Here is my first blog. Woohoo, I am so proud of myself. Really, I have always left the expressing of thoughts and ideas through writing to Brian. So, this my friends, is a new day for me. And I want to embrace it.
Brian & I have chosen to live a kind of crazy life in the sense that we not only are ministers, but both of us are ministers… that’s a whole lot of ministering in one household. We are also missionaries to the university campus. For the past 5 and ½ years that has been to the university community of UCSD in La Jolla. College is such a crazy, transitional, exciting time of life. It’s one that we continually have the privilege of walking through with students who surround us every day.
With that crazy career choice there are a few things about our life together for almost 15 years now that I have noticed. A few stabilizing things that most days I take for granted and every once in a while I will stop and realize how amazing they are…truly amazing.
The first of those is our marriage. Brian & I obviously live together, work together and raise kids together. But we also counsel people together, celebrate victories together, weep with people together, SOZO together… Until kids came along we worked out 3x’s a week together. How in the world does that happen??? How do we not drive each other crazy and how in the world do we manage to get along that well?? Sometimes, when I slow down enough to look at things, I’m not even sure how it happens.
I think that a few things have helped us stay a-okay. Biological parents who although aren’t/weren’t perfect made the choice every day to stay with the one they said I do to. On Brian’s side until his dad went to be with Jesus, it was 49 years. They were approaching 50 years of marriage, just a few months shy. My parents just celebrated 50 years together.
Spiritual parents, dear Lord where would we be without them? They have spoken into our lives, into our marriage, into the hard areas that we didn’t know what to do with and continue to.
Honestly, I take how easy our relationship is together for granted until someone close to us has something come up or their marriage is on the brink of not making it. Often, it takes times like those for me to stop and realize what a crazy thing I’ve been walking in with my B for so long.
The 2nd huge comfort that I and our whole family have is our dog Yakara. She is not just any dog. She was assigned to us by Jesus. When she flew down on an airplane from the breeders we bought her from, she had a little WWJD puppy jacket on. Her breeders know Jesus and prayed about what puppy would be just right for us. They listened to Jesus so well!! I really can’t believe what tender care He gave us in a dog like her. With the amount of times we’ve moved, when the people in our daily lives has changed so often due to most being young adults she has remained consistent. Constant: a real source of love and truly uncompromising affection. She has ministered to us so much. She is approaching 11 years old and I’m believing for many more happy years with her. But we do see some signs of aging, poor thing. But here’s to her, the best dog in the world. I know many of you who have visited our home hear us constantly telling her to stop doing things. But you don’t have the privilege of seeing how she loves on us every day. She can win over the strongest cat person.
So friends, sometimes we need to slow down long enough to look around at the things that a very loving God has put in our lives that we may take for granted. He hasn’t forgotten us or our needs. He knows us better than we know ourselves and He really does delight in giving us good gifts.
