Plans Derailed with a Heart On Track.

Well I'm thinking its official. I don't know about where you guys live friends, but we have winter well and truly on our hands here as of this past weekend. About 4-5 inches of snow accumulated but that didn't stop us from still going on with our weekend plans. 
Whats a little snow right? Well if you know me at all, you know I am more of a summer flip-flops year round kind of girl, so I struggle with these Midwest winters a little. Well, at least once January/February time comes around. December still finds me enjoying the powder and finding it just whimsical and beautiful with all the Christmas decorations. Like today for instance, I wanted to turn into a road that was seemingly inaccessible with several inches of snow that the plows must have conveniently forgot about. 
I just gave it a little extra gas and committed to that road friend! Just like driving on sand I tell ya, with the rule of commit and don't second guess or that car is going to sink right in leaving you with wheels spinning all the brown slush underneath several feet into the air while you turn shades of roses. 


But weather aside, I totally apologize for being distant on this little space here.
Thing is that I have been praying big prayers, watching big answers and dreaming some big dreams. All the while having the Holy Spirit work on some deep dark corners of my heart and clean out some junk. So its been a ride I tell ya. 


I finally deposited my last check into my bank account today before being able to purchase my flights to Hope Spoken! Friends, this is huge! I went into planning on attending in total faith that somehow I would be able to raise the money through my little not-so-heard-of store (see here). And He provided! 
Of course now I have a familiar nudge about another event happening in June which I am praying about attending, more details on that in future. But it would be a dream come true to be able to set foot in that part of the world and meet a woman who has inspired me for years, ever since I was a young girl trusting the Lord to write a romance story in my own life someday. All the while watching my photography take off (another dream in the making), contemplating re branding this little space here and dreaming of a bigger online project that will take a bunch of planning before launching. So its a wild crazy but beautiful ride over here friends! 


Even though December can be one of those crazy busy seasons, I am glad that this year we have just decided to keep things simple. We have totally decorated minimally in our cute but small apartment. Kept the gifts to a minimum this year (I also started at the end of summer so we wouldn't be in panic mode with finding things for our loved ones and stretching our budget beyond reason), and decided that Christmas morning is just going to be us, in our little home as our own little family. And I like that. A whole lot.



This will be our fourth Christmas together as a married couple, but our first without going to spend it with family for the entire day. And friends, I'm excited! We had other plans which were totally derailed this year, but I'm seeing how better my focus is now I don't have to worry about travelling. The hubby and I have been reading through the She Reads Truth Advent plan every night and my heart is just bursting in the best possible way at the excitement of the upcoming celebration of the arrival of our Savior. 


So even if your plans aren't what you pictured for this year, remember that often times the Lord has different plans for us and that's totally ok. He always has our best interests in mind, and this year I am glad He made us slow down and really just focus on Him. Because isn't that the whole point. It really doesn't matter how pretty the house looks, how perfect the gifts are or how amazing the food tastes (although those are all great things). Its about that little baby and all He stands for. 


With all the love of this girl with a bursting heart in awe of grace. 

The day I finally get all my finances in place, this little piece of mail arrives. Lord, your fingerprints are ALL over this! 

//The Courtship//

Well since I have kept you waiting long enough friends, here is the next part.
(For Disclaimer see Here, Part 1 Click Here, Part 2 Click Here) 
I highly recommend reading the previous parts first! 


What a journey. 


I felt like Abraham arriving at this moment asked to surrender his son. About to kill his dream completely, surrendering His will & trusting the Lord completely. Only to find the Lord was just testing me.
Just purifying my love for Him above any other relationship in my life.
Making sure this guy was no longer an idol. 


I received that email about A prayerfully considering starting a relationship with me & started praying about what I should do. 
I was now able to see clearly and wanted to make sure this was a guy I wanted pursuing me. Did I really think he was someone I could marry someday?
After much time with the Lord (it was probably several weeks or months of surface level talking through emails and occasional Skype call) I felt the light was green.


So I proceeded with caution.


I say that because there was still a significant amount of time before marriage was a possibility. So we both felt it was important to do this wisely, with a time frame in mind rather than heading full-on towards marriage within in a short period of time (which is totally appropriate in some situations). 
So we carefully started to get to know each other again as friends first. 
Because I lot had happened in those transitions, a lot of growth and we wanted to know if we still thought of each other as highly as we had. 

