day 26

HUNNY i miss you like crazy. i feel like i left part of my heart with you. I am having such a great time and learning so much and loving being here it's beautiful and fun and interesting and there are lots of cool and fun people but the bottom line is i am so so so so so crazy about you and i am missing you so much. You make my life more fun. You are so interesting and smart and i would kill to have a conversation with you about what i am learning about. I miss you.


Prayer: Work today, that God would just continue to bring shalom to you and you could bless those around you with it... housing/money situation... that in our seperation God would do something beautiful in both our hearts.


Encouragement:


Philipians 4  Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!^(F) 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.^(G) 6 Do not be anxious about anything,^(H) but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.^(I) 7 And the peace of God,^(J) which transcends all understanding,^(K) will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Inspiration: 

Day 25

Affirmation:


So i am a terrible wait-er.... i hate waiting for presents no matter how small, and i hate waiting for things i want especially when they are big. It is literally the most frustrating thing in the world for me and makes me want to tear out my hair... but i just want to say that you're worth waiting for no matter how long it takes without pressure. i love you and i think your wonderful... and I hope you will see my willingness to wait despite how impatient i am not as frustrating but as a sign rather of how much i love and value you. Do what you need to do love to figure out your way no matter where that takes you in God's time and i will wait on him and you because i value you so much! While i am waiting i will keep working on getting better... forgive me for when i make you feel pressured. i just love you. xo


Prayer:


Patience - that you will be patient with me and i will be patient with you! Clarity! That things with the new house work out! Things with work! That talking about whats happening in your head would be helpful! Joy and good weather in the soul! I love you


Encouragement:


Since before time began 
   no one has ever imagined,
No ear heard, no eye seen, a God like you 
   who works for those who wait for him.
- Isaiah 64:4


Inspiration:

Day 24

Affirmation:

Ok so this last year we have had some adversity... actually let's rephrase that... so over the last year we have a lot of adversity (that's more accurate!)... and we are facing more... seperately and together, but basically no matter what my adversity is your adversity and your adversity is my adversity... because for this season at least (and hopefully eventually for always) we're stuck together... what's yours is mine which unfortunately has included problems as well as triumphs in the last year! But the best part of that has been the moments not when we've fallen into the others troubles but when we have been a strong support  for the other person when they were unable to be for themselves. I think we have been learning so much in the last year about how we react to adversity and how to react better, but also how to react better to each other's adversity... and i think this has made and is making us a stronger team. I just wanted to tell you in the midst of my adversity there is no one else i would rather have by my side, i really feel like I have been so blessed by God bringing you into my life~ 

Prayer:

Strength, love, understanding, calm, grace, and peace when engaging in one another's adversity and our own! That God would show us the way to take and the strength and courage to do it even when things get difficult. Work. Clarity about all things future. A sense of home. Housing costs.... 

Encouragement:

Proverbs 3:5,6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

1 Peter 1:6-9 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Inspiration

Day 23

Affirmation: 


Dear love,


 i am not even feel up to writing a post today because i just feel so low... but i am waiting to have a meeting and so i started thinking what i would write when i came across this verse... Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and Courageous. Do not be Terrified, Do not be discouraged, For the Lord your God will be with you WHEREVER you may go." To me that is what i needed to hear more than any other thing in the world today... So i hope it encourages you....what also encourages me is having such an incredible man of faith by my side. God has used you more than you know to point to him as a rock of comfort for me... to remind me to keep turning to my creator when things are tough and believing he will fight for us and trusting him to provide for us and guide us in all things as we seek to do his will!




Prayer:


That we will trust God more, that we will hear his voice, that we would feel his touch in comfort, that you will have clarity as you try to figure things out at work, that you will feel peace in your day and encouragement and joy!


Encouragement:


"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and Courageous. Do not be Terrified, Do not be discouraged, For the Lord your God will be with you WHEREVER you may go." (Joshua 1:9)


Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)


For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you will weep no more, for Yahweh will be gracious to you; He will hear the voice of your cry and answer you. (Isaiah 30:19)


Yahweh is close to all who call on Him—to all who call on Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him: He will hear their cry and save them (Psalm 145:18-19).


