agenda:

june 5 - dinner for marrieds

june 6-8 camping trip for the guys

june 10 - bachelorette party

june 11 - maid of honor/best man at a wedding

june 13 - our pictures

june 20 - chase's birthday

june 22- pictures

june 24 - quit job

june 26 - wedding

june 26-29 - cabin

july 2-25 - europe

july 26-27 - possible trek parents

july 28 - talk in church

august 9 - wedding

august 10 - move to california

somewhere in there:

finish packing

visit delta

visit friends

edit photos

find an apartment
find a job

"feast upon His love;

for ye may,

if your minds are firm,

forever." 
-jacob 3;2

faith is something i used to accept without really delving into.

i had it.

that's all that mattered right?

i was wrong.

it's so much more than that.

faith is now the essence of how i live.

it has become a real and living part of who i am.

i love the concept of faith.

faith is the opposite of fear,

it's my strength in weakness.

faith gives me courage, it gives me power.

because my faith comes in and from God.

faith is not merely a belief but a conviction so strong it moves us to act.

faith does not merely reside in the heart.

faith is a determination,

 a commitment,

 a mental exertion, eveyday 

to remember and hold onto what we know.

i know that God is real,

he is so real - my heart aches

aches in a way that makes my soul long to be better,

to rise above my fear, my weaknesses, my mortality

so that i can reach his plain.

faith is the essence of my testimony, and my conversion.

it is truth revealed to the senses.

my mind will be firm in this knowledge forever.

image - via pinterst

how can love be so powerful?

what makes someone decide to love another?

it’s assumed that a mother will love her child

……why?

love doesn't merely happen – it’s cultivated

it’s a process of thinking positively about another

with a mother the process starts long before the child is born.

my mom started that process early and has never stopped.

i’ve always felt accepted by my mom – no matter what.

this to me is the ultimate love,

loving another even when they may not turn out how you wanted them too

loving them in spite of and because of their differences

love is a choice – I’m grateful everyday my mom chose to love me,

and because of that love she has given me the ultimate gift and shaped my soul for good.

i close my eyes and see her face, smell her scent and feel her hug,

and i know that life is good.

i am forever changed.

sometimes i think i’ve got it

i think i’m doing so good and then..

i’m hit

i’m hit with the burdens of my expectations, my imperfections

i can’t seem to breathe

and just when i thought I’d learned to breathe deeper than ever

i panic, i cry, i get irrational, i don’t respond to things like i normally would

just when I think i’ll never breathe again

a breath of air floats my way

it floats so softly and gently that i almost miss it

i probably have missed it,

it’s been there all along i just couldn’t take it in

i couldn’t get my mouth to open or my body to inhale before

and now i can part my lips i can inhale as much as I can handle

my body begins to relax out of it’s panic

i’m not breathing as deep as i once was

But someday i’ll breathe deeper

“it is discovering Jesus, finding holy moments daily,

that will make us whole.”

– emily freeman “becoming his”

image - via pinterest

words acknowledge that imagination is just as important as reality

without imagination how would we shape our future

our future reality would be bleak without first dreaming about it

dreams influence our desires, desires influence our dreams

"what we insistently desire is what we will ultimately become" 

-neal a maxwell

here's to imagining, dreaming, desiring.....

 insistently

till I've become

image - thomas steuer

as i walked to work this morning

i had a perfect moment.

a moment of definition -

they come when i have been prepared

they come when i am still -

these moments are sweet and peaceful

i felt the cool air on my skin

the silence surrounding me

my feet kept walking but my soul wanted to stop

to soak it all in till i could almost disappear into the moment itself 

and then i heard the whisper of 

"remember"

remember this sweetness this almost utter perfectness

for when i can remember these times of definition

i am made strong in my moments of weakness

"here than is a great truth.

in the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, 

we pass through a refiner's fire, 

and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives 

can melt away like dross and make our faith

bright, intact and strong.  

in this way the divine image can be mirrored from the soul.

it is part of the purging toll exacted of some to 

become acquainted with God."

image - kim haltermand