A Hodgepodge of Topics

Life~

As I sat down to write this blog, I was pretty unsure of what to blog about today.  You see, these days, my life doesn’t change that much from day to day.  It’s simple, yet full.  Before leaving Teen Mania one of my mentors spoke over me that this coming season would be a “Pit-Stop” in the race of life for me. A time of refreshing and renewal.  Has it been those things?  I would say, Yes.  Not in the way I was originally anticipating because “His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.” Humans life is NEVER what we expect right? The important thing to remember is our life is ALWAYS what He, Christ, expects it the be!  How freeing, peaceful and rich is that?? It gets me excited! And reminds me SO much of how much I really do need his grace, EVERY SECOND!

Preparing for Marriage~

I was reading this sermon one morning this week “The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission” in it Piper talks about the four parts of a  Powerful  Womanhood:
1) Unshakable Hope in God – not her husband or her looks, but in the promises of God!  
2)Fearlessness – grows out of Hope. She knows whatever comes, will come and therefore does not fear the future. 
3) Internal Adornment – focusing more on beautifying her heart and mind, rather than her outward appearance.
4) Submission- he defines submission as:

“Submission is the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husband’s leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts. It’s the disposition to follow a husband’s authority and an inclination to yield to his leadership. It is an attitude that says, “I delight for you to take the initiative in our family. I am glad when you take responsibility for things and lead with love. I don’t flourish in the relationship when you are passive and I have to make sure the family works.”

Beautiful. Refreshing. Empowering. are the words that come to mind after reading that.  I feel like in today’s society that submission might as be a four-letter word, because they don’t see the other 3 parts of womanhood. But like anything, when it’s done God’s way, it’s wonderful! 

Fun~

On another note – Mike is going to be here in less than TWO weeks!  We have lots planned already, but the biggest plan is for this beautiful lady- Ria Lenzen- to take our engagement pictures!  I am SO excited!  What is it in women starts planning  for these kind of things weeks in advance… the clothes, hair, make-up, shoes, jewelry, etc? I enjoy being a woman and delighting in these things, but planning for engagement pics takes it to a whole new level, I want everything to be perfect!!  Guess I need to keep in mind what Piper said, while I make my plans, right? Anyone have any tips for Engagement pics?  Bring ‘em on!

Until Next time!
Heidi

Preparing for Marriage

This season of engagement has been beautiful! A time for preparing, discussing and anticipating marriage… the great times, the normal times, and the hard times! Deep introspection and getting all the weaknesses out on the table… not easy but SO good!

Last weekend when Mike and I were together for Valentines day we started down this road. Our first assignment is to read “This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence” by John Piper.

We have books but we also have it on CD, so on our way home from the airport we listened to the first couple of chapters and discussed them. Then, at Mike’s church they have been working through Eph. 5, so Sunday morning’s sermon added to and confirmed what we had already been learning.

I’ve been trying to journal about this, but honestly it’s hard to hand-write this all out! So, here are my thoughts/journaling on what I’ve been learning:

“It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on [after the rings are exchanged], the marriage that sustains your love.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Quote in Momentary Marriage)

The covenant nature of marriage is not founded on the emotions or romance… even those are SOO wonderful! For me it has been the undeniable work of Christ bringing us together in such a way we cannot deny it’s the work of God. Then, we walk obediently into the unbreakable covenant with each other and Christ as the center."

“The ultimate thing we can say about marriage is that it exists for God’s glory. That is, it exists to display God. Now we see how: Marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant relationship to his redeemed people, the church. And therefore, the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display.” – John Piper, Ch. 1

Just as Christ sacrificed his WHOLE life for the sake of His church, so we must sacrifice our WHOLE lives to put the other first. We must be willing to lay down our life for the other. Our bodies are no longer our own but belong to the other… just as Christ is the head of the Church and we are part of His body in perfect unity with Him!

“…is it a deep, deep mystery, to think that Christ cherishes you as His own body, that Christ considers you as His own body, that Christ welcomes you into His own body; that to touch you as a member of Christ’s body is to touch Christ.” - Jeffrey Costa (Mikes’s pastor/friend)

“And you see that this means that when there is discord in marriage, when there is disunity in marriage, when there is a lack of love from a husband to a wife, and a lack of respect and regard from a wife to a husband, it isn’t just a tragedy at a human level—though it is…it’s a tragedy at the divine level, because in marriage we’re supposed to be displaying that glorious, incomprehensible mystery of our union with Christ.” – Jeffrey Costa

And just as Christ would never leave His wife, the church, we must never leave each other. Instead we must extend to the other the same grace that both are given by Christ...

“when, in fact, a husband and a wife do many things that they should be ashamed of – [the key to not being ashamed] is the experience of God’s vertical forgiving, justifying grace bent out horizontally to each other and displayed to the world.” – John Piper, Ch. 3

Ultimately – Christ must be the center of everything we do, say, and think! So many times in marriage the husband and wife look to each other for completion and healing, but instead they must look together towards Christ and keep their eyes focused on him!

Easier said that done… I know!… but such a deeply profound and important reminder!

Valentines Day Weekend

It was a weekend full of adventure and crazy flights, but so worth it all to see MY love!

We got to spend some time together, but Sunday morning is when I got the camera out :) Here are some pics from while we were at Battleship Cove. Someday we want to go back and actually tour the ships, but this day we just enjoyed being together and in Love!

My Favorite of us!

It was windy and I had the bright idea of taking the pic while we were looking into the sun… oops!…

By the battleship…. the wind came up behind me! Crazy hair!

This little river was beautiful! I took it from inside so you can see my reflection!