Inspiration: 

Day 22 to laugh is to live!

Hello love! I was thinking about yesterday and how playful you were and how it made me laugh and how we couldnt stop laughing in church... i love when you play with me and when you make me laugh... i think i like nothing better... i think sometimes we allow life to get so serious that we forget to laugh... i hope one of the things people will say about us one day is "we love H&M they are always laughing"... so here is a little laughter in your day... i hope it's contagious! xoxo

                                                  

Prayer: 
more laughter, a joyful light heart, a lightheartedness in our relationship and friendship, more love, direction, home, rent, THE WEATHER... that you find delight despite what is happening outside... that  you would find a home here!


Encouragement:

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. - Proverbs 17:22

Inspiration: 

I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me to be the most civilized music in the world. 

--Peter Ustinov

An extra post at the end of an extra long (but fun!) day...

My darling - I think you are the most amazing man in the world and i can't believe how lucky i am to have you... and at the end of a long day i just wanted you to know how much i love you xo

Sonnet XLII How do I love thee?/Grow Old Along With Me - a poetic mash up 
 by Elizabeth AND Robert Browning... 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. So Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in His hand Who saith "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"

Day 21

Affirmation: Best DATE EVER yesterday. Thanks hunny for making me feel so incredibly special and loved yesterday. You have been putting in such a huge effort lately and you have no idea how much it means to me or happy and lucky i feel. I already had the best guy in the world, but now i have one that spoils me too!!! You are my best friends and it was so great to be able to just go out with you and talk and talk. I love hearing your thoughts on life and just being with you. I know the weather is making things hard for you right now and you are struggling, but i believe God sees that struggle and he is going to bring you joy you have not yet known in the days to come (maybe even in our love ;) ) I whaley love you sweetie! 

Prayer: Housing (money), work would continue to go well as you create new strategies to spread the gospel, energy, that you would find a deep sense of home here, deep heart friendships with dudes, better weather, that you would find activities you love to do in spite of the weather that would bring you life! Our relationship - growing in friendship and love and CLARITY...(for angels to fly out of heaven and let you know one way or another in time lol)

Encouragement: I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” - Philippians 4: 11&13 


Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perserverance. Let perserverance finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything! - James 1: 2-4


Inspiration: "That was the beginning of it all. I wonder now if i had been able to see the future whether i would have sailed at all. Supposing at that moment i had been able to sense the loneliness that drove me to within a breath of madness, supposing i had seen my demastings or that huge storm in the Indian Ocean - would i have left the slipway? Yet if i had been able to see the terrors and troubles of my global voyage, i would have seen, too, the days of tremendous joy, days no man deserves this side of heaven. 
Is suppose in a way that is the choice we all face in life...to be to afraid to leave home and die of mediocrity and dreams not fulfilled, or to sail ahead assured of terrors to come, but hoping for those glorious heavenly days that no man deserves... Yes, i am sure i would have sailed - sailed through the hurricanes, the deepest hurts and hell itself, had i known the full pattern of my life."


I love you. 

Day 20 - i may be crazy but at least i am crazy about you!

Affirmation:

Ok, remember that time a couple of weeks ago when i wrote a post that said i hoped we would fall truly madly out of our heads crazy in love with each other... well i think God must be answering prayers at a rapid rate these days... because although a girl shouldn't give her cards away i think i'm warming up to you a bit ;) in case you haven't noticed... I think sometimes you hold your cards way closer to your chest than i do and it really does drive me crazy, but i hope when you finally lay them out there's a queen of hearts in your hand... because i know it can be annoying and obnoxious and a bit over the top and sometimes crazy but i really am crazy in love with you. You are an incredible man. I value who you are so much. I cannot imagine my life submitting to someone kinder or more thoughtful or more complimentary to who i am or more fun to be with or who makes me happier. I just want to make you happy. I want to be someone who helps you and encourages you and inspires you the way you do me. Could it be you love me too?

