Days 5 and 6: Voting and Prayers

While I'm definitely thinking about what I'm thankful for day-to-day, it does appear to be challenging to write about it every single day especially during busy weeks like this one! So today will be for yesterday and today. Going ahead, I may not post every day, but I will surely cover all 30 days when I do!

Gosh, as if everyone everywhere wasn't talking about voting anyways...I have to go ahead and add it to this too. This is the dialogue that is going on in my mind right now, but the truth is that this blog is a record of my life, something my family and I can look back to and say...oh yeah! I remember that! So yes, I am talking about voting.

Don't worry, I'm not going to make this yet another political rant. Instead, I just want to say that I'm thankful for the opportunity to cast my vote. I'm thankful that we live in a time and in a country where I can voice my opinion and have my voice somewhat heard via casting my ballot. I think we, as a society, lose site of this. We most likely forget about this sentiment because during this campaign time, so much hostility surfaces. It's actually saddening to see so many unproductive arguments take place due to differing opinions. Don't get me wrong--I feel strongly about my voting choices and the political candidates and issues I vote for; however, I also feel strongly about the ability to carry on conversations with people who have differing opinions without being offensive, abrasive, or breaking relationship ties. Having the ability to listen and carry on dialogue doesn't mean that you are allowing people to change your mind. To me it means that I'm acknowledging the fact that we are different, but that I still have a larger obligation to love and care for people regardless.

I am thankful for living in a nation that I can vote. It's liberating! I actually get excited to go to the polls, greet the same lovely ladies who check my name off and hand me my ballot every year. It's kind of cool to stand at your little booth and work your way through the complex language of the ballot issues. I love that when I am finished with my ballot, it's always the same cute, old man who instructs me to tear off the bottom tabs and insert my ballot into the scanner one at a time. Oh and then we get the sticker! Can't forget about the very cool, fashionista sticker that I get to sport for the rest of the day! Then I get to oogle over the baked goods for the PTA bake sale and make my donation in exchange for some delicious home baked goods! Yumm!

So after all of these descriptions, I bet you're wanting to know our personal choices for voting day....Well, Bryan got chocolate covered pretzels. I got peanut butter cookies with the peanut butter cups in the middle. :) Haha

Moving on...

I am also thankful for prayers. We are so blessed to have so many prayer warriors amongst our family and friends. Whenever we are in need it is so nice to know that we have been blessed with people who are willing to appeal to God on our behalf right alongside us. When we are feeling down and out, we have people who are constantly keeping us lifted up in prayer. Like I've said in past posts, I just love Matthew 18: 19, 20. There is something so special about a community of believers praying together! Joining in purpose to pray! You all know about our number one prayer request right now (babies) and I'm just so thankful to know that so many of my family and friends have reached out to me to let me know that they're praying. I believe the Bible to be the living truth and so I know that God hears our prayers based on His promise in Matthew 18:19, 20. So to all of my praying warriors: Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Owning a pet = Parenthood Training

After my last post I am overwhelmed by the love and kindness from so many of my readers. Some of you shared your personal stories of miracles and provided me with encouragement, others dropped a note just to say “I’m praying for you”, and others still may have not said anything but I certainly just feel an overwhelming sense of God in my day-to-day. So thank you for those of you who have been praying for us!

Matthew 18:19-20 

¹⁹ “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

This was the first scripture I had ever memorized, because my Grandma would constantly say this whenever we would come together to pray. We would petition to God using this scripture. So again thank you to those of you who are praying for us for God is surely amidst them all.

In my last post, I shared how I was feeling like God was calling me to grow in love during this time of waiting. Not just loving when it was easy, but loving through being patient, kind, slow to anger, etc. Well I don’t know about you, but when God calls me to grow…it’s not always the easiest thing to do, because He usually does so through trying experiences that test you in many ways. This brings me to my post title: Tiger, my 15 year old miniature poodle. Tiger is the best dog ever; you would never know  he’s 15, considering how playful, smart, well-behaved and active he is. Everyone that meets little Tiger is amazed that he is 15 because minus the gray hair and the loss of hearing, he acts like a puppy. 

Isn't he cute?!

He’s not the dog who has regular accidents in the house unless there’s something wrong, so you can imagine Bryan’s surprise when he woke up on Tuesday morning to splatters of diarrhea in 3 spots in our living room. He spent allllll morning scrubbing the carpet clean. Then Tiger seemed fine! Fast forward to Wednesday evening when we got home from work, POOP! Diarrhea EVERYWHERE! Beware: pictures below. Every dark spot is poop. The white powdery stuff is baking soda that I put down from the first round, only for him to poop on top of it.

Each dark spot is...you guessed it...poop.

