)


My friend and her husband work for a college ministry and we got on the topic of commitment. We talked about how our generation really lacks commitment. We jump from what's hype to the next thing that grabs our attention. This leaves us either jumping from one thing to the next or spread so thin among various activities without being fully committed to any of them. If we're honest, we also get selfish. When any of those activities interfere with what I find more important at the time (ie sleep, tv time, insert whatever your selfish indulgence is here) we blow it off. We could probably be defined as the generation of blowing things off.


It looks like this. I commit to a small group at church because I know God has called me to grow deeper with other Christians and have accountability. In fact, I'm really excited about being in the group & can't wait to get started. So I sign up to be a part of a group that meets to do this and has a set time every week that they meet. Let's say Monday night at 6:30. Well Monday night at 6 rolls around and I've had a long day at work, I'm tired, my house is a mess, and I'd really like to just cuddle on the couch watching tv with the new hubby. So what do I do? I blow off the small group I "committed" to for not necessarily bad things, but still I blow it off. This plays out millions of different ways everyday. I'm just as guilty as anyone.


This is a problem because being a disciple of Christ calls for commitment. Not jumping on a Christian bandwagon because it's the cool thing to do at the time, but total commitment of our lives. In fact, it is a total surrender of our lives to Him. It is a committed relationship to God. As I think about my own marriage relationship I just entered into, the vows we made were of total commitment to one another as long as we both shall live. But in this "blow it off" world we live in, even something as sacred and deep as marriage vows are blown off 50% of the time. We do the same to God. We say we want salvation. Who wouldn't want to not go to hell? But when it comes to the commitment, making Him Lord over our lives, we want to blow that part off. It doesn't work that way. Check out what Luke says...


"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?" (Luke 9:23-25)


We have to give our lives to Jesus & follow Him. Period. There is no "but I'm really busy with my job or my family" or "but I'm really tired right now" or "but I just don't feel like it." Sometimes we aren't going to "feel" like giving everyday of our lives to following Christ. In those moments we need to get alone with God, get in His word, and beg Him to work in our hearts. We need to always point ourselves back to the wonderful truth of the Gospel. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) "...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) Remind yourself that God came to this earth as a man, Jesus, and suffered and died so that we could be forgiven and have a right relationship with Him! It's the greatest news you could ever be told. It's even greater to accept it as truth and follow Jesus and be committed to it. He's so committed to us! "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6) 


I pray that God will help me to be committed to Him and His work. Help me to love others how He loves us even when I don't feel like it. Help my husband & I to have a relationship built around biblical commitment and not the lack of commitment found in the world we live in. I pray that myself and other Christians would stop "blowing things off" and commit to following Jesus! Commit to loving others as He does, commit to meeting with other believers and having accountability, and ultimately commit to loving Him above everything!

Let's get this thing going...

So I've never been a blogger, but I decided to give this a go. Several friends have done this and I suppose it is a good way to let friends and family know what is going on in the life of me and the new husband! :) I have no guarantee how long I will keep this up, but I will give it a try!


We have officially been married for 24 days, getting close to 1 month! I never thought God would bring along "Mr. Right" and he did, literally! (I apologize for the cheesiness, it's part of being a newlywed!) The wedding was so great! I can't think of anything that didn't go as we would have hoped. We are so blessed with amazing family and friends who support us! All though, I must admit it was a bit of blur and I can't wait to get the pictures to remind myself of how everything looked! We had a fabulous time in St. Lucia on the honeymoon. Here is my plug for St. Lucia, everyone should totally go there! It is gorgeous! (Pics below!)


We are now getting settled into our new home, which is what I've been spending the past couple weeks doing. I'm currently a stay at home wife and will be for a little while longer. I can't wait to get started working again, I'm definitely not the stay at home all the time type person. I'm getting a little stir crazy in the house, which could be why this blog is getting started in the first place. I have a lot of free time! All though, I have enjoyed getting the house situated (a few pics below) and making lots of meals for me and the hubby! No burnt food so far, only a burnt hand! (see lessons below)


Sometime in the next month I will start work with AIM (Abstinence In Motion). I will be going into schools teaching kids about waiting until marriage and other aspects of healthy relationships. I love this organization & cannot wait to be a part of their team!


I will end this blog with a few lessons I've learned in these first few weeks of marriage:
1) Seek AND Trust God (Sometimes it's easy to seek Him, but we then have to trust what He's saying, what He's doing, and where He's leading!)
2) Despite thinking I would not like it, I do enjoy watching "Sons of Guns" AND despite his thinking, Steve does enjoy "American Idol"
3) Do not stick your bare hand on the inside of a 450 degree oven even if you just want to sprinkle more cheese on the pizza...it's worth it to put on a mitt and take it out! :)
4) Unfortunately, I am not always right :)
5) I absolutely love being married to Steve!