Prayer:

Work. clarity about the coming year. LOVEEE that we would love each other more and better and purer. That i would be kinder and more loving and softer to you than you could ever imagine and yet would burn with a crazy passion! That all our love would reflect Christ's love to our community. Church. God will keep looking after your heart. That you will find a sense of home away from home. deep male friends here in Canada. Blessings. 

Encouragement:

1 Corinthians 13:4-13  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 John 4:16-19 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By thisis love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.  We love because he first loved us

Genesis 2:18-24 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Inspiration:

Grow old with me, the best is yet to be! - Robert Browning

Day 19

Affirmation:


Hi love!


so we had a little vacation time but i was thinking of you every day and all the ways i could tell you i loved you. One of the things i was thinking about this morning is about not being so stressed out all the time and making everything so serious. When i was away i missed you so much, but i wasn't missing talking to you about whether to get married, or how to figure out our personalities, or how to succeed in our relationship... i just wanted to have you with me having adventures. it reminded me that when all is said in done, the reason we are having these serious conversations is so that at some point we can stop having them and start just enjoying one another and having adventures together. So let's not forget to have some adventure on the way of figuring stuff out too. Let us not forget this season, let us live in it and find joy in it! I love you and i love doing fun stuff with you. I hope we can work together one day because i think that adventure breeds creativity and out of creativity the world can be our oyster.... God has given us this spirit so let us enjoy it! I love your adventurous creative spirit and i'm so excited to see what God leads us to as we say yes to him!


Prayer:
summer, adventure, plans with your parents, ongoing joy, peace, righteousness work, us, summer in our hearts.


Encouragement:
Psalm 97:11-12 - "Light is shed upon the righteous on the upright heart. Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name."


Psalm 118:24 - "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!"




Inspiration:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

Day 18!!!!!!!

Affirmation: 
So i know i just told you that i was rereading my journal and came across a post from may last year and it blew my mind. I was so naive as to what was to come... i was crazy in love with you and i think because so many of my girlfriends have had the story of riding off into the sunset together that that would be our story. i thought you were so madly in love with me and things were just going to work out and we would get married at Christmas and we would be magically perfect. I also though i'd be going to law school and i had no idea of the jobs yet to come... man what a shocking year... As you know things did not work out exactly as planned. Instead we have probably come through one of the consistently hardest years of my life. I just had no idea what was about to happen, i wish i could go back and warn old me. I was a waitress saving for law school and you were a poor student just over a year ago....and then we went from having a carefree happy relationship in a time where we had no responsibility to carrying what seems like the weight of the world and each having more responsibility than one person could ever handle!!! Yet somehow, even though it seems heavier, harder, deeper and more complicated than my mind could have ever imagined a year ago here we are, our relationship is still standing. I feel like it feels like we were on a sailing trip... everything seemed so good, we were sailing on gorgeous azure oceans, with stunning blue skies, and although we had warnings of storms on one course and our sailing teacher had charted out a different course for us, we took the course we were warned against because it seemed harmless and more beautiful, and then suddenly there was a massive storm and we were shipwrecked and we didn't think we would make it, but somehow we survived it, and i feel like i have this image in my mind of us stumbling onto shore again, and the ocean is beautiful and calm again and the sky is bright blue and the sand is white, and we are dazed and our clothes are ragged and we are all but destroyed... but we made it, and even though it was not what we had in mind on this trip we are where we are now and as we come to terms with it we are starting to re-find the joys in just making it through and of this beautiful place we never planned to be. Yes there is the problem of getting back to where we originally wanted to go, we don't know how to get back, but the great thing is we had a great sailing teacher and he is coming looking for us, he will never abandon us and he is a good teacher so he has given us instructions about how to survive in these situations,  so we are now applying these instricutions and relearning to appreciate his teachings and how to use them now more than ever before because we need them ... a lesson we needed to learn before we could ever move ahead... so even though it was a tough and crazy shipwreck of a year i have to say i am so grateful that we survived it... i feel like we learned some valuable lessons, including the importance of clinging to the warnings and lessons of our teacher, and we have built muscle fighting to save the boat and swimming to shore... so although it wasn't the pleasure sail we had planned we have gained more character and experience in one trip than many others might have learn in a 1000 sailing trips, and now we have so much more wisdom to give, and we know we are capable of surviving, and we know to trust our teacher and lean into him now more than ever.... and i have to say now that we are through the storm and we are done blaming each other and we are taking survey of our situation I am so grateful to be here with you... there is no one i'd have rather rode this one out with, because i'm pretty sure if i'd had any other shipmate we would have sunk... so the fire has come, and we burned to the ground but the foundations are still here and we can rebuild with Christ's help in a better way!

