Praying for My Husband

This is something that I thought would be very interesting to write. Right before my freshman year of high school I read an article in a magazine about praying for your future spouse. This article really made me think one of my main goals in life has always been being a wife and then a mother. On that day I decided to take time to pray for my future spouse. Now I made this decision six and a half years ago and I can tell you the way I pray for him has greatly changed. Now as a little freshman about to enter high school no one had ever talked to me about praying for your future spouse, the only information I had about it was the idea and the article I read. So it pretty much started out with me adding to my prayers, Dear God, please be with my future husband and that was pretty much it. As I got more comfortable with the idea I would pray that his faith was being strengthened, that he had a good day, and that he has an amazing support system there for him.

Not to long ago I was thinking about this and my view on it changed. No trust me I did not decide that praying for him was a bad idea. I decided that there was more I could add to the prayer. Now I think the easiest way to show this would just to write down what my prayer my sound like. The thing that has changed the most is not only praying for my future husband but praying for myself as his future wife.

Here is something to the affect of what I may pray:
Dear Lord, Please me with my future husband in whatever he is dealing with in life. Keep him safe and happy. Allow for him to have people in his life to support him. Help his faith be growing each day. Lord help him to be gaining the characteristics he need to be a husband and a father. Please also be with me as I grow. Allow me to gain the characteristics I need to be a good wife to him and a good mother to our future children. I know that you have a plan for when we will be brought together, please help me to understand that your timing is best. Amen

Sometimes, I go into more details but this is the basic structure of what I would say. I challenge you if you are not married to pray for your future spouse. Even if you are dating someone pray for them and your future spouse double prayers never hurt anyone. Someday I will be able to put a name into my prayer and when that day comes I will be overjoyed.

Spring Time

My favorite time of the year has arrived and that is SPRING. I know that most girls love fall but, I enjoy Spring wholeheartedly. It is the first sunny, warmth you receive after a long winter of below zero temperatures plus the wind chill. I feel like I can breath the air easily. Spring also has a smell to it that I love (you may think I am crazy but I promise there is a smell). It also is the perfect temperature and people truly appreciate the outdoors. I also love that everything is turning green and beginning to grow. I challenge anyone who reads these post to take the time to go outside and appreciate the Spring. Take the time to have silence and think. Appreciate God's creation and thank Him for everything He has done in your life. I often find it easier to look at the positive when the weather turns amazing and I am out enjoying the sun and beautiful creation.  

I want to be Home

Spring Break starts for me at noon on Thursday and I could not be more excited. I am tired of the homework and class. I am ready for relaxation. I am using this mini post to let you guys see a little be more about me. And because I have a ton of homework I should be doing but instead I am procrastinating. I am watching Family Feud and attempting to complete my homework. Thursday cannot come soon enough.

Dear Me

I saw an article today about the #DearMe initiative that is going around. It is posing the question to women of what advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? I think this is a very important question for people to consider. Not as an opportunity to dwell on the past to much, but to think what do I want kids who are younger than me to know.

I am a sophomore in college and I am about to turn 20. So I thought what would I say to my younger self if I had the chance. Here we go I have decided to do just that:

Dear Younger Me,

To my younger self you are going to have many emotional times both bad and good as you continue to grow up. There will be times that you think you could not be any happier and times that you think could not be any worse, but you will make it through them all.

First, do not fight with your mom. She is just trying to do what is best for you even though you think she is being overbearing. She loves you more than you could ever believe. You will also grow to realize she is your best friend, your biggest supporter, and will drop everything in a second to be there when you need her.

Second, try not to fight and get upset with your brother. You will realize when you go off to college how much you miss him. Continue to support him in everything he does. Enjoy the good times you spend together because before you know it you will be leaving for college and then he will be too.

Also, realize that the friends you are trying to become extremely close to may not be your "forever" friends. You are going to meet the craziest group of girls in college and you will wonder how you made it through the rest of your schooling without them. They will help you laugh more and be there when you just need to cry.

The boy that you date in high school will not work out. No matter how much you thought that someday you would be marrying your high school relationship. It will not work out in the relationship sense but it will teach you a lot. It will help you grow up a bit. He will also be the perfect gentlemen and show you how you deserve to be treated in a relationship. I cannot tell you by the time you are 20 you will have an amazing boyfriend but, I am sure there are still big things in store for us that neither of us realize yet.

Lastly, spend all the time you can bettering your relationship with God because He will be there will you all the time. Do not be afraid to show emotion whether it is laughing until you are crying or crying. It is fine when you have to sit somewhere by yourself and just be alone. Also continue to work hard in school and sports you will show what amazing character you have. You will lose your Grandpa and your dog very close together. This will show you that your family are the people in your life that are truly there for you.

Sincerely,
Your future self who still has a lot to figure out.