We restricted our conversations for quite some time, several topics were off limits completely. There was no talking about the future initially (for instance no dreaming together about what our babies would look like, what our wedding should be like). 
Even though we were trying to figure out if marriage was for us, A did a great job of guarding our conversations to keep my heart from completely going full force ahead and planning our wedding in those initial days lol! 
We also didn't talk every day to slow that emotional intimacy. 


Don't hear me say we were perfect, because that is far from the truth. 
There are still things I would have done differently looking back. But we were at least trying to be wise, trying to decipher if the Lord was leading us to marriage but also not hinder where for the time being He had placed us, me in England and A here in the Midwest. 
(For instance, it may have been helpful for us not to have talked late at night, when we were tired it was easier to let our guard down about the emotional intimacy. However we did have a 5hr time change to consider and with both of us in school, it was sometimes impossible to avoid. But it would have been helpful to have known this weakness. So perhaps in hindsight, if I were considering courting/dating I would instead avoid those late night conversations entirely.)


But there is grace. 


After about 7 months of getting to know each other again, we finally decided it was time to spent time together in person. A invited me to spend New Years with his family back in the place we had originally met and grown up together. 
It was familiar, but new all at the same time. 
It was a sweet time of getting to know A's family more. 


Following that there was another trip to the States the summer that followed and then Christmas with my family the following year. 


It was a slow process. Sometimes I wish it could have been faster as I found myself falling in love with this man, but it was still restricted by distance and college.
Which allowed us to trust the Lord for His timing and not ours. 

(Please let me know if I am leaving things out you would like to know more about friends! Either comment below or email me: allgloriouswithinblog@gmail.com)

P.S. Disclaimer - I used the word courtship in the title because I felt that it had more meaning about the purpose behind the relationship. I am by no means apposed to 'dating' I feel those two words are just words. I just wanted to make it clear there was a purpose to the dating. Plus it sounds like something from Jane Austin haha! 

This post is part of my 31 day series for the month of October, 
fighting through the fears and sharing the confusing passions I have. 
Hoping to figure out the bigger picture of all these interests. 

//The Fear of a God-Written Love Story//

Earlier this year, I started sharing our love story. Rather God's story in bringing us together. It really is truly written by Him, not one I could have ever dreamed up on my own. 
(For the first part see here)


You may be wondering how this is relevant to exploring passions and figuring out those pieces. Well one thing I am passionate about is trusting the Lord for the provision of your future spouse. Trusting Him that if He has planned marriage for you in order to glorify Him, He will bring it about in a perfect way only He can. We don't need to date a ton of frogs to find that earthly prince. (While we need to hold onto that dream, we may also need to hold onto our realistic picture of marriage with the other hand....but that's for another time) 
There are so many ways we can actively be trusting, I don't believe that this is an entirely passive process. But it is one that we need to be willing to surrender.  
So I am dusting off these posts I hid under the bed and pulling them out, its time to be fearless and trust God!


While I so see the Lord's fingerprints in the story of how we met and eventually got married, it is also one of the hardest ones for me to share. Part of me, I think, is believing the lies again when it comes to this part of my life. You see, having a heart for purity & singleness for so long, I struggle with gratitude at times over this gift of marriage. I struggle with no longer feeling able to reach those girls with whom I used to have an amazing connection based on my relationship status. Whom I used to be able to encourage, because I was single. 


I really am SO thankful for this story the Lord scripted for us, but I struggle to share it even despite its beauty. I worry that there will be a young woman reading who will suddenly find herself discontent in her waiting & gift of singleness. That by my sharing our joy, she will suddenly feel longing instead of contentment. That my sharing will be misinterpreted for boasting or 'rubbing it in.' 
(The Lord has really been speaking to me about not trying to control the reactions of others, to be encouraging, sensitive and above reproach, but to just trust Him and just be obedient!) 


So very slowly (I did start writing this in March!) He has led me to now believe that by writing this precious story for you friends, is more like sharing a gift. 
It is part of encouraging those girls who are dear to my heart. 
It is one that speaks hope into the lives of young girls. It shows that precious love stories do very much exist they are in all the lives of those who find themselves married. That by my attitude of ingratitude toward this story, I am without intending to saying to God I don't want this gift of marriage. Which is far from the truth. 