Prayer:

Housing stuff, strength and gratitude, amazing friends who are an awesome support here in Canada, a deep renewal of your relationship with God, clarity in your steps, a sense of home, that i would love you better and more passionately and would stop leading you off course! 

Encouragement:

He told them this parable. "Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance."

— Luke 15:3-7

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. - 2 Thess 2:15

You are God's house. I built the lower walls of the house because God showed me the best way to do it. Now another man builds on top of this foundation. Each man must take care how he builds on it. Jesus Christ himself is the foundation. No one can make another one.People build with gold, silver, very fine stones, wood, grass, or straw on top of the foundation. But the day will come when everyone's work can be seen. Their work will be tested by fire and the fire will show what kind of work each one did. If the work a man did is not burned up in the fire, he will be paid for his work. But if a man's work is burned up, he will lose everything. He himself will be saved, like a man pulled out of the fire. You know that you are God's house. The spirit of God lives in you. - 1 Corinthians 3:9-16 

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. - Matthew 7:14

Inspiration:  

I love you like crazy... in high seas and in the calms of life... because i know as we weather these storms and shipwrecks that one it comes down to our test we will be confident of what we have been taught and we will not be afraid. Perfect love casts out all fear... He is teaching us love. 

Day 17

Affirmation:

Tonight you said something that struck a chord in my heart. You said the truth is that in a relationship yes you want to build a strong friendship, but ultimately even though it's also a friendship it is not just philia, it's different... and you are right it is different. A relationship also must have eros to survive and thrive and grow. I feel like we have been focusing on our friendship so much because it is so important and i love how it has been growing and you are becoming more and more my best friend every day... but i am also so excited to see our eros love grow... (by that i am clearly not referring to that physical longing side of eros but rather that pure mad passionate, extraordinary love appropriate to a christian relationship and where we are now)... i am so excited to build a crazy mad passionate extraordinary pure love with you that sweeps us off our feet and feels more special and extraordinary than any love that has ever existed and that makes us feel more alive than any other love we could imagine (other than the love of God) . You are such a special man and as we aim for agape and as we grow in philia i pray that we will develop a healthy for where we are at purified eros. Life is so short, and there are so many mediocre things we settle for, but i pray that as our relationship builds that in God's time love will awaken in us that we have not yet imagined, and that our love will not be one of those things... i pray that we are building a foundation for a love  like a spark in a meadow, that as that spark hits that dry grass that it will grow into a raging wildfire consuming everything before it, growing and growing and catching others alight just through being close to it! I pray that people would feel the heat and enjoy the warmth by just being close it! So here's to our spark babe! May it catch alight in God's perfect time and way!

Prayer:

House stuff. That you would find a home in Canada. Clarity for us. That we would keep building our friendship and that it would be expanding into something different and greater. Healthy and God's timing development of eros love. That we would never settle. That our relationship would bless those around us. That your ministry would be powerful and God would really be preparing you for it! Continued purity & power & strength!!!

Encouragement: 

Song of Solomon 8:4

Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

1 Peter 1:22 

 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

1 John 4:7  

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Song of Solomon 8:6-7 

 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.

Inspiration:

A great relationship is not when the 'perfect couple' come together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.

--Dave Meurer

I love you!