My 4 Unfailing First Loves

Love.... such loaded four letter word right. Now every girl at some point in thier life imagines falling in love with the most amazing guy and riding into the sunset of course. Okay and then what? I'll tell you life sets in and drawing on my past experiences of love has helped me to build a marriage that I hope will be just as unfailing as the previous ones. So what are my 4 unfailing first loves you might ask? Number one on my first loves list is my Dad. He was the biggest, strongest, smartest man I knew. My Dad has definitely shown me how to love someone lets you down, how to lean on people when you need it, and how to love the Lord. I could never thank him enough for the wisdom he has given me over the years and how he has shown me love was an verb not a noun. We must work towards making a loving relationship work. My next first love is God, my Savior. I accepted Jesus as my Savior as a 7 year girl after a Vacation Bible School meeting at my Grandmother's house. In my relationship with God he has shown me the importance of loving someone unconditionally with no strings attached. He also taught me how to see people where they are and how to love them because that's how he loved me. He takes me each day with all my faults, attitudes and shortcomings and just loves me. That's an unfailing love that surpasses anything I could ever have with anyone else. That makes this love all the more special and life falling in love for the first time all over again. My third, first love was my husband. Now I can tell you is was not love at first sight. Don't get me wrong I was interested, but no clue that I would meet the man I would marry my senior year of high school. Fast forward 5 1/2 years and I am so in love with him. Jon has taught me how compromise even when I didn't want to, how to listen (I mean really listen!), and how to be in love without blinders. That last statement is so important. Often times we are blinded by love we don't see the relationship for what it truly is. It's hard to look at sometimes, but once you see a clear picture you can fix the problem. Hard to fix a crack with no light right? And last but not least was the first love of my son, I never understood how you could love someone with no conditions no matter what, but I do with my son. Landon teaches me patience, innonocence, and how exciting life can be. I am so blessed to have 4 instances that God has given me the experience of 4 unfailing first loves. Each one is different with it's own battles and circumstances, but they are all so very precious to me. With my husband coming home in a little over 2 weeks I am so excited to tell him just how much our marriage means to me in person. Love is a lot of hard work, but well worth it's weight in effort.

When your plate is too full

This weekend was crazy so when I finally got a breather I began to think. As mothers, daughters, co-workers, friends, sisters and every other hat we wear we get so busy. I sometimes equate my life to a thanksgiving dinner plate. How many years do we go to the Thanksgiving buffet line and say I’m just going to take a little of everything and then at the end our plate has mounds of food that we can’t finish. So many times we take a little of “everything” in our lives, a class here, a project there, a responsibility way over there. It’s so easy to take all these little things and have them create a problem bigger than us. We only have so much time in a day, week, month, and year. I love my church and one reason I love it so much is the easy to understand and practical messages our Pastor gives to us from the Bible. Each year our Pastor preaches on stewardship and one of the things that he explained to us is that God has made us stewards or managers of the time he has given us. The verse we all know so well is 1 Corinthians 4:2, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” God expects us to manage the time he gives us by balancing what we need to do, have to do, and want to do. As military spouses or anyone that finds themselves without their spouse for any length of time prioritization becomes even more important. I have found that by taking on so much with Jon gone has caused me to miss out on some things that I really need to be doing. God entrusts us with time, we need to learn to portion our plates so that we do get everything we need, and still leave space for a little bit of what we want because lets face it we all want a little dessert on our plates. That thing that we do just for us and the great thing is with God’s guidance and a little time management we can have our cake and eat it too! I suggest taking a piece of paper and folding in half. List all of your responsibilities on one side and some things that you would like to incorporate into your life. By looking for little pockets of wasted time you would be surprised what you can fit in your life. I noticed by taking my lunch break and packing something easy to eat in 10 minutes I would have 35 minutes left to study. Little things like that can save you tons of time and leave more space for the important things like reading bedtime stories and checking for monsters under the bed! So break out the planners, your plate so to speak, and start to fill. With the correct portion control you will be well on your way to a great meal, or life for that matter….

Family Matters

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but in my defense I have been super busy. I was kind of freaking out the past week when I didn't get a letter from Jon. He has been writing me pretty consistently so I thought it was strange I hadn't heard from him. Then one day after a week had past I got a letter. He's been really busy with everything down there (which I forget sometimes, hence me freaking out) and hadn't had anytime to write. He has just entered Phase Two and now we have gotten to the point where we are counting down the days instead of counting the days that he's been gone. It was at this time I am so glad to not only have one family, but three amazing families praying for me and Landon. My immediate family has been awesome during this time. My Mom is forever doing things to help and just making the burden seem lighter. I couldn't ask for a better Dad he has moved furniture for me, I've consulted him on more than one home improvement project and just been there to give me the sound advice I know Jon would be giving me if he was here. Then there are all my siblings, I have 6 of them. Three sisters (one of whom we've "adopted" from Las Vegas) and 3 brothers (Two of which had the pleasure of marrying into our wonderful family). My sisters have talked, laughed, and prayed me through these past 7 weeks. Then my brothers, they have watched out for Landon, picked him up from school, and even went with me to pick up furniture. They are awesome in so many ways and I don't know where I would be without them. Then there is my in-law family, which I hate to use because they feel to me just as much as a part of my family as anyone else. They are always supportive just calling to check on me and I love to spend time with them. Landon loves his cousins and it's nice to be with them knowing they know Jon just as well as I do. Last night we celebrated my sister in law's birthday and it was great to be in a house where kids were screaming and playing. The silence is sometimes deafening. I know that with Jon gone our house noise level has decreased considerably. It was great to feel a part of something. Not just a wife missing her husband and a son who can't wait till daddy comes home. Then last but not least is my church family. In Hebrews 10:25 the Bible says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves, together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." I can't begin to tell you the kind of support that a good church family brings. There isn't a day that goes by that someone hasn't told me that they were praying for me or Landon or Jon or all three of us! I have some great friends at my church and quite literally they keep me sane. I would probably be crying every night if it wasn't for their texts. I actually have even gained an even stronger relationship with one of the other military spouses in our church. Her husband is about to be deployed so we are both going to be without our spouses for a while. She has been a great support for me and it's great to have some one to talk to. All I'm saying is that God knew what he was doing when he created families. It doesn't matter how they came about or what you might have in common on the surface. You will always have your families back and I am so glad that I have three in my corner. It's amazing what it takes for you to be reminded, but I am so thankful that I now truly know how much family truly matters.