So while it is unlikely that your own story looks or might someday look anything like ours, 
I will share to praise our heavenly Father. 
To share that He is good and to show proof that He hears our prayers and heart's desires. Never doubt that! 


I pray for you sweet friend. 
That you are able to see love stories as God's reminder of how He is capable of writing one for you.
You are not forgotten by Him. 
(I felt that way when friends around me were marrying.)
So out of obedience and nothing else, I will share to encourage you ladies....but before I do I want to remind you that this is a far cry from the greatest love story in my life. 
(Which my sweet hubby is well aware of! And fully supportive of!) 
Because this story I will embark on telling (while shaking with fear) only flourished and continues to do so, by seeking my first Love. 


Only when I am seeking my prince's face to fill me am I capable of showing grace to the One He has given me to serve Him & do life with. 
I am a sinner. I married a sinner.

But through both of us seeking Him, God is able to make something beautiful out of the mess.
   

'Proud people are concerned with being respectable, with what others think; they work to protect their own image and reputation. Broken people are concerned with being real; what matters to them is not what others think but what God knows; they are willing to die to their own reputation.




Proud people find it difficult to share their spiritual need with others.

Broken people are willing to be open and transparent with others as God directs.

Proud people want to be sure that no one finds out when they have

sinned; their instinct is to cover up.

Broken people, once broken, don’t care who knows or who finds out; they

are willing to be exposed because they have nothing to lose.'




(Via)

This post is part of my 31 day series for the month of October, 
fighting through the fears and sharing the confusing passions I have. 
Hoping to figure out the bigger picture of all these interests. 

//The Relevance of Purity after 'I Do'//

Well yesterday I discovered that purity is even a bigger passion of mine than I thought, did you see the quantity of content here, its enough to fill an entire book!! Who knows right! 
I have been giving it so much thought the last two days, how purity is so a part of our everyday lives, a lifestyle.
Still relevant even once we say 'I Do' to a man here on earth. 


It is something I have struggled to write about after getting married a few years ago. But the Lord continued to lay purity on my heart, He has really been showing me just how relevant it still is in my everyday life even now. Not just for my single days.


I really dislike that there is a divide at times between single girls & married girls. That somehow our marital status means we can't relate to each other. Because no matter where we find ourselves we are always in amazing positions to encourage one another. 
I have often been uncomfortable mentioning this as many times girls have assumed that since I am married, I shouldn't have anything to say about it. 


But its funny, because purity is as much of a battle once married as it is while single. 
There is so much more to it that just saving yourself physically for marriage. Remaining pure and keeping your focus on your husband is still be a challenge once married. The ring doesn't remove the temptations.  We still battle keeping a pure thought life, being faithful, being tempted by online content and even battling our view on sex as now a gift instead of an evil thing to avoid at all costs. 


I don't know now that I would say the battle for purity is any easier the other side of the wedding. It is just different, which is why as ladies we need each other regardless of our relationship status. If we share convictions on purity and loving the Lord, we need to spend time together, get to know each other and pray for one another. 
It is a battle best fought together. Walking both sides these past few years, I realise how much we miss by not having close friendships with each other because we would rather relate to those in a similar life situation. 


So I hope that by sharing our love story in the next few days, whether you are single or married, you will be encouraged. I pray that you will see the Lord's hand in it and be reminded that He doesn't forget any of us, He is fully capable of scripting a beautiful love story in your life if you are single & that is part of His plan for you. And if you are married, I hope you are reminded of your own beautiful story written specially for you by our Loving Father. 

This post is part of my 31 day series for the month of October, 
fighting through the fears and sharing the confusing passions I have. 
Hoping to figure out the bigger picture of all these interests. 

//Purity//

There is a huge puzzle piece for me when it comes to things I'm passionate about for the topic of purity. The Lord began working on my heart in this area when I was in high school. And it was totally Him and His grace alone that enabled me to walk through HS without dating, kissing a bunch of guys and other things as I didn't feel strongly about any of it before I started my freshman year. 


