For Better or Worse and All That...

Welcome to Traces Space...For better or worse, in sickness and in health until death do us part...the vow.  What is this thing that we signed up for? Don't be frightened folks...this space isn't full of negativity here...I just feel like we enter into marriage full of expectations that, well, read on...
I think often about the day I married Mike...It was full of excitement and a whole lot of emotion.  We were both very young and very immature.  All we knew was that we wanted the promise of a lifetime, and in the midst of that promise I am sure we did not anticipate the "life" that would come our way.
We both have very needy personalities, and in this almost thirty year ride those personalities have some times caused conflict.  The first conflict involved the game of Monopoly.  Mike is a "real" rule player, there is no room for adjustments to the rules...they are what they are.  Now I am not quite wired that way, I am all about playing games by the rules that have been established by the game players, and the one particular rule that I always played by in this game was when you landed on free parking you got all of the money in the middle of the board.  This is not, I repeat, not a rule in monopoly.  Hence forth a very heated debate.  How stupid, we were really fighting about Monopoly.
Over the years we have had a lot of "heated" debates, you know from finances, children to whether or not it is a good idea to buy bass guitars or shoes...But what ever the debate may have been over or how heated it became we somehow have been able to get over it.  I don't believe there has been something said in the heat of anger that couldn't be worked out between us.
I will be the first person to say that its not perfect and thank YOU Jesus its not.  See I believe just as in our own personal character building, the marriage life building develops character by how you live through the "life" that comes your way.   We are responsible for our response, and we can either let the stuff control us or look at the stuff see if we can fix it, or just live through it and when its over simply say, "whew".
I love this man with every part of my being.  I also believe that his being in my life was of divine appointment.  My life was spinning out of control and this young caring man looked beyond the garbage in my heart and and loved me anyway.  I have not always been kind, I have been controlling, down right ugly, but he loves me anyway.
We have faced being broke, death, illness, the stuff that most folks do and in the midst of all of that we have not only found a stronger willingness to keep the vow, but to make new ones.  To dedicate our lives to serving God not just as individuals but as a couple.
Is this what we signed up for? At the beginning, no.  We had no idea, again all we knew was the excitement of being in love and well not really worrying about anything else.  But now it is and so much more.  The promise of a lifetime is now filled with joy, hope and most of all love.
Ruth 1:16 Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
Yes...Where he goes I will go...His God will be mine...
So, for better or worse and all that goes a long with it.
See you soon

It is what it is...

Welcome to Traces space...It is what it is.  It is a phrase that seems to come from my mouth more these days than ever.  Is it where I am in life, my age, or is it actually one of those things that has been on my heart for years but God is using something as simple of a phrase to help me in my quest to kind of just get some of what life is throwing my way?
I have found myself for a few years simply throwing this phrase around like I really mean it, but recently it has found itself finding meaning of its own in my life.
Sometimes we find ourselves living in moments that we just can't understand, and it may not even be a moment that is horrible, it is just a life kind of thing...A long line at the grocery store, a traffic jam, a day at work that we think will never end. And in each of those situations we find ourselves so caught up in the moment that we might actually miss something that "is" and that God may be trying to reveal Himself in.
It is what it is isn't a bad thing.  Ok, I have come to that conclusion after years of believing that wherever we are in life sometimes is our "lot"...its not that at all. 
As we grow in who God is and Who God is in us, we find ourselves in a whole lot of it is moments, and in that growth/maturity, we learn to adjust ourselves to the time we spend there.  The idea is to simply live through it or in it until it is time to move through it or over it or what ever the greater plan may be.
Its a good place to lose yourself in prayer, to pray that He show you that which you really need to see or hear while you are there.
God is everywhere in every situation, even when we think He isn't.  His desire is that we seek Him at all times, and that we are always will to praise and worship no matter what.
Psalm 40:17

¹⁷ My Lord, I am only a poor, helpless man,
    but please pay attention to me.
You are my helper, the one who can save me.
    My God, don’t be too late

Even when we feel poor and broken in our "it is" moment...He is our Helper and our deliverer.  He lends His ear to us and listens when we call upon His name.

Be encouraged...It is what it is, isn't forever.  Have faith, lift up your head...for you shall over come!

See you soon...