Another year older...

This past weekend it was my birthday.  I turned 33.  I was inordinately spoiled by my husband and good friends who made it possible to go just outside of town for the perfect Fall getaway.  We stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast that had 80 acres of amazing foliage to admire.  Much of it was visible from our room's balcony, where we sat and ate a delicious meal together in the sunset Friday evening.  It was completely excessive to celebrate a thirty-third birthday with an overnight trip.  Completely excessive, and totally necessary.  

View from our room... Fall is amazing.

Dinner--YUMMY!

The past couple of years have been...challenging...for me.  I have found it difficult to rejoice in a variety of problems and trials, as Paul suggests we do in Romans 5.  I have found it incredibly easy, however, to complain about them.  And in all of this complaining and whining about trivial matters of day-to-day life, I have forgotten to be thankful for the miracles I have been given.  This weekend was a wonderful reminder of one of those miracles--my amazing husband and pretty-gosh-darn-happy marriage.

Oh yeah, ladies...  This one's all mine!

It is easy to let the pressures of our crazy schedule (we work opposite shifts) get in the way of good communication and loving exchanges.  We are often short with one another.  We get frustrated about little things.  We could do a better job of establishing routines and structures that would anchor us through the regular storms of life--being over-committed,  running late, unexpected bills, getting sick--all of the little things that make up day-to-day married life.  We both work very hard and often parent independently, and it's too easy to take each other for granted.  In spite of all that, we are incredibly blessed in knowing that we both really love each other.

I honestly count my loving husband as one of the most amazing blessings in my life, and a good friend recently reminded me that in all actuality, my marriage is really a miracle.  Someday I hope to write about all of the chaos that makes me having a surviving and thriving marriage so miraculous, but for now I'll list the highlights.  My parents divorced when I was four.  My father soon remarried, and divorced again when I was twelve.  My father remarried a third time, and his current wife wants absolutely nothing to do with me.  My mother also remarried when I was young, and her husband is not a kind man, to put it mildly.  My childhood was full of abuse and neglect, and yet it was full of grace and redemption as well.  I have been married for twelve years, and in that time my husband has shown me a love I never believed I deserved.  He has loved me in a way that is Christ-like and devoted, and he has protected me in a way my own parents never did.  We are together against all odds, living out a marriage that has either lasted longer or been much more healthy than any of my parents' many unions.  My marriage isn't perfect, but it is a miracle.

View as we began our drive home...

I am so grateful for our little overnight trip to reconnect.  It was short, but it was full of laughter, of love, of time with no one but each other for just a little while.  I was refreshed by the incredible scenery, the luxury of someone else taking care of me, and the opportunity to talk with one another.  We must find a way to integrate this kind of connecting into our daily lives.  

Taking time...

This year, 33, I want to take control of my own thoughts.  I want to bring my focus back to the many miracles and blessings I have in my life, instead of focusing so much on what I want but do not have.  Although the challenges loom large in front of me and threaten to overwhelm me at times, the truth is that the blessings outweigh and outshine the challenges.  I need only to remember where to put my focus and my hope.


"Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.  We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment." Romans 5:2-5a (NLT)

Love wins...  And it is a miracle every single time it happens.