This past Sunday, Luke and I celebrated three months of "happily ever after"! We went down to Three Rivers for church and then out for a fancy lunch and we came home and, at Luke's suggestion, watched the movie "Sleeping Beauty" (my favourite princess!) What a fun day!
A little bit after dinner, Luke ushered me upstairs because he had a surprise. I love surprises, and I walked up to our room with eyes closed, only to open them to find nothing. He had me "wait here" while he went downstairs for something. I sat and sat and after about 10 minutes I was getting bored enough to start putting away some of the clean clothes in the basket beside the closet! :)
He finally knocked on the door and had me close my eyes as he led me to our living room. I opened them when a familiar song greeted my ears - our first dance song! I turned around to find Luke dressed in the suit and tie he wore to our wedding. The room was dark, with a few candles strategically placed.
We danced.
I cried.
He held me and kissed my cheek.
Isn't this the kind of stuff that only happens in movies??? :)
When people ask me how I am enjoying marriage, how can I possibly describe moments like this? It's all I ever hoped for and more.
It's being called beautiful despite your frizzy morning hair and rather offensive breath.
It's sitting down for a rest after dinner, only to find that he's snuck back into the kitchen and washed all the dishes for me.
It's cheering him on and celebrating as he fights for and wins a better position at work.
It's falling asleep every night knowing that I am right where I belong.
God is so good!
As my first post of 2013, I wanted to talk about my "word for the year" or "one little word" as some call it. The first time I experienced this was in 2010 when my dear Auntie suggested I try it (inspired by Ali Edwards and Ann Voskamp, you can check out her "one little word" post here!)
That year was ABOUND, inspired by Paul's words to the Philippians "and this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight."
Last year I chose the word BELOVED. I chose this because I knew I was getting married in 2012, and so I thought this would be an appropriate word for that year. Little did I know what God would teach my through it. When unexpected trials and tribulations came raging through the first half of my year, God taught me to be HIS beloved before I was Luke's beloved. I was His bride first. He defines me as no one else can and when I felt worthless in the eyes of others, He would call me BELOVED.
Mid-December is the time to start thinking about your word. I missed it this year. In the midst of the busy-ness of the season, I missed it. The morning of the 31st I searched some Scripture, desperately trying to find a word to challenge myself with in 2013. But no word came.
Luke likes to read through Proverbs every month. We sit together on our couch in the mornings, and he reads me the chapter that coincides with the date. I always like when we get to the 3rd of the month because I had memorized this chapter a few years ago and it's fun to recite it while he reads. He approached and read verses 7 and 8 - "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones." And it hit me. After he left for work, I sat down and read it again and again.
NOURISH. What a beautiful word for our first full year of marriage. I will take this year to build up, to strengthen, and to grow my relationship with God and in turn my relationship with Luke. To learn what it really means to pour everything I have into another human being is what I envision for this year. And I know that God will have some twists and turns for me along the way.
Bring on 2013! :)
