They're here! They're here!

At long last our photos are here!  Remember this post?  We won a free sesh with Creative Images photography, and well, that was an offer we couldn't refuse.  A lot of you gave me some fashion advice.  In the end, the opinions were so spread that I'm not sure if it helped or made me more indecisive.  At any rate, here's our outfit choices and our three favorites from the shoot.  I LOVE how they turned out!

I'm seeing beautiful babies in our (far, far, off) future.  Whaddya think?

Grapes of Wrath

Do you ever get mad at someone? (Maybe you're laughing because it happens so often). Anger is not my go-to. I'm more of a crier. However, I find myself having very little patience when I feel like someone--okay let's be real I'm talking about my husband--wrongs me. I have a knack for evaluating what people are doing well and what they could improve on. It's how I'll grade papers later. Sometimes, though, it gets me in trouble. I always catch the mistakes. At times, they make my anger flare up. I find that when I am mad at Phil, and I feel like I have the right to be mad at him based on his actions, I have the hardest time extending love to him.

I was reading in Ephesians recently. This is one of the books of the bible I go back to over and over. It is so easy for me to read. I was in chapter two and Paul (a hardcore Pharisee who used to pursue and kill Christians, who had a personal encounter with Christ and spent the rest of his life preaching the Gospel) was talking to some Christians about the state they were in before they surrendered their lives over to Jesus. He describes them as, "children of wrath." Who's wrath were they under? I asked myself. I realized they were under God's wrath because they had wronged him: sinned. I was under God's wrath for what I had done. It's like God was rightfully mad at us for our actions against him. That's when God chose to extend us the ultimate act of love. The passage goes on to say: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." When I feel like I have the right to be mad at Phil I have the hardest time loving him. When God had every right to put us under his wrath, he sent his son Jesus to stand in our place and absorb that wrath so that we could be forgiven and return to his presence. God's love is so much bigger than mine.

Friday's Letters

I'm linking up with Adventures of the Newlyweds today!  You should too :)

Dear husband, not only do I foresee us watching the Countdown To the 25 days of Christmas, and the 25 days of Christmas, but I predict we will watch Elf at least 13 times in the next month. Dear snow, I have mixed emotions about you moving into Pullman. You have this habit of saying, "Don't worry I'm just staying for a couple days," and then sticking around through March. On the other hand, you bring my husband more joy than bacon and going shirtless--combined. You're making me want it to be Christmas!  Dear peppermint hot chocolate, let's be bffs starting...now!   Dear Katie Anthony, sorry we can't make it to your recital today. If it's any consolation, following the newspaper's directions we went to it yesterday and gave the pianists who were taking a playing test the best audience ever. You are going to rock it!  Dear Arnold (Phil's side) and Massa/Dinsmoor (Chels' side) families, see you soon! Can't wait to eat good food, share some laughs, and catch up on each others' lives.  Dear hubs (who gets two letters) I'm sorry I tried to persuade you to skip class and hang out with me. I just can't wait for us to officially be on Thanksgiving break! Here's to snuggling, building snowmen, watching movies, playing boardgames and staying up past 11 (this is the only time it happens for us haha)!

(Original Photo)

Gianormous Grace

I have a hard history with my dad. I hesitate to write about this. I would never want people to think badly of my dad, or to think that I don't love him. At the same time, I can't keep conceal the work God's doing in my life because it's so powerful. My parents got a divorce when I was really little: about five. The long of the short is my dad cheated on my mom and left. It's really painful feeling like "If my own dad would leave me, then who could love me?" Since I've felt really hurt by my dad I've struggled to forgive him. Which I want to acknowledge right now as something I believe is sin and brokenness on my part. Something I'm trusting God for this year--I wrote it down in my journal and everything--is truly forgiving my dad. I've found that as I move towards this, I am beginning to feel God's forgiveness extended to me. The more I forgive my dad, the more I understand God's unconditional love for me. The other day I was on my way to work and I was asking God to help me forgive my dad. I said, "I forgive my dad," by faith. At this moment I understood how crazy it is that God knows all our sins and he lets us off scot free. My righteousness comes from Christ. Since I accepted his payment for my sin, when God looks at me he sees the righteousness of Christ despite my usually-not-that-great actions. I think the hardest thing about forgiving my dad is that there is pain involved. Pain is a funny thing. It can keep you from thinking logically. It can block your vision of things you know to be true and pure and right. It's harder to forgive sin when you're personally acquainted with the suffering it caused. Lightbulb. Jesus is personally acquainted with the pain of my sin via the cross! When he was on the cross, every sin was laid on him. That was excruciating. The father turned his face away from Christ (because our perfect God could not look on or be in communion with sin) and his perfect union with his father was broken. I caused Jesus to feel deep hurt. Yet he still forgives me. I feel more whole because I'm forgiving my dad. I'm letting go of the things that hold me back. I can experience God's love the way he has been waiting to show it to me.

Luke 6:37 says:
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

I think this is about the sensation I'm experiencing. Forgiving and being forgiven go hand in hand. If we're holding people to our own standards rather than God's, we are inadvertently holding ourselves to these standards as well. I want to live under the grace of the gospel, and to look at other people in light of that too.

Some songs that are helping me to get this knowledge from my head to my heart "This Love is Free" Hyland, "Brokenness Aside" All Sons and Daughters, and "7X70" by Chris August. I think my soul responds best to music. It's the nature of souls. Spend time meditating on who God is and the system He set up for us to live under. It'll change you world.

Seasons turn, turn, turn...

Are you sick of fall yet? Not me. I don't know what it is about this year; usually I'm muttering under my breath--which I can see--about the dropping temperatures and missing being able to expose my shoulders to some warm rays. But this year I've found fall particularly mesmerizing. Is it because I'm young and in love? Are we just having an especially lovely autumn this year? Phil and I have a shared trait of enjoying the little things more than most--a trait that only grows exponentially when we're together. At any rate we are doing our best to celebrate each season. Here's the small ways we're lavishing ourselves in fall, while it lasts.

Pumpkins. I know, we're weird.

And with them pumpkin seeds.

Pinecones. I didn't take any precautions to debug these guys which Phil was concerned about. I don't know why, it's not like if I see one I shriek until he kills it (wink).

Fake leaves. (paper + leaf-coloring book pages + staples + yarn + crinkled to make them look like they came from a freshly jumped in pile)

Wheat. This is kind of an all-year-round thing for Pullman, but if feels kind of harvesty which spells fall to me. I went all Ruth and gleaned these straight out of a previously harvested field.

This soap (it's almost out) smells like cinnamon pumpkin spice.

 

Although, I must admit I'm not too sad about it running out b/c that means we get to switch to Mr. and Mrs. Snowman! (Courtesy of BBW)

We also barely-made-it-out-alive explored a corn maze, are drinking lots of tea (okay maybe that's just me), and stepping on every crunchy leaf we see. How are you celebrating fall? Is there something we haven't done yet that we totally need to take advantage of before it's too late?