Too School for Cool

So...as much as I love summer break (and as much as I may regret this by December), I have been to my classroom just about every day for the past three weeks. I have LOVED getting to re-do my classroom. I really felt like in order to create a whole new (and very different) year for myself, that I needed to strip the walls bare and try again. And I'm glad I did!! A new 5th grade teacher inspired me to hang up curtains on my white walls and what a burst of color it added! Take a look:

 And my brain is exploding with hundreds of other ideas. I found this free printable and hope to do the same with it:

Cute huh?

And with my last free week, I plan on making these and hanging them from my ceiling:

Find this on my new guilty pleasure, Pinterest.

ALSO, I recently ordered this from an Etsy user and have been waiting rather impatiently to get it in the mail:

And when all else fails, I will look over and see this sitting by my desk:

So will these new things lend themselves to a better year? I don't know. But they definitely help my mindset. Here's to year 2. I'm like a pro........right?

But tomorrow?? I'm not going in and my mantra will be this:

:)

On Earth as it is in Heaven

This is a blog I found a few weeks ago. Katie from Amazima ministries gave up her life here in the states to live in Uganda and adopt 14 little girls. Her story is one that brings tears to my eyes! Read it here: The Journey.

I Thee Wedd-ed

One year down. A lifetime to go {God willing}. 


I cannot believe that Josh and I will be married a year this Saturday! It disappeared from me! That 'newlywed' thing is now over...right? Maybe not to those who have been married ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years, who probably grin and say, "Oh, you have just begun!" I must say, it certainly doesn't l feel like it is over. And to be honest, I pray it never does feel that way. I fully intend to hold onto this 'newlywed' feeling for as long as possible :)


Not going to lie...God's grace was necessary, essential to living this year {much like every year, except this one was just a little different}. In fact, it seemed like any moment we had the thought, "Hey...I got this marriage thing down. I'm all good!" we were reminded just how much we needed Him. Once we thought we could do it on our own, there He was reminding us that apart from Him, we could do NOTHING. 


And this thought makes me wonder, really wonder, how anyone can do marriage without Him. How?? How do they sacrifice and forgive? Without Christ as my example, I would be totally lost (and to be brutally honest, even WITH Him as my example, many times I am lost). And believe it or not, I have been asked by several people how I KNOW my marriage will last. A totally honest, raw question. The first time I was asked it {"But Beth, how do you know you will be with him the rest of your life? How do you know you won't fall out of love?"}, I stumbled over my words. Then I really thought about it. How do I know. How do I know??
                     Because Christ will never leave His church. There may be times of painful distance and tragic backsliding on our part, but He will never leave His wife. He will never just get too frustrated with His church, pack up, and move out. He keeps His promises. He will never just "fall out of love." Marriage is a display of that! It puts the glory of Christ's covenant-keeping love on display. And He is my example. And, thankfully, He is Josh's as well. 


C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity something about this "falling out of love." He says:
                        "Being in love, is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now, no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all...In fact, the state of being in love usually does not last...But of course ceasing to 'be in love' need not mean ceasing TO love. Love...is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by the grace which both partners ask and receive from God...They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be 'in love' with someone else. 'Being in love' first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep their promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it."


So...when that day comes, IF it comes, I can know that I will still love and choose to love this guy. And I trust that He will too (He already puts up with WAY to much from me, Paha). 

I am so thankful for my husband. Thankful that God knew five years ago when two people/kids met on a college campus, and became friends, that He had a plan for their lives. To use them for His glory to-geth-er. I like that word -- together. 
And Saturday I get to eat that top tier of wedding cake. And this time, I WILL remember what it                                                        tastes like.

Calendars and Maps

When I look at the calendar, I am overwhelmed at the year that has passed. A good overwhelmed. Maybe just whelmed actually.

Why? Because this time last year I was in the midst of the chaos that is planning a wedding and the anxiety of beginning a whole new life. We already knew a month before that we would be moving to Sikeston as I had signed a teaching contract for the upcoming school year (SUCH a blessing!). At the same time, Josh had no prospects at having a job, much less a job in the ministry. It seemed for a time that we had gone into this whole getting married thing blind...with very little assurance. 

Little did we know that once I met a co-worker, Josh would be offered a job, or that after four months of discouraging church searching, we would find a precious gem - Trinity Baptist - with their sweet people who pour themselves into newcomers like they have been there for years. We also couldn't have imagined my car (purchased outright by my parents) would be totaled the night before our wedding, only to be replaced by insurance money with a much more reliable Honda (Josh's family are big on Honda's, so we joined in the Govier tradition). Finally, I had no idea just how hard this first year of teaching would be and just how much my faith would be sifted.

The Lord proved Himself over and over again when He didn't have to. All this just makes me throw up my hands and cry, "Why would I have EVER doubted You?!" Why would I take my eyes off of my Jesus? And I have learned the lesson {again} that if there is anything to fear, it is to be only HIM.

Gloria Dios.

Here I am.

So here I am.

An official blogger. I'm not really even sure how to do this. My life really isn't all that exciting and, after abandoning a blog I had through college, we will just have to see how this goes. All I do know is that I like to write. And the Lord, by His grace, has certainly given me things I can talk about :)