I hear wedding bells!

Yes, you read that right! There is going to be a wedding in the family!! My oldest brother Erik is going to married to Patty, a lovely girl who lives just down the road from him in Kentucky. Over the past two years since Erik moved, they have become very good friends, and Erik has found her family to be a "second family" to him long before he pursued Patty. Her older brother is his best friend, and he has a close relationship with the whole family. For a long time, however, there were a lot of reasons why the two of them being together didn't seem like it could ever be a possibility. God, in his sovereignty, held off the relationship until they were ready, and now it has flourished into something beautiful. They truly have become best friends.

Erik Ryan and Patricia Machell

I knew he was planning on proposing and I've been waiting eagerly to write this post, but the proposal itself caught all of us off guard! He was planning something closer to Christmas, but then changed his mind as Thanksgiving approached, since we were having her whole family in our home for Thanksgiving. Our family likes to go around the table and say what we're thankful for after the dinner, and so he confided only in our mom and they "conspired" to have him sit with Patty in a little bench, last in the line-up giving thanks.

"Beloved, I must know: will you marry me??"

When his turn came, he told us that God has brought a lot of change to his life the past year and that he'd like to read a poem he wrote for this occasion. At this moment her sister and I looked at each other with wide eyes and jaws dropped! As he began the poem, he spoke of God's work in his life and other things, so we lost our suspicion. But then the poem changed direction and spoke of her. At the end he got down on one knee, lifted up the ring, and ended with the final line, "Beloved, I must know: will you marry me?"

These are courtship pictures - they courted for just five weeks before engagement!

Well, she said yes of course. And now we're all talking of weddings and such! Soon I will have a sister (in-law). How amazing! I am so thankful that God has given me such a brother and such a sister-to-be.

They can't seem to get enough of looking at each other!

And here are some pictures of just the bride-to-be.

And some cute faces!

Congratulations Erik and Patty! :)

Infinite Love

Oh my goodness! I haven't posted in a very long time! Silly ol' me. Life has been so busy this summer, and I've just gotten kind of lazy about it, I guess. I think it's time for a fresh start - in many ways.

The busyness of the summer has required me to suppress some emotional and spiritual issues for a long time, which caused them to enlarge under the surface. This week they finally emerged. My heart has been disquieted by numerous fears for far too long. Mainly, I've been afraid of rejection and not having control. Those fears fears which have so seized my heart have displayed themselves in many ways... I have been afraid of being ugly, not having enough talent and aptitude, being rejected by people who love me, not having a "likable" personality, etc. You get the point. Quite honestly, I haven't trusted in God's unfailing grace and have not allowed Him to keep me in perfect peace. Fixing my eyes on myself, I have forgotten what my life is all about. It's all about Jehovah, my Savior! He is my Rock, my Lover, my Friend, my Father, my Redeemer, and my Joy. He is my life! Oh, how foolish it is to worry about not being lovable; that's the whole point! If I could gain favor with God by my own works, there would be no gospel. Christ died for my sin, because I could never earn favor with God on my own. Additionally, if I could "earn" grace, it wouldn't be grace! I am nothing but a totally depraved sinner, and that is why the gospel is such good news. the Lord Jesus loves me - though I do not deserve even a smidgen of His love - and has given His life to save me! Since I never earned His love to begin with, I can never "un-earn" it by not being good enough. He took the penalty for my sin, and placed on me infinite value. I am now adopted by the infinite God of the galaxies, and I am a co-heir with Jesus Christ! What incredible news! Can I get an amen?!

A Passionate Romance

"Love is here, love is now, love is pouring from His hands, from His brow. Love is near, it satisfies, streams of mercy flowing from His side." (Love is Here - Tenth Avenue North)

Wow, those lyrics are so true! In light of Valentine's Day, I thought it would be apropos to write a post about love.

All too often, we look for love from other people; girls are especially guilty of this. And, as Christians who are striving to remain pure for the person we will someday marry, it's easy to act like love is something that's in the future.

Love is not somewhere, someday. It's here; it's now. Jesus Christ is the only one who can satisfy us.

"Why are you looking for love? Why are you still searching, as if I'm not enough? To where will you go, child? Tell me, where will you run?" (By Your Side - Tenth Avenue North)

Jesus loves us. Yes, it's true! He loves you more than you can imagine. He gave up everything for you. Even though we are, by nature, God-hating, selfish, and wicked, God chose to love us and sacrifice everything for us. But His love has one condition. "But," you say, "I'm nothing, I'm a failure. I can't meet any conditions!"

Well, read on. His one condition is this: You must hope in Him. That's it! You must reject any other hope, any other pursuit of love, security, wealth, power, or anything else, and place all of your hope in Him. He is the only hope of salvation, love, and joy. If you cling to Him as the only way to save you from your sins, repenting of all of our sins, rejecting all that is contrary to His word, He will adopt you as His child. He will betroth you as His perfect bride. You will no longer be condemned, and sin will no long have any power over you.

And this isn't some distant, mystical love. Having a relationship with Him is a day by day, hour by hour, intimate romance. If we really believed He was our lover, how would our lives be different? We would daydream about Him. We would laugh with Him. We would talk about Him. We would tell Him everything, and listen with delight to everything He tells us. We would pour over His love letter to us, memorizing it, obsessing over it. We would be so much more joyful!

That's my challenge to you today. Treat Him as you would treat a lover.