Spring Break

Spring Break is in a week and a half for me. I could not be more excited, I really just need a break from classes and work. I want time to relax. Now I bet you are thinking what amazing thing are you going to be doing over Spring Break? Do not worry I am not a person you have to be jealous of for having an amazing adventure. I am just going to be going home for Spring Break. I will also be finishing up my last few hours to get Upper Division Status in my Education Program for the first three days of my break. Even better I will be waking up at six that entire week to drop one of my adorable kids (do not worry I am just their babysitter) off at school.

I will also be writing a paper that one of my professors gave me an extension on because I need to complete the hours in a classroom first. And I will be finishing up my Portfolio because I have my interview for that two days after I get back from Spring Break.

The thing I am looking forward to the most is seeing my amazing family because I always miss them. Maybe I will even be able to see some of my friends. As you can see my Spring Break is pretty full and will not necessarily be super relaxing but I am still 100% excited for that.

Lastly, the weather where I live is starting to warm up it is supposed to be in the upper 30s (in Fahrenheit) talk about a heat wave.

Joy in the Morning

This picture has the Bible verse Psalm 30:5 on it. People always will ask what my favorite Bible verse is and I never know how to answer. My favorite will change as situations in my life change and as I rediscover Bible verses. For about a year this has been my favorite Bible verse. About a year ago at this time I was going through some very difficult things. It was made harder because it was the first time I was dealing with something very difficult away from home. I am not sure how I came across this Bible verse but, I could not be more glad that I did. This past year of my life has been hard for various reasons but, my faith has been my constant comfort. 

This verse reminds me that bad things happen in life. But, no matter what bad things happen there is joy on the horizon. Now know that this verse should not be taken as something bad happened today but tomorrow will be amazing. Some things are like that and it is always amazing to feel the joy but some things hurt for longer than a day. This verse brings comfort to me that I will not be in physical or emotional pain forever. God brings joy into my life. If I look hard enough I can see the daily joys that God puts in my life. 

Allow this verse to be a comfort for you that the bad will not go on forever. You will have joys brought in your life. Never forget to be thankful for the joys no matter how big or small that they may seem at the time.  

Friendships Through Time

I am always very jealous of the people who have friends that they have known since birth, then they go to school together, go off to college together, and then their kids are friends. I wish I could say that this was me. Aside from my cousin I have one really close friend that has been there forever. I never remember meeting her or becoming friends with her she was just there. We still keep in contact, although I wish we did a better job at it (I am taking over half the blame for that). She is always there are we can talk like we have never been apart and I love her for that.

In grade school I made friends but in the transition to high school I pretty much lost contact with all of them. I was one of the only people from my friends in grade school that went to the high school that I went to. I was oddly okay with that though because I thought that I would just meet my amazing friends in high school. I made friends in high school and had a great time. Everyone used to tell me that I was the person that could fit in and get along with all the different groups in our class. I took this as a very large compliment and never thought of the negative side of this until later on. What this really means is I was never close enough with any group to be included in their activities. When they are all back at home and catch up I am not included. This hurt quite a bit because I would see pictures of everyone hanging out or hear them talk about it and it would feel awful. Now do not feel bad for me, if I see someone that I know when I am home we will talk and catch up. I have even met up with some of my friends from high school for coffee. But I do not have one of those groups of friends back home that other people in college talk about how they already have plans to hang out when they go back home for summer. I regularly talk to one friend from high school and I am crazy thankful for that.

Now, moving on to the crazy girls I am amazingly close to now. The transition to college last year was hard for me. I missed my family and I missed my hometown. Then one day I walked into a girls room across the hall from me and that was one of the best choices I have made in college. That is how I met the amazing girls that I am best friends with in college today. They are insane and funny. They have become my support system away from home. Their job titles range from friend, study buddy, therapist, to clown and any job you can think of in between. I truly hope that these friendships do not turn into my friendships of the past that fizzle away when we move into our next step of life.

Finally, I mentioned my cousin early and for this story to be complete she deserves a huge shout out. Her and I are pretty much sisters, not we never lived that close to each other but that does not matter. We talk to each other all the time and we are pretty close in age so that does not hurt either. We can tell each other anything and laugh together. She has even offered to beat up a boy for me. I know that no matter what I can tell her anything and get honest advice. She is always there and we are always ready to catch up with each other. She has seen me at the best of times and been there next to me during the worse of times. She still loves me all the same.

I know if anyone is reading this they are probably tired of reading but I have one more thing. You may be thinking why did you tell us all that information. Well, I was thinking about this the other day and I was thinking I do not regret any of those friendships even the ones I lost because they taught me something about myself and about other people. Never be so afraid of losing a friend that you do not make them a friend in the first place. If you follow that you may miss out on some of the best people in your life.