 Oh man God, you are surely giving me some practice in parenting. God is SURELY trying to grow my patience, kindness, being slow to anger, and putting myself last because I can confidently say in that moment each of those was truly being tested! I knew he was sick so of course I felt extremely bad, but the last thing I wanted to do that day after a long day of work was scrub every inch of my carpet…literally. I'm sure parents find themselves in these predicaments all the time. That night we put in a call to Stanley Steamer, because my carpet certainly was a victim to my dog’s sickness. A special thanks to my mom for helping us through this week's dilemma. A mom never stops being a mom! Before going to bed I laid down plastic, blankets, towels…anything just in case the blowout would happen again before the cleaners came. Sure enough, it did. More poop in multiple locations; at least this time it was on plastic and washable towels and blankets. Stanley Steamers came, cleaned the carpets and deodorized them, THANK GOD! Upon their departure, I promptly took Tiger to the vet. Turns out he has colitis (inflammation of the colon), which they think is from something he ate. Somehow, I have no idea how, he must’ve got into (or was given by some knucklehead) something fried, greasy, or spicy. We hosted a birthday party last weekend and served chicken parmesan, pasta, and meatballs. The vet said any one of those things would be enough to tear him up for a little bit. We were given some Imodium, an antibiotic, and instructed to feed him boiled chicken and rice until the diarrhea goes away. So now we’re in the waiting game and PRAYING for it to be over soon. Sick doggies are no fun! In the meantime, after I paid to have clean carpets, I went to the Dollar Store and got tons of plastic tablecloths. I spread them out all over the room so that if there are more accidents, I can just roll up the tablecloth and throw it away!

No more scrubbing carpet…I hope. Anyways, talk about God trying to grow me in these areas! If this isn’t a trying and growing experience for preparation of parenthood, then I don’t know what is! Haha. I’m thankful for God’s presence in my life and even though I’ve been stressed beyond belief, I know that His gracious hand is in it and He will support me through it! Owning a pet feels like having a child in so many ways, doesn't it? I wouldn't change it for the world, because I sure do love my Tiger and dread the day he passes. Until we have our babies, Tiger is our baby. One day I will be glad for the parenthood training, because I'm sure being a parent will bring about all kinds of messiness and more poop stories!

Love Dare

Bryan and I have started a new couples’ devotional to help focus our bible study time together. It’s titled Love Dare and it actually stems from the movie Fireproof, which we used to watch often during our courtship. For one of our past Valentine’s Days, two years ago I believe, he bought me this devotional and said this is for when we’re married. :) I just loved it. It made my heart fill with joy to know that I had a man that loved God, wanted Him to be the foundation of our marriage relationship & our future family and also that he was going to be my spiritual leader. To now see it in action is truly a blessing. I feel God’s love and guidance through my marriage and it’s such a wonderful, exciting, joyful, and inspiring feeling. 

This theme of God’s love never failing has been on repeat in my life. It has been resurfacing itself everywhere I turn. In bible study a couple weeks ago, we were discussing 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7. 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

In that discussion my friend mentioned that a good way to look at 1 Corinthians 13 is to replace “Love” or “it” with your name. I didn’t do it in that moment, but it stuck with me. 

As I was driving to church the other week the song “Your Love Never Fails” sung by Jesus Culture came on the radio and literally brought tears to my eyes. The lyrics talk about how God is always there, He always loves, always doing everything to the good of those who love Him! I have been relentlessly praying for God to bless us with a child. We’ve had our share of peaks and valleys when it comes to this and it turns out that getting pregnant is not as easy as they make it sound on TV/movies. In the midst of feeling that despair, I hear that song on the radio. Then I get to church and I heard it again! Then I decided to go to a prayer night at my aunt’s church to receive prayer and that song came on as background music just before I was going to receive prayer! Wow, I heard God in that moment. He was reminding me that His love never fails and that all things will work together for my good. One of the lyrics to the song says, “There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning…” This reminded me that this time isn’t going to last forever. I may feel anguish for the struggles we’ve had in conceiving, but in God’s timing joy will come in the morning. We will conceive and this struggle will be something of the past; we will experience the joy after the pain.  

Isn’t God’s love amazing?!

Now this brings me back to Love Dare. This past week’s study, challenge, and prayer that the book has us doing together is asking God to teach us what real love is and help us to love each other in that way. Then, get this, the book instructed us to read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 and replace the words “love” and “it”. This time I was hearing God loud and clear. We went ahead and did it and Bryan just said “wow”. My thoughts were saying the same thing. How perfect is God’s love and imperfect is ours, but yet we’re perfected through God’s love. Wow.

You’re probably seeing my theme, but not really understanding what it all means. What is God trying to show me? I wondered the same thing for a while and I’m not sure I could even vocalize it until now. God wants me to know that He loves me and He hears my prayers. He has it all figured out and it will all come together in His perfect timing. Until then, I need to focus on what I can focus on. I think he’s trying to have me focus on loving like He does. Certainly this is a characteristic that is mandatory of parents and I’m sure is challenging in parenthood. Not that parents don’t always love their kids, because they certainly do, but 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 goes further than that! Like the parts about patience, not being easily angered, keeping no record of wrongs, not be self-seeking, not be envious, or boastful---Wow! I don’t know about you all, but I am certainly not a pro at all of this! However, I can see that all of these characteristics are so important to have as a husband/wife and a parent. 

Well God, I hear you. Not in an audible voice booming down from the heavens, but in my heart and my life I just feel you moving. Thank you for revealing yourself to me. I see the areas where you desire for me to grow, so that Bryan and I can be the best parents we can be. More importantly, so that we can show Christ-like love to our children and disciple them to love you like we do.

If you feel compelled, feel free to pray for us. If anyone desires prayer in return, please let me know. I would love to pray for you too!

Check out this song! It has been such an inspiration to me lately.