Honor

Lately a few different, and at first glance contradictory, verses have been on Cliff and my hearts.

The first is Matthew 19:19 “Honor your father and mother.” Neither Cliff or I are perfect, but it seems the past few months this particular command has been increasingly difficult to obey.  We don’t intend to disrespect either of our parents, but our focus has been on our relationship and what God wants for our future, and consequently our family has been left out of a big part of our life.  

After talking to leaders of our church and praying about it, we think that this is because our relationship with our family, and especially our parents, has to change.  The second verse we’ve been thinking about is Genesis 2:24 “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Our relationship with our parents is supposed to change. For all our lives our parents have been the main people in our lives, guiding us, helping us, being a friend when we need it. Everything we truly needed from another person we could usually find in our parents. 

But no longer. We should not be looking for what we need from our parents, we shouldn’t be running to them with every problem and decision we need to make. We should be going to each other and to God. God is the head of our lives, and Cliff under that. So we can ask for wisdom from our parents, but our decisions are just that: ours. Cliff and me with God’s guidance. This won’t be easy for our family. They have to get used to being in the ‘backseat’ so to speak in our lives. We’re not going to tell them everything in our lives, we’re not going to base every decision on what they think. 

It sounds so harsh, but that’s how it should be biblically. We can and should still honor our parents, but what that means will change as we start to build our life together.

Stepping Out

Tonight at Bible study something in particular stood out to me. It was just a snippet, but the idea was to "just do it." Stop thinking, praying about, wondering, considering, hesitating, waiting, talking about it, or any thing else and just do it. Sometimes you have to trust God and step out and do what you believe He is calling you to do.

Even if it hurts, even if it's hard, even if people are against you, even if it seems crazy. Sometimes all those things just mean that this really is what God wants, but Satan is opposing it so much that even people that care about you are being blinded by his interference.

Sometimes, against all odds, you need to just do it.

Ready?

As we have been talking about and making plans to leave our safe bubble here and go overseas for a new adventure, I've been wondering, "Are we ready?" Now, I know you cant ever really be ready for something like this, and that God equips the called, not calls the equipped and all that. What I meant was more personally. Is God a personal presence in our life? Can we see Him working in us? At first I wasn't sure. But as I asked Him to show me, I've begun to see his hand in my life, in Cliff, and in our life together. It's so encouraging to see how He has been preparing us for this, even before we met or ever dreamed of it. I'm so excited to see what God has planned for us next!

Visas

Last week my grandfather called me to let me know that Cliff ad I were approved to get visas to stay in Manila for a year! It was an answer to prayer; without those visas we wouldn't have been able to go at all. And with his connections there, we'll get to to stay for a year for approximately $1,800. That's much lower that the $4,00 we thought it would have been. We had been planning and talking about it for over a month by that time, but all at once it seemed so real. We're really going to Manila! It's so crazy! I'm so excited to be sharing such a magical world with my husband. I know Cliff will love it, it's so amazing there.

He is being lead by God in all this and it's incredible to watch. He has grown so much, and taken on so much responsibility. I'm very encouraged by the change I see taking place in his life. I know this new adventure is what God wants for us, and it's so great to see God preparing Cliff for whats ahead.

Rearranging Our Wedding

We have been planing our wedding for May, but in order to get the visas, passports and tickets in the right name I have to get my last name legally changed… Now. So we’re getting all the legal paperwork stuff done within the next few weeks. My roommate, K, is already planning the wedding for May. Instead of the flowers, music and dancing I had planned (that I’m not sure we could have afforded anyway) we’ll have a simple ceremony at the park. There probably wont be a reception, or if there is it's going to be a simple lemonade and cookies affair. I'll have a very simple dress, and we'll use things we already have for most of it. It'll be a good way to see our family and friends before we leave too. It won't be what I had imagined or planned, but it’ll be wonderful all the same. 

Prayer

This past week our church had a 24 hour prayer room. Cliff and I spent may hours in it, praying for guidance for the future, for wisdom, ad for understanding from family and friends who may not understand what's in our hearts. After our last hour in the room we both agree that God is calling us to the Philippines, for the next few years. This wont be easy, we both know that. It will mean sacrificing a lot, and all of our plans will be put on hold for a few years. It's going to be difficult to even get there, we have to be approved for visitor visas to get into the country. That might be a bit sticky. And we'll have to raise support for while we're there. We wont be able to work, since we cant get approved for a work visa, we know that already. I really think though, that the most difficult thing we will have to face before we get there wont be the legal red tape or financial worries, but the reaction of some of our family and friends. Many understand and are wholly supportive. But not all. And for those that don't understand Cliff and I prayed, and will continue to pray for them. We pray that they will come to understand our hearts, and see the good in what we believe God has called us to do.

Our First Christmas

This year is our first Christmas together. It was busy and crazy, but also a lot of fun. We made popcorn & cranberry strings for our tree, made Christmas cookies, and we painted a small Precious Moments nativity set. We got in a frosting fight, and bickered over how long before Christmas it's acceptable to listen to Christmas music. We decorated our first Christmas tree, and watched all the classic holiday movies. It was a really good Christmas. I gave Cliff a small grill that he’d been looking at all summer, and he gave me a beautiful camera. We had a lot of little gifts too, like movies, candy, socks, clothes, small toys and other things. It was all really nice and we enjoyed the fun games of hiding presents and keeping secrets about who was getting what.  But most of all we both enjoyed just being together.

This year was important too, because Cliff met most of my extended family (aunts ad uncles and the like) and this is probably the last Christmas we'll get to spend with family here for a few years.