In fact, I felt the opposite. 


I didn't go to a small private christian school, and I wasn't homeschooled. So by a very young age, my peers were dating. That was normal in our school environment. Hormones heightened through high school and most of them were sexually active by the end of high school (maybe even before). 


I thank God for our youth pastor who felt led to run a True Love Waits program during my sophomore year of High School. He spoke truth into my life on how to view marriage & dating and how the Bible is not an old irrelevant book that has nothing to say about what happens in our relationships. 
I will add that I definitely didn't go into high school planning on sleeping around. In fact one of the few convictions I had decided on at a young age was that I planned on saving sex for marriage. I just didn't decide on much in between about dating, kissing or other physical activity in relationships. I realise now how incredibly naive I probably was in that decision and could have been easily persuaded to let it go altogether. 


I realise I should probably finish writing the love story that the Lord has graciously written into my life so far because it has his fingerprints all over it how He convicted a girl who planned on dating, to a girl who would only date someone she would potentially marry, to one who decided that dating is probably better saved for when it was possible to actually be married. And how my desire to be kissed turned into saving my first kiss for our wedding day.  And so many other decisions in my life that were transformed to live a life of purity. 


Friends, I can't take much credit for these decisions. 
This area is the biggest showcase of grace I can see to date in my life. 
This was entirely the Lord transforming my life to reflect His glory! 
Without Him, I am pretty sure my pathetic effort to remain a virgin would have disappeared somewhere around the age of sixteen along with my peers. 
It was and still is grace alone. 


Instead I know the exact date these convictions started being worked into my heart. Because they were engraved on a simple ring gifted to me by my parents when I signed a pledge to seek purity instead as a result of the obedience of my youth pastor. That ring now sits on my sweet husband's ring finger serving as his wedding ring. 


Over the course of the years that followed, God would really impress on me so many things related to purity. 

(Grab a cup of coffee and explore some of these topics if you have time.) 

Loving your husband all the days of your life. 
The Lord hears those Heart's Desires.
Saving my First Kiss for the Altar.
Trusting When God Says No. 
Choosing to share in the Joy of Others.
Our First Love.
So much more than Singleness.
Contentment.
Loneliness.
The Gift of A Journal of Letters on your Wedding Night.
Identity.
Lies we Tell Ourselves.
We are Commanded to not envy others, but seek contentment where God has us. 
Finding our Worth. 
Cultivating a Quiet Spirit. 
Allowing God to Satisfy (Changing my heart on dating & Kissing)
Purity & the Proverbs 31 Woman. 
Extending Grace to Others.
Choosing Contentment. 
Life on God's Timing.
The Power of Words (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4)
Dating Once Married.
Made to Shine. 
Run to Jesus.
Appreciate Your Husband's Counsel.
Loving Each Other. (Relationships In General)
Wherever You Are, Be All There.

I apologize there's enough content for a book here, I did mention this is a huge part of me at the beginning :) 

This post is part of my 31 day series for the month of October, 
fighting through the fears and sharing the confusing passions I have. 
Hoping to figure out the bigger picture of all these interests. 

The ever-continuing Life Lesson.

I love this idea. I saw Kerrie write about it today and headed over to see what it was all about. The idea of writing every day for September. Not realistic at this point in life unfortunately but I love the idea of it. Since I had planned to share a little more personally today, I went ahead and went with today's prompt.

Blogtember Day 3. Pass on some useful advice or information you learned and always remembered. 

I don't know that I would necessarily call it advice, more like something I have learned am learning. I don't know that I can classify it as something I always remember, but its something I hope to always remember.

I saw myself learning it when I first got to college and experienced heartache (more on that soon I promise, but here's what came before). I found myself falling flat on my face before a choice right after I was married. Then last year it was on my heart a few times here and here. There was a choice to be made, to choose to dwell on things and allow myself to fixate on what had been taken away from me by the Lord, or the choice to trust that He knows what He is doing, even when I think I know better.   

To choose contentment with where He has me.