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness(alone with Him!), and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there(blessings/tokens of affection), and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt(Coming out of Egypt = Being freed from sin/salvation). And it shall be, in that day," Says the LORD, "That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’ for I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals (idols/sins), and they shall be remembered by their name no more... I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in loving-kindness and mercy;" (Hosea 3: 14-17, 19) (All of the words in parentheses were added by me, for clarification.)

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day, everyone! I pray that you will have an every growing, passionate romance with the Lord.

Some thoughts on God's love and my life :)

Hello all! God has been SO good to me lately. This week I have been growing so much in Him. I've been learning about just how much he loves us.

I think that too often we get into a mindset of thinking, "Okay, if I can just do this right... if I can just do the right thing, obey God... THEN God will love me and be pleased with me." That is just not the case! God loves us SO, SO much!! His love is not dependent on our works! Song of Solomon describes God's perfect love for us... "You have ravished my heart, My sister, my spouse; You have ravished my heart With one look of your eyes, With one link of your necklace." (Song of Solomon 4:9) Put into modern terms, God says "You make my heart beat faster... I LOVE it when you look to me!" WOW!! Do you get what that's saying? God doesn't just think, "Well, yes, I guess I'll forgive you... I'll be good to you and answer your prayers just because I'm good, even though you're a loser, even though you stink, and even though I can't stand you..." Not at all! He is in love with us. Take a look at a newly married couple... they can't get enough of each other! They are obsessed with each other, really! They love to make each other happy! That is how God feels about us! Isn't that amazing?! We can't comprehend how much God loves us. It is SO wonderful! We don't have to be discouraged by our sins, or by how difficult life is, because God will always be faithful, and will always do us good!

On a somewhat different note, let me tell you what I've been up to lately! I have been really busy with school. I start at about 8:30 in the morning, take an hour for lunch, and get done around 4:30 most days. Some days though, like today and yesterday, are much busier! Yesterday I got to go shopping! I went to Salvation Army and Second Impressions - two second hand stores. :) Salvation army is a donation store, so it has lots of junk mixed in with a few nice items. But, if you look hard enough, you can get some great clothing for hardly any cost at all! I got lots of nice skirts and shirts there. Second Impressions is a consignment shop, so the prices are a little higher but the clothes of beautiful! I got a pair of nice, modest pants for $9 in excellent condition! Today has been busy also. I had a full school day, plus piano and voice lessons. It has been a wonderful day - I am so thankful that I get to have music lessons! It's getting late though, and I still have some school to do, so I'd better get off! ;) Thanks for taking the time to read! :)

Shelter amid the chaos

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't written much these past few weeks. I actually intended to write about more things than snowboarding in my last post, but I ran out of time. I guess now I'll have to double time to catch you up! I will summarize though; it won't be too long. :)

Saturday, 1/9 - Sunday, 1/10
My wonderful friend friend, Vicki, came over! Although Christmas was already over, we wanted to make a gingerbread house, so we did! We got a gingerbread house kit at Wal-Mart for a couple of dollars; it was on sale because Christmas was already over. We had a hilariously awesome time putting it together! We made a mess! After a lot of messy, fun work and lots of laughing, we were finished. Amazingly, we didn't destroy anything in the process. ;-) It looked creative and adorable. We watched Fireproof (a GREAT movie!) and then went to sleep.
The next day we went to the morning church service together. After it was finished we went home and had lunch, and then Vicki went home. We had a great time!

Tuesday, 1/12
Psalm 37 is such a great chapter! God is so incredibly good to us! Although we are sinners, He still continually takes us back. If not for Him, I would be nothing! I love Him so much!

Thursday, 1/14
Yay! Another Thursday! That means more snowboarding for me. :) The sun was shining cheerfully, the air was warm, and it was a fantastic day! Excitedly, we threw on our snow gear and went out to enjoy the day. I rode with my friend, Courtney, for most of the day. It was nice to have such a sweet friend to go with! Talking and riding with her was a lot of fun.
My lesson was at four o'clock. My instructor said that I was advanced enough to start learning jumps, if I wanted to. Nervously, I said I did. Although I was scared to try the jump at first, I got used to it. I learned a lot from the lesson, and continued to try the jump throughout the evening. I only tried a few small kickers and rollers(the two smaller types of jumps) because I'm not very good yet. I improved a lot! I can't wait to go again this Thursday.

Friday, 1/15
When I got done with all of my school I went to a Bible study. The study is held at the home of some friends of ours. The topic was love. It is so astonishing to see what true love is! The passage was from 1 Corinthians 13: "⁴Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never ends." We all fall miserably short of this level of love. Thankfully, God is forgiving!
We stayed for several hours after the Bible study and spent time with our friends. We laughed, talked, sang, danced, and had altogether a wonderful time.

Saturday, 1/16
I went shopping with my best friend! We went to Kohl's, which is my favorite store ever! I got a pair of nice jeans and two shirts. I was excited to be able to get a pair of jeans that were modest and feminine! It is so hard to find them.
Seeing my best friend is always SUCH a blessing. I love her SO much! Not surprisingly, we had a delightful time together! I thank God for her every time I remember her. (Philippians 1:3 =])

Sunday, 1/17 -Wednesday, 1/20
The message in the evening service was very good. It was about Ai from Joshua chapter 7, and avoiding defeat. God has been teaching me so much. I love reading His word; it is the only shelter amid the chaos in this world. Please pray for me. Specifically, please pray for me on Friday: I have an appointment with a TMJ specialist. Hopefully he will be able to help me know what to do from here on out. Thank you so much!

~Christy <3