1 Timothy 6:11-21

I like this Bible verse in the New International Version but looked it up in the Message and liked that version too. (I like reading both versions because I feel like the NIV is more clear, but the language of the Message version can be so pretty.) 

So here it is, with my favorite parts in bold and blanks where it said Timothy so you can insert your name and receive the same encouraging charge.

"But you, __________, man of God: Run for your life from all this. 
Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. 
Run hard and fast in the faith. 
Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, 
the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.

I’m charging you before the life-giving God and before Christ, 
who took his stand before Pontius Pilate and didn’t give an inch: 
Keep this command to the letter, and don’t slack off. 
Our Master, Jesus Christ, is on his way. 
He’ll show up right on time, his arrival guaranteed 
by the Blessed and Undisputed Ruler, High King, High God. 
He’s the only one death can’t touch, his light so bright no one can get close. 
He’s never been seen by human eyes—human eyes can’t take him in! 
Honor to him, and eternal rule! Oh, yes.

Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. 
Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.

And oh, my dear _______, guard the treasure you were given! 
Guard it with your life. 
Avoid the talk-show religion and the practiced confusion of the so-called experts. 
People caught up in a lot of talk can miss the whole point of faith.
Overwhelming grace keep you!"

[1 Timothy 6:11-21]

marriage advice

at the start of my bachelorette party, my married friends shared some of their marriage advice. here's what stuck out:

- be nice to each other
- don't compare your relationship to others
- just have fun
- both be good forgivers

some other marriage advice that has stuck with me:

 1.) at my friend jeannette's bridal shower, someone who has been married 30+ years and does a lot of marriage counseling for people with her husband said, "people just don't have enough sex. everyone needs to have more sex." (this person also wanted to yell "sex!" instead of "surprise!" when the bride came in, which i thought seemed like overkill, but hey.)

2.) at my friend elizabeth's bachelorette party, one of her married friends said that her grandma (yeah right would either of my grandmas ever tell me what i'm about to tell you she said) told her before her wedding, "honey, it only takes a little bit of time and it makes him really, really happy. so even if you're really tired, just do it." ha, what a grandma, i love it.

one of my best friends, ashley, has been a huge source of encouragement to me, particularly in regards to marriage. she lives in minnesota and has been married for about  a year and a half now, and you might remember her from my post about our friendship or the one about her beautiful wedding.

ashley sent me sweet cards while lance was in ranger school with prayers and words for us as a couple that meant the world to me. she is so positive about marriage -  truly a breath of fresh air in a world where so many people insinuate (or flat out say) that marriage is a bad choice.

i love listening to her talk about how great being a newlywed is! and i love her honesty about what a challenge it can be, but how all of the work you put into is so worth it. (i may or may not remember her saying at one point - "sometimes it's so much work i think i should be getting paid for it!")

i am grateful for  her enthusiasm for lance and me, and i have to commend ashley for being an awesome wife - she is a great example to me of what it looks like to honor and respect your husband!

i am SO EXCITED to get married and start this huge new adventure with lance. to not be in a long distance relationship anymore. to be an awesome wife and to have an awesome husband. to get to fall asleep and wake up together. to move out ... move to georgia ... and make an apartment our home!

oh and please feel free to leave a comment with your marriage advice, or the best marriage advice you've received - clearly i enjoy hearing it.

almost wedding time

only 9 days until lance gets to PA, and 17 days until the wedding!

i decided to write something so i remember how i felt when the wedding was this close. i always think i'll remember everything, but it turns out i don't - and my blog can be really helpful for looking back.

i am really, REALLY excited. i hope the day doesn't fly by in a blur, and i hope i don't feel nervous. the coordinator made a point to say that we need to amplify our voices during the vows for the ceremony and i nodded that i understood, but what i really wanted to say was, "um lady, i could care less about amplifying. if i make it through our vows without sobbing the whole time i will consider it a win."

my bridal shower two weekends ago was so sweet. my mom did such a great job planning EVERYTHING for it. she is simply the BEST and i don't know what i'd do without her.

i am thankful for my sweet brother driving people to the shower, and hiding out in a parking lot to call when my mom and i  drove by, probably scaring to death the person who happened to be walking out of said church at the exact moment he was ducking down in his vehicle to call to alert the party people we were close.

and i'm thankful for my stepdad, who is really the nicest person ever and the best stepdad you could ask for, and he grilled some tasty bacon-wrapped chicken for the shower - my fave. (such a girly girl i am with my food choices, i know.)

{it was a full, full house! and this doesn't even show everyone.}

{thank you so much Cindy for taking pictures!}

i felt SO loved. your heart is just overwhelmed with love that there are so many people in your life who care about you and love you and want to support this huge, momentous occasion! i love it.

i felt like i was in a daze at my bridal shower, maybe because it was a surprise. except technically it wasn't because i had pretty much figured it out. but still. the surreal feeling that day has me hoping my wedding day won't be a blur.

this past weekend was my bachelorette party and it was also a BLAST. seven of my friends and i spent the night at a cute hotel in philadelphia. i'm blessed to have a friend who is a very talented hair stylist and she did my hair in fun vintage curls and did my makeup too, which i loved.

we had amazing sushi for dinner, complete with nasty hot sake shots ... which i loved even though they tasted terrible, because i'm obsessed with trying new things. our waiter was so fun. (i love it when you get a good, happy server.)

i loved wearing my pink bachelorette sash and even more than that i LOVED all of the well wishes from strangers telling me "congratulations" and "you'll be a beautiful bride" and my personal favorite - "your fiance is the luckiest guy in the world!" ha. philly really IS the city of brotherly love. ;-)

then we did karaoke! i am so excited that i can check that off my life list! after a slew of girly songs (think britney spears "hit me baby one more time" and spice girls "wannabe") we left for dancing at another spot.

more highlights:
- my cousin screaming my name into the mic after karaoke and telling everyone to "give it up!"
- someone giving me a feather mask from their mardi gras party
- beautiful snow falling outside (but not sticking around til morning for our drive home, phew)
- arguing with the DJ because he wouldn't play a song one of us requested, whoopsies
- lots of good chats traveling to and from
- spotting a michael buble lookalike
- someone deciding to adopt a british/australian accent
- and a friend taking off her heels at the end of the night, walking barefoot on a philly sidewalk because apparently i am not the only person who struggles to walk in heels. i kept mine on the whole time, no problem, woot woot. but my feet were sore the next two days, womp womp.

Super Bowl commercials

Lance got back to the United States early yesterday morning from his third deployment, woohoo!

All day I was regretting my decision to save money and not take off work and fly down to see him ... but ... such is life, and our reunion in PA in a few weeks will be even sweeter. =)

So of course this Jeep commercial at the Super Bowl made me tear up ...

"We wait. We hope. We pray. Until you're home again."

I also loved the Dodge Ram God Made A Farmer commercial - how could you not?! If there was a winner for the ads, I'd say this was definitely it.

Here is another poem by Paul Harvey, the broadcaster who wrote the farmer poem in the video. He wrote this in a newspaper column in 1964 ...

"If I were the Devil . . .

I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness.

I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States.

I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.”

To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”.

In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct.

And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: “Our Father, which art in Washington” . . .

If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting.

I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa.

And then, if I were the devil, I’d get organized. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me.

I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine yound intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild.

I would designate an athiest to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say “she’s right.”

With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress.

Then in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science.

If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle.

If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps.

In other words, if I were Satan, I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing."