Healing the Sting

This Memorial Day weekend was filled with awesome outdoor fun for our family. We pretty much did everything you could possibly do under the sun...we went camping, had hot dogs and s'mores over the fire, attempted some golfing, enjoyed a couple of lake beaches, and went swimming at the nearby pool.

But as the sun starting going down Monday night, Doug stepped onto the front porch and before he even made it out of the front door and huge bee stung him right on the nose. He slammed the door, let out a few bleeps, and ran for the hornet sprayer mumbling things under his breath like, "Oh... it's like that, huh? You're gonna get it now. I didn't want to do this, but it's over," while I tried not to bust out laughing. :)

I guess you could say he asked for it. But at the same time, it seemed unfair. You see, for months now we've watched these bees tirelessly make a home on our front porch. It started about the size of a pea, and on the day of the attack, was close to the size of a softball. I kept telling him to get rid of it, and people who would stop by would get a little freaked out, but Doug said he had come to really appreciate their work ethic and somehow felt bad now that he saw the motivation and labor behind it all. So all this time we just tiptoed around it and let them be. But regardless of our tolerance of them, even our appreciation, they came after us. That sucker got Doug good - blindsided him without a chance to react. Immediately, Doug retaliated and realized his gentleness just got him hurt in the end.

As I laughed to myself while Doug tried to numb the sting, I immediately related to the feeling. Lately, I've been feeling super discouraged and down. I'm an emotional person to begin with and sometimes I can't even handle my own junk, but recently I've been listening to and counseling other young women whose situations I can relate to. People in the past have told me I have a gift of empathy. But sometimes it feels like such an overwhelming burden, being surrounded by others emotions, situations, attitudes, and flat-out lies. Anyway, I was becoming consumed with this darkness, this feeling that, no matter how much effort is put into it, how gentle I am, how tolerant, how appreciating, how loving... in return, I've been getting stung. Bad. I don't know.. maybe I think in spiritual metaphors too much, but I watched my husband basically set himself up to be attacked and found this Word and thought, "Yes, God. That's where I'm at right now."

"The enemy pursues me,
    he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
    like those long dead. 

 So my spirit grows faint within me;
    my heart within me is dismayed." ~Psalm 143:3-4

Even still, I've been given a solution better than any poisonous sprayer. David goes on to say..

"I remember the days of long ago;
    I meditate on all your works
    and consider what your hands have done." ~5

I may be seeing a lot of bad right now, but what about all the good You've done!

"I spread out my hands to you;
    I thirst for you like a parched land.

 Answer me quickly, Lord;
    my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
    or I will be like those who go down to the pit." ~6-7

Crap. I need You, right now.

 ^"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
    for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
    for to you I entrust my life.
Rescue me from my enemies, Lord,
    for I hide myself in you.

Teach me to do your will,
    for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
    lead me on level ground." ~8-10

Remind me how much You love me, and then lead me. No matter what's going on around me. I have You.

This morning, I felt a breeze of encouragement and realized, when I'm under attack, even if I get hurt, I can go to my Father. He will heal the sting and move me forward. Every time. 

Living with a Sober Guy

With my husband's permission, I just want to celebrate an awesome milestone. He is 4 years sober today. While it may take away from the anonymity of it all, I just want to tell everyone!

I haven't always been this excited about it. I'll admit some of my first thoughts when we first started dating included "We'll never relax with a beer in the summer?" "We'll never share a glass of wine on a fancy date?" "We can't even drink champagne at our wedding!" But after 4 years of him living the sober life, I am beyond grateful. I know he would not be able to be the amazing husband and father that he is today with alcohol in his way, and I wouldn't trade what we have now for anything, even a beer. I also know he would not be celebrating this milestone if it weren't for his dependence on God, and without his addiction he wouldn't know that relationship as deep as he does. We are so grateful for God bringing us together as a couple at the same time we were brought to our breaking points; it forced the cornerstone of our relationship to be built on Christ. And because of that, we can both celebrate our past struggles because He brought us out on the other side... together!

The Bible says we all have our struggles and temptations in life, but God faithfully promises us this...

"He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure." ~ 1 Corinthians 10:13


Your situation may certainly be more than you can handle, but isn't that why we need Him? He doesn't promise you'll be able to handle anything on your own, but He promises He'll help you. He is the way out. With Him, you can overcome. We know that now and want to tell the world about it.


Congrats, babe! I praise God for these last 4 years and know that by His grace they will multiply and multiply. I love you. 

Happy Campers

For my husband and I, camping trips have usually been a time of peace, privacy, and renewal. Yet this last trip made us realize that may have just been a short-lived phase. Quiet bonding time is now swapped with slightly chaotic family time. We were pretty confident of our teamwork abilities and had gotten camping with a baby/toddler down to a science, but where did that little baby go?

Growing up, I never camped. I actually thought camping was more of an American legend that hardly existed anymore (kind of like cowboys lol). But my husband opened my eyes to very real existence of camping, and believe it or not I enjoyed it. But notice the past tense there because this last trip left us realizing things may be a changing. We should actually still be there as I'm writing this, but we are on the couch with the TV on instead. That mostly has to do with the cold rain forecast for tonight, but these issues didn't help our cause:

 
• Our site was a good quarter-mile away from the nearest bathroom... keep in mind we have a newly potty trained girl and a 6-month prego in the group! 
• The site was laid over a rock foundation which Doug had to put tiny spikes into for the tent... let's just say there was a variety of mumbling profanities filling the forest for a while.
• The temp got down under 40 degrees at night and my husband (who likes to sleep in as little as possible and didn't let this trip stop him) was curled around my big belly (in the fetal position himself)  clinging to me for survival the entire night.
• Our morning breakfast made on a propane, tabletop stove consisted of "pancakes tar tar".
• The wood we bought (which was enough for the 3 day trip we planned) was wet, enough to be growing moss! Needless to say, we had more of a lovely smoke cloud than a cozy fire.
• Romantic, peaceful time for mommy and daddy did not exist anymore because staying put and napping in a tent without a caged-in bed was practically laughable for our not-so-little girl now. 
• And to top it off just perfectly... right as the car was almost packed and we calmly decided to leave a little early to beat the rain, I was forced to wash my hands and realized I left my wedding rings in a tiny, mesh pocket in the now completely broken-down, put away, and packed up tent. My options were to tell my hubby to unpack the tent again and just accept the freak out that would come of it or go a month or two pretending I'm single.. guess which one my husband picked for me. Haha

Honestly, it was a little discouraging that our perfected trips filled with quiet love, teamwork, and relaxation might be suspended for awhile. But I reminded myself and my hubby that we could have those days back eventually, we just gotta wait twenty some odd years. <3