Marriage.

It's wedding season, and I'm reaching that age where everyone around me is starting to get engaged, is planning their wedding, or it's time for their wedding. While I sit on the sidelines as the single girl, wondering when I'll even meet my guy. I'm not a girl who walks around looking for her future husband by any means. I honestly consider myself a little too selfish at the moment, with my school and work, I just don't have the time for a relationship. But as you get wedding invitations, and are surrounded by friends engaged or in a relationship, your mind occasionally wanders to the thought of when it'll all happen for you.

You may remember my post from reading When God Writes Your Love Story, which I highly recommend to any girl out there. It gives me a lot of comfort that God has the right guy out there for me, wherever he is! And when he finally does come into my life, it will be well worth the wait.

I spent last night looking through a lot of my parent's old pictures from when they were dating, and first married. My parent's are photographers, so they literally documented a lot of their dating life in their 20's and the pictures will put such a smile on your face. I love the raw emotion you see in them, the candid shots of my Mama laughing, and the shots taken of them with their friends on SSI. I'm a sentimental nut as it is, but these pictures just bring sweet tears to my eyes. My parent's were my age at the time, and you can just feel how much fun they're having in the pictures.. and they still have that much fun today.

I want a marriage like my parent's marriage. I consider myself very blessed to be witness to such a beautiful, loving, and fun marriage. I hope that one day I can have a marriage as loving, and as rewarding as theirs is.

 I want a husband that keeps me laughing every day, and encourages me to be a better person. I want someone who challenges me to be more than what I think I'm capable of. I pray that I have a husband who appreciates me, and that I will appreciate him. I pray that I have a husband who is strong in his faith, and that we can grow in our faith together. I pray for patience, for kindness, for trust, and for a relationship full of unconditional love.

I refuse to settle. And my mom has always told me that at this point in my life it's important to step back and evaluate any relationship at the 6 month mark to see if this is a person that you really want to invest more time into. It's something I've really held on to. It's so easy to get wrapped up in relationships and stay in them because you're comfortable.. and it seems scary to get out there and start over with the "single life." But in the big scheme of things, facing the single life for a little bit is definitely worth your happiness in the end. There's someone out there that God has picked JUST for YOU. You may have already met him, or you may not even know him yet. It's crazy to think about, but it makes my heart so full.

You can check out part of my parent's love story on my dad's blog here: (this is the part where my mom enters).

Much Love,

Some Thoughts.

Lately I've been really drawn to my bible, and the book When God Writes Your Love Story.
It's like the two have been laying in the corner of my room just staring at me, begging me to open them up and feast my eyes on their pages.

So I have.
And it's amazing how fulfilling the words on those pages has been.

I read When God Writes Your Love Story (by Leslie and Eric Ludy) at the beginning of the year, but re-reading it has shed light on so many things I missed the first go round.

It seems like we all focus so much on planning our future wedding, laying out EVERY single detail, except really focusing on what the Lord wants for us in the most important part of our wedding day: our spouse.

We spend how much time pinning wedding ideas on Pinterest? Yet, how much time do we actually spend praying for our future spouse? Or time preparing our heart for them?  

How can we expect a Prince Charming, when we ourselves don't live up to these standards we want in a partner. It's so important to be the person you are looking for, and I feel like that's one of those common sense ideas that we so easily forget. How do you find it acceptable to be searching for this perfect guy, when you yourself aren't living up to the same standards?

The book has a chapter that really focuses on praying for your future spouse, and it said to consider the fact that your spouse is out there somewhere, right this second. Crazy to think about, right? It just makes my heart swell with so much love thinking that my husband is walking around right now, and someday I'll meet him. :) Cheesy, but seriously, it's such a lovely thought. It makes it that much more REAL, of why it's so important to be conscious of decisions we make in relationships now.

I just had to share all of my little thoughts from the week.
Hope you all are doing just peachy on this fine Wednesday evening!