I really do believe it is a choice. We won't overnight become those pretty girls that always look so happy, whose lives seem to be perfect in all the ways we hope for. The ones we see living our very own dreams. We all too easily fall into the habit of comparison and longing (I know I can!).
But I am beginning to think that each of us makes this choice daily. No-one's life is perfect, as evidenced by pop culture today and those in our generation that may have everything the world tells us we need. Money doesn't buy happiness, popularity doesn't seem like all its made out to be and trends soon die out before most of us may even be on board with what is currently 'in.'

But we can choose to be thankful. To embrace what the Lord has blessed us with and given to us, even for a season. Even if we are in the midst of a rough season, thankful He has given us a season of clinging to Him.

So I think the only information I would pass along today friends, is that. Contentment is a choice, one I am always trying to work towards. I know I always need a little more practice.
But somewhere in between the practice of rejoicing with others, seeking God's heart for others and crying out to Him when needed....I hope to learn it fully.

Contentment. 

Passion in Brokenness.

Honestly, its been a hard season year over here. Lots of tears, battles fought, with some won and some taking every ounce of strength I have and then some. Thankfully through it all there has been a lot of refining, growth and holding onto the Lord with everything I have. So I can't really complain about the process. Anything which brings me closer to Him with a daily drive to be in His presence is worth all the pain. 

Being married has been a blessing in so many ways, yet in others I have found it extremely hard. I have this bad habit of caring deeply what other people think of me. Often allowing their opinions to define who I think I am and not the Lord. And its been a hard year for learning to let go of approval from others. From not being ashamed of where the Lord has taken me in life, how He has orchestrated certain things and how I met my husband young. 

I started sharing our love story here. Then I stopped, to be honest I almost completely dropped out of the blogging community all together not long after. Many things factored into this happening. But one of which was feeling the desire to hide. You see, I grew up with a deep heart for purity and waiting. For waiting on the Lord's timing for romance and wanting to encourage single young women to fall in love with Him and trust Him to work out the rest. I had a lot of friendships formed with that common ground. 

It was a beautiful season in my life. 

Then I got married.

 And I was ashamed to talk about this beautiful story the Lord had written in my life. I didn't want to make other girls feel bad about where the Lord had them. I wanted to still encourage them to keep waiting and trusting, now knowing that what He had whispered to my young heart about trusting Him was completely true! 

But I began to allow this to rob me of the joy He has given me with where I am now.

It has been a hard few years understanding why the Lord gave me a passion for Waiting and Purity, then bringing my husband to me at a young age. I can't begin to understand what it feels to be a late-20 something single girl who is struggling with loneliness and longing for an earthly prince. Yet my heart breaks, because my heart is minister to you, friend. To reach out and assure you that it will be ok. That the Lord does have beautiful plans for each one of us, we are just never sure what those plans are until we are the other side.

{Via}

I am still not sure how He will continue to use me with this passion. Whether it will change into a passion for something else completely or if He will continue to use me in small ways in this area. I have no idea what the Lord is doing to be honest. 

Something I would appreciate your prayer for, friends!

I had started writing here sharing thoughts on purity, waiting and loving the Lord. I still think these are totally relevant. I also feel at a crossroads of Him doing something bigger and moving forward, I just can't yet see what that is. So maybe there are big changes ahead for this little space as I pray, listen and hope to follow His leading.

In the meantime, I am resting in the assurance that God is good. 

He is gracious and loving. 

Understanding the longings of my heart even I can seem to understand 

(or explain). 

I am so thankful to sit in His presence when my poor husband is not sure how to help because I don't understand how this passion is still so present in my current life situation.

And my heavenly prince gets it. He understands what I'm feeling and probably smiles knowing what is on the other side of the crossroad. 

In the meantime I hope to continue encouraging you ladies, sweet friends. Even in all the rambling and brokenness from this girl. Thankyou for being gracious with me as I have not replied to emails or taken forever to do things. 

You show me Christ daily and I am so thankful. 

Much Love!

L

Girl Behind the Blog - Your Non-Blogging Passion

The Girl Behind The Blog- Your Non-Blogging Passion

Time limit: Vlogs should be 2-3 minutes long

What topic could get you talking for hours, if someone asked you to share?

What are your hobbies and passions that you might not talk about often on your blog?

Is there a reason you shy away from sharing this passion on your blog?

Things have been SO crazy over here for us this week.

But we finally have our new place all lined up for next month woop woop! 