And a couple of the battleships…

This cove is in Fall River, MA - the town that Mike and I are going to live!! That realization became such an exciting reality to me this weekend! I can’t wait to go on walks with him by the water, explore more of Fall River, take trips to the big cites - Boston (1 hr.), Providence, RI (20 min.), NYC (4 hrs), and Hartford, CT (2 hrs)! I LOVE the architecture and depth of history of the East Coast and someday I’ll get to explore it all with the man I love… someday :-D.

The Lord has been giving me more revelation on Eph. 5… more on that to come!

Blessings!

10 Years from Now…

I WON an AWARD! Thanks Ria! It’s been SO fun to dream and then get to share it all with my followers!

Ok, here are the rules (I guess)…

* Link back to the blogger who sent you this award
* Post where you would like to be in 10 years
* Pass it on to 10 other special bloggers! (Not sure I know that many yet :) )

In 10 years… wow… I guess all I truly know is that I hope and pray that I’m right in the center of God’s will, whatever that may be!

Here are some of my dreams for the next 10 years:

~Be MARRIED to the most WONDERFUL man in the World… Mike Batista (198 days!)

~Finish my BS degree in Psychology and then get my Masters in Marriage and Family Counseling.

~Counseling couples and families towards healing and COMPLETE restoration!

~ Mike having his own THRIVING Electrical Company, through which he can bless many people and have bible studies with the guys that work for him… SO cool!

~ Have two biological children, many more in the Lord, and maybe even ADOPT! Adoption has been a dream of mine for years… I have a hard time with the thought of bring lots of my own kids into the world when there are SO many out there who need a family!

~ Falling more in love with by Savior

~And growing old with My Soon-To-Be-Hubby :)

*sigh* I can’t WAIT to see what the Lord has in store! I’m sure it’s exceedingly and abundantly more than I could ever ask or imagine!

OK… I now give this aware too…:

Skyla

Marsha

Natasha

Emily

Liz

I’m still trying to figure out people’s blog names and how to follow them, SO I think that’s all for now!

Love,

Heidi

“Life Chapter” for this Beautiful Season

The more and more I read Ephesians 5, which has been daily lately, the more I want my life to be modeled after this chapter. The last section hasn’t really applied to my life until now. I hope and pray I can live my life this way…

Excerpts from Ephesians 5 - NIV [source]

“1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and 2 live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

³But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. ⁴Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. ⁵For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God…

⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰and find out what pleases the Lord. ^{…. 13}But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."

¹⁵Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil….¹⁹Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…

Wives and Husbands

²²Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything…”

Such a high calling for any Christian and we could not achieve it without His Grace! We all need to be comparing our lives to scriptures, to make sure we’re living up to the standards and truths of Scripture… it’s not easy, it hurts, it’s gross sometimes… but it is SO WORTH IT to become more like our savior everyday!

I did something CRAZY today!

So… I was having a hard time dealing with the thought of being away from MY Valentine on the first year that I’ve ACTUALLY had a Valentine! That on top of the fact that it was a 3 Day weekend because Monday is Presidents Day!

Today, about 1:00 PM, I jumped on Kayak.com JUST to see if I could find anything remotely close to inexpensive for a flight from Des Moines to Boston… because both are on the small end for airports you ALWAYS have a layover and flights are not cheap!

Do do do… drumming fingers … I plugged in the airports and dates and times… *sigh*… probably won’t find anything. The prices start appearing… NOTHING under $300 for the times I’d specified sooooo, I widened the search a little more…

$220 for a flight for GOOD times, not the best but still good! SO… I text Mike… WHAT DO YOU THINK? We prayed/ thought/ checked our budget, and I don’t have to take vacation time… IT FIT!

So – I’m GOING TO SEE MY LOVE in 10 DAYS and be with him ALL day on VALENTINES DAY!! WAHOOOO! My heart is SO happy, being in a long distance relationship is hard when you don’t get to see each other often!

***Those of you that know me, know that I’m not usually a last minute, spur of the moment, BIG trip taker… but this I could not pass-up and Engagement is the season to do crazy, spur of the moment stuff like this…RIGHT?!?!***

--- A Very Happy Lady ---

Life As of Lately…

Ok - here's the long awaited update on most of life!

... done after I discovered this SUPER cool tool that Windows Vista has that helps you create your blog offline and then publish it... making adding pics and hyperlinks MUCH easier! It's a little thing but I was excited!

****

Wedding planning - going very smoothly!! I made a lot of the “Big” decisions pretty quickly so, now I’m down to a couple smaller decisions a day! *whew* I know that if I kept up with the pace I was running before school started AND had to do school, burnout would be inevitable! The most recent decisions I’m contemplating is this dress for a bridesmaid’s dress:

To see other pictures, especially the SUPER cute back go Here.

****

School – let’s just say this is going to be a challenging semester! The first 8 weeks I’m taking Physiological Psychology… the class is 10 times harder than the name, if you can imagine ;) and Exceptional Children… INTERESTING! This second one makes me think about being an Educational Therapist or some sort of counselor within the School System. Children need people who love them, believe in them, and are willing to do anything to see them succeed!

****

Family – my season of living in Iowa is 207 days away from coming to an end… it’s sobering and exciting! To make the most of the little time I have left, my mom and I have made Monday nights our “Date Nights”! Every single girl, living near her mom should DO THIS! We go out to dinner, wherever our hearts desire, and then to a Small Group where we’re discussing:

Last night was the first night, but it’s a diverse group so I think it’s going to be SUPER interesting and worth it to spend some time with my mom!

Blessings Blog Readers!

^^ Face Lift ^^

When I should be studying... I decided I couldn't put up with the template look of my blog any longer!

Check-out the new style... LOVE IT!

And... don't learn your study habits from me ;-)