Laugh or Cry I'm not sure!

Well, the stress of all the planning and preparation for a serious life change all came to a head when I realized I forgot to stamp the RSVP cards in the already sealed 182 invitations. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
This past Friday Michael and I were happily plugging along putting invitations together and I ran to target to get "little stickers" to dress up the invitations, obsessive I know! I arrive back home from my successful shopping trip rather proud of myself and excited about my pretty invitations, and then panic overwhelms me. I realize we have forgotten the stamps on the RSVP cards. All of the sudden life is bleak and nothing short of eloping to Hawaii would have made me fell much better. I break down, multiple times, and my sweet Michael just lets me cry and tries to follow my every whim of "get the invitations done" and "forget it!".
So, a few lessons. God has a sense of humor even when I don't. And the important things are really not that important.
Then to add insult to injury, I totaled my car on Thursday by ramming into a FedEx truck on my way to work. Yeah, it's been an interesting week.
Yet, God is faithful, sovereign and in control, especially when I am not in control. Actually when I feel most out of control is when God is most in control, and the power struggle, if you will, is only one way. And that is me trying to take what is rightfully Gods, not mine to hold on to.
I am reminded of the Psalms "your mercies are new every morning", and that is so true. God blesses us with new mercy and grace to meet each day with it's joys or trials or both and see it as opportunities to cling to Him (not invitations or cars, because trust time they will let you down every time!).
Michael and I are grateful of the continued prayers and support we have received during these wild times!
And as far as whether to laugh or cry, crying is acceptable, as long as you can laugh at yourself after.

Published!

Well, as published as I will ever be. I wrote and article for a student website called www.deeperdevotion.com. We met this couple at our church and they moved here with this ministry and they found out I love to write and have a passion for youth so it was all down hill from there. So, check it out and let me know what you think!
Just as an update though, all is going well and relative are booking flights like mad to make it for the wedding (in 62 days, but whose counting!;-) ). But life is good, my sweet husband-to-be even voluntarily took me last weekend to run wedding errands, so incredibly adorable! You can see why I'm marrying the man! I get my bridal pictures back this week, so that is exciting, and lots of other details are coming together! God is truly blessing Michael and I with wonderful family and friends to help us out during this crazy, but wonderful time!

As always, I promise to write more soon!

I'm Back!

I know it's been entirely too long since I have written! I have let life get away with me and run me a little crazy. I was telling a friend the other day that if she and her boyfriend's family were ok with it, she should just elope if they ever decided to get married!

I look back on that and think it is a little sad that I have let myself get to that point, but from now on I am choosing to enjoy every moment! I have even given my fiance permission to remind me, "Sweetie, this is supposed to be fun! Remember?!"

I have also been reading out of Andrew Murray's book Abide in Christ, and it is wonderful! The premise is that we have access to Christ's peace, joy, patience, satisfaction and all His attributes if we are a child of His and just let that life of Christ flow through us by yielding ourselves to Him. That has been a great comfort to me recently - that I can just rest in Christ and find my strength, hope, peace and sanity in Him. What a blessing!

Well, I have to head off to work, but I will hopefully write more soon!

New Year and already too busy!

How sad is it that a new year has just begun and I feel as if I have not recouperated from the holidays! Granted with all the excitement of the holidays and the newness of my engagement, going to work that monday was definately a bit of a downer and life as I know it continues. Yet through it all God has been reminding me that He alone is my sufficiancey, strength, hope, joy and the constant in my life. It is disheartnign that I let life so distract me from just taking those quiet moments with Him, and I alow myself to get frazzeled, bewildered and overwhelmed. I am commiting this year to do some scripture memory and increase my prayer time (which is fairly non-existant). I may not get much memorizeed and my prayer time may just be written out in my journal but I am seeking God's strength in this commitment to Him and myself. I feel I need to do this now because if I think that life is going to get less crazy and hectic then I am seriously delusional, so now would be a great time to get my arsenal of His word in my heart and the discipline of prayer in my mind and soul. Since just before the new year a verse has been ringing over and over in my head and heart

"For I have been crusufied with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith through Christ Jesus who loved me and gave Himself up for me" Galatians 2:20

I have moments when I don't want to spend time with God when I don't want to be a good steward of my time and not set up one more appointment trying to accomidate people's crazy schedules (I'm a receptionist) yet it is not Emily who lives but Christ who lives in me. I died a long time ago and am a child of God and need to act like it more often than not. So I pray that this may ecourge and remind us all that when lifes problems big or small come along it is Christ who lives in us, and will bring us through more sactified and Him more glorfied.

I'm Engaged!

So let me just tell you how amazing God's timing and His plans are for our lives. God has brought a wonderful man into my life, so let me tell you the story. January of 2004 I started a new job at a local non-profit organization in North Carolina and there was one single guy there, ONE. My mom had told me maybe the man you are going to marry will walk through those doors. Apparently I was so dense that he had to walk through those doors every day for three months before I even really noticed him. It started out innocently enough with lunches and movies (which I would intentionally get there early so he would not buy my ticket). We were actually casually seeing other people at the time and it was not working out for either of us. So, one night we head to a minor league baseball game and starting with the drive up there we were ourselves and had a great time and good conversation. We talked through the whole game (annoying those around us no doubt, but we really didn't care). Then, as if taken right out of the movies during the fireworks that night we were both hit in the head by a 2X4 (figuratively speaking). It was at that moment we realized we liked each other, a lot! We no sooner get to the car and we were discussing plans for that weekend.
Needless to say this relationship took a very exciting turn when he picked me up last Sunday (December 19, 2004) and drove me to a town 90 minutes west of Raleigh to see Christmas lights and then out to a nice restaurant for dinner. At dinner he proposed, and I was beside myself with joy. I just hope I didn't scare people in the restaurant. The poor boy hardly had a chance to get up off his knee and 1/2 the wait-staff come to our table to congratulate us. As my sister-in-law said, "The proposal was just perfect for you!".
God certainly has his perfect plan and way of bringing things about. It is times like this that you are not only overwhelmed by the blessings currently in your life but all that God has done in years past. I think of how I do not deserve a loving family, dear friends and a fiancee that seeks to serve and glorify God in all he does. I am truly a blessed woman! Yet it is this very thought that in a way drives us to serve Him more diligently and Passionately everyday. For if we think we deserve the blessings that are in our live then we become complacent, arrogant and self-serving. For when we begin to think we deserve God's blessings in our lives then we become nothing more that spoiled brats asking for nothing we truly need and everything we want to fill our own selfish desires. So I will close with one of my favorite verses
Hosea 6:6 "For I Desire mercy not sacrifice; the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings".
Simply put he wants our lives humbly placed before Him know we can do nothing but enjoy the journey and seek Him through it as He works to glorify Himself in and through our lives. For that is our true purpose in this short time we have here on this earth

Welcome to My Blog!

I have finally given in to the blog frenzy and started a blog of my own. I can't guarantee that this will be the most fascinating thing you have ever read, but it should be fun. I am excited that I will be able to keep everyone up on what is going on any of my goings ons! So enjoy.