Which we signed a year long lease for. So I'm thankful that even though we will be seeing boxes around here again really soon, after this month I hopefully won't see any for a while! =) 

So with that said, I am a little late linking up this week to the Girl Behind the Blog video linkup.

I apologize for my messy I-just-played-softball-after-church hair and would love it if you guys would check out my purpose project happenings with the Mocha Club which I talk about as one of my passions in the vlog.

It is what I am ALL about this month! As I am SO desperately passionate about providing for three orphans, but I need your help! 

So awesome the way this topic tied in so nicely with the goings-on for April round here!

Project Introduction

Sharing a Little More

>>Donate Here<<

Love you guys and can't wait to go see all the other videos now.

I purposely didn't watch any before making mine so that I could honestly answer the questions haha!

Much Love!

L

A Love Story. Maybe its Ours. Part 1.

I don't know about you guys, but I really feel like I should be having  more girly evenings. Just this desire to sit down with girly magazines, do eat others hair, watch a girly movie or even just hang out and talk. Perhaps its because I've done a bunch of hanging with the hubby and some of his friends lately. Or maybe just that I'm more of a girly girl than I thought I was haha. Or just that I'm in desperate need of a manicure ;)

I'm not sure if this should become a weekly thing too. A girly night here in this little space. Wouldn't it be awesome if the comments section became like a chatting place. Sorry dreaming moment there.

As you can probably tell I get these random dreaming moments or moments of inspiration as I like to call them. 

Anyway, just wondering if you guys had any suggestions on topics for girly evenings? Things you want to talk about together? And I say that cause I would love to talk with you guys and not at you guys too :) 

I felt the desire to share our love story for the first time this evening. And if you were here, I would probably pull out the scrapbooks ;)

Not sure how far I'll get but I will go ahead and start. I've been meaning to share for a while how God scripted our story and just haven't got to it. 

So if you're at a point in life where this won't be encouraging, feel free to stop reading here.

I don't want to discourage anyone, I just want to share how the Lord brought us together to praise His goodness in that and to encourage those of you who are waiting, that God does hear us when we pray and write beautiful love stories.

(I will add that obviously this is all from my point of view, 

for A's version....well I guess you'd have to ask him.....)

So here's possibly why I put this off haha! Because in my opinion, the story starts here.

In the awkward pre-teen new girl stage. I had just moved from another country where I had been really comfortable. I had been in a school I loved and had a group of friends who I was close to, then we moved. And not like one of your few hours away kind of moves, but more like a different part of the world, new continent type of move. So there was no possible chance I was going to see these friends on a regular basis, if ever again. Time took my group of friends to literally the four corners of the globe, so you get the idea haha. 

So I had just moved to this new place and the new church we started going to had an Awana club, including a Jr high group. So my sister and I started going and there we met some pretty cool people. Many of whom we would grow up with of the next few years.

One of which was this guy:

(Totally asked his permission before posting btw)

And yeah, well I will confess that even at thirteen. I liked him. He seemed like a nice guy, not that we were going to date or anything like that. But lets just say I totally had a crush on him back then. 

So if you skip several awkward years of being friends, me having a bit of a crush on him. But never knowing each other that well as he was homeschooled and I went to school, we only saw each other at Awana. Then we also went to youth group together, having several of the same friends. It wasn't as though there were many kids our age. 

So my last year of high school and the year after (I took a gap year after high school), we hung out with our friends and started to get to know each other well.

Mutually liking what we saw in the other person.

I had begun praying about what I wanted in a husband someday when I was sixteen. I also began reading several books like I kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris, When God Writes Your Love Story by Eric and Leslie Ludy, but didn't really have any idea at this point what to do with dating. A's parents had thought a lot about those things beforehand and really advocated no dating in high school. And looking back I am so glad they shared their wisdom with us. 

(I would highly recommend those books, even if you don't agree with everything...they are worth reading and make you think! I would also advocate while in high school figuring out what your thoughts on about dating before you meet a guy you like!)     

I knew A when I wrote what I was looking for in a husband, but we weren't super close. In fact I had several other crushes in between meeting him and really liking him by the end of high school :)

So by the end of high school I pulled that list back out and his character was a lot like what I had been praying for, not 100% perfect though. 

