Captain my Captain

My dear sweet husband has been dealing with one stressed cookie today. In our post wedding, post honeymoon, post opened presents world I am feeling so stressed to get things put away, keep track of our presents and not lose the cards that have money or gift cards in them and not to mention getting thank you cards out. So I just want to shout out to everyone, thank you so much for your love and support on our wedding day and the much love that continues popping up afterward. I apologize for my tardiness in sending out cards of gratitude, it just keeps abounding and I have no idea how to keep up.

So I'm learning a thing or two, stress does not make things go better or faster and it puts your spouse at a loss. I'm grateful for my husband's kind patience in looking for things that I put away and for reminding me that things take time and people won't feel less loved if things take time.

There are so many things in this life that we think we need to stress over. So many of my prayers include pleas for help to get this thing done and that thing done and guidance of what to do, who to become and how to do it. All of these things are good and important and should have a place in our lives. But as I learned this morning, when I take my game plan of things I need to the Lord more often then not He'll respond, not quite, be patient, have faith and wait. We need to be anxiously engaged and we should be seeking for God's direction in our lives, but there is true power in being still and knowing He is control. As we pray every morning for an open heart to receive His direction and as we seek His will He will direct and help us, but if we get too caught up in our plan or if we are stressed into a corner we are not able to be directed. There is true power in allowing Christ to be our Captain and guide and trusting Him to direct and help. We can't do everything ourselves, the beauty is that we aren't supposed to.

Gems Along the Way

I apologize for my two weeks absence, I promise it was for a good cause :-) and I want to thank everyone who kept stopping by, I was a bit afraid that my thoughts that I sent out into cyber space would be lost, but you faithful people have kept it alive in my absence.


As I hinted at in my last post I was preparing to enter the House of the Lord and be sealed for time and all eternity and after two years of maybes, perhaps and almost there's my fiance and I made it, we are now husband and wife. The power in that house is truly amazing! As my now husband (who isn't a big fan of large groups of people) said "our time in the temple gave me a boost of energy so I can face the reception." It has given both of us a burst of power to start our life together.

You know all those quotes you read about needing to be happy now, to not wait for that certain something you're wishing for in order to be happy. In the past few years I've tried to do my best to find joy in the moment and now that I have received what I've been excitedly waiting for I realize just how powerful that counsel is. Just because you get what you wanted doesn't make the world a miraculously happy magical place. Please do not get me wrong, I LOVE BEING MARRIED!!! It is awesome and our trip to the Oregon coast was beautiful and brilliant, I really, really, really love the Red Woods! Yet even  in all the beauty there are aspects of marriage that are unfamiliar, a bit foreign and just weird. In uniting two people from different backgrounds, different perspectives and different ways to process emotion, sometimes things hurt, sometimes you have emotions you don't expect. That does not mean that getting married was a bad choice nor does it mean that you flee or question what in the world Heavenly Father is doing. Instead you go to him with gratitude that what you have plead for  and dreamed about has come and say, wow I'm in totally new ground, please help. Our Father knows us and loves us, He cares about us more deeply than we can even imagine and He knows what makes us tick and what we need to grow, and trust me, sometimes that doesn't line up with what we think we need.

(not our ring set, but a very nice stock photo ;-)


As I start this new adventure called married life and face new things that I'm sure many have faced before me, I'm thankful for a loving husband that is there every step of the way and the love of my Heavenly Father that reminds to always look at the best in my husband and trust Him because my loving young man is a gift and a miracle to me. I know that we can grow and change, that we truly can become what our Heavenly Father intends, even on circuitous routes when Father lets us learn precept by precept, line upon line. Like Paul who plead for relief from his "thorn in the flesh" our Father tells us, His grace is sufficient to tackle any challenge and find joy in every moment.

I hope as we all face new adventures we find strength from those around us and the gems along the way.