After all we were still incredibly young and both planned on going to college.....in different countries. 

But by this point, we liked what we saw in each other and weren't sure what to do about it.

It was suggested to us, that because we were getting so close with no intention of being able to be engaged or marry anytime soon, that we stop talking on leaving for college in different countries. Instead just trusting that if the Lord wanted the two of us together, He would make that clear. So that we wouldn't continue to make something work that was never intended for where we were at in life. 

And I am SO glad we did. 

So summer before college, I said goodbye to my best friend, maybe for good.

Praying and trusting that God knew what He was doing, even if we didn't have a clue.

A few hours after the picture was taken, he got on a plane heading to the states to go to college.

I stayed home for the summer with multiple adventures (stories for another time) then headed to England in the fall for college.

But I might stop there for this evening friends! 

A Girly Night.

Hey Friends,
Lets grab a cup of coffee together this evening, or tea, or if like me you are still experiencing some winter evenings, how about some hot cocoa? Snuggle up in your PJs too if you like. I would encourage you to grab a blanket and curl up on our couches round the fireplace. I'm curled up by the fireplace this evening thinking of you girls sitting with me discussing our favorite movies, hanging out, sharing our hearts and having a fun evening together.

After hearing how each of your days were, I know we would move on to sharing deeper things, I am sure the topic of purity would come up at some point. And being married I'm sure so many of you wonder why I am still focused on it. But I still love talking about it, its something so close to my heart. Its totally something we think about while waiting for that special someone right? It's keeping ourselves pure before marriage, saving ourselves for that one guy. Anyway, you get that lots of times we associate purity with singleness. 

God has really been showing me since I got married that it is so much more than all that. He has been showing me more and more that it goes beyond the wedding day. 

Since this could be our first girl night together, I'm going to back up a little before going into a talk about purity after marriage as there are probably some background things about me you would want to know. I grew up in a christian family for starters, so I heard about God and His love for me at a young age. I also did a Purity program (True Love Waits) in high school and made the decision to save sex for marriage. My parents even gave me a ring engraved with the date I made the commitment showing their support of my decision. After completing high school the Lord really gave me a deeper heart for purity, only by His grace did I make it through high school having never been physical with a guy, because for the majority of it, I was still figuring out what I thought about purity and waiting. Now I will honestly tell you, I really believe that saving yourself for marriage is a wise decision, for obvious physical reasons and emotional reasons. I really believe that God shows us that the best plan for us is to wait until marriage to fulfill our physical desires.

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

1 Cor 7:2

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

1 Cor 6:13

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.

1 Cor 10:8

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-20

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor....

1 Thessalonians 4:2-4

Such verses really convict me on these thoughts. 

For years I also loved the Rebecca St. James song Wait for Me and had it as my ringtone for through college. The Lord really worked on my heart showing me that I needed to trust Him to bring the right guy into my life at the right time. It was hard. I am sure so many of you are in that stage right now, and friend I wish I could give you a huge hug as we sit round our fireplace talking. And encourage you, to keep pursuing God and His wonderful plans for you.  
Those years were some of the most difficult years of my life, but so so precious. I'm not just saying that, I've been there and I know its true. Intimacy with Jesus was such a part of that waiting period for me. Just moments of learning how to sit in His presence and enjoy being with Him. 
Waiting on His timing for romance, learning that relationship with Him is a beautiful romance.

I remember journaling at midnight the night before my birthday freshman year.
How precious it is now to look back and realise the intimacy that was forming in my heart for my king. Being able to celebrate my birthday with Him first was so special to me.

Despite all the unknowns and the wonderings of who the Lord had for me. The desires in my heart for a guy to someday pursue me and love me. I look back now on those years joyfully, and hope to encourage you dear friends in that way. Because I see how precious they were.

I see that God used them to show me that He wanted my whole heart. 
How by trusting Him, I learned to love Him even more. 
Because He was so faithful & trustworthy.

Those are the thoughts I would share with you this evening friend wherever they find you. Whether married with small children and so so tired, newly married and confused about where life is going or single and waiting. Purity is for each one of us. Purity begins with intimacy with our prince. 

Love you friends!

L

P.S. I really want to have another girly night soon.