"My grace is sufficient"

 I knew it the first day that I met Jon. He was the one that I was going to marry. I don't think it was smart; at least not in worldly standards. I was twenty, and in my 3rd year of college. I still was not sure what I wanted to be, or who I was. I was close to moving back home, and I had only been really walking with God for 2 years. But I knew it. And still, today, almost 13 years later, I am sure that Jon is the man that the Lord had intended for me to marry. I hear a lot of conflicting arguments about  marriage. Just like everything. But this is my story. And my lessons learned. And I don't think that they are "right" or "wrong", but they are what the Lord had intended for Jon and I. I'm almost 100% this blog post will out me as a Christian who is still in need of much training. But I can't have our 10 year anniversary pass without reflecting upon the lessons that I have learned, and to also reflect upon the work in progress I will be. Ten

It was my first year in college. I was so proud to hold my course handbook, and choose the classes that I wanted. I was so fortunate to have my mom pay for my classes, and to live under her roof, so I didn't completely understand the stress of paying tuition and rent somewhere. However, I was a waitress 4 nights a week to pay for my car, insurance, registration, and any extra activities that I would want to participate in. I also used the money to go on vacations, and to buy clothes. I made it a habit during that time to work out 5 days a week, and when I did not study, go to class, waitress, or have social activities, I worked as an AVID tutor 3 days a week at a middle school. My second year of college, I added to my list of activities a youth group volunteer. My responsibilities on leadership  included leadership meetings, planning for and leading bible studies, going to church weekly and youth group at night. I remember dreaming about the future. When I would only have to work,

"My grace is sufficient": Our first family communion : I am a mom who has a deep desire to share God's love with my kids. I want them to understand the wholeness of Jesus. I want them to fall...

I am a mom who has a deep desire to share God's love with my kids. I want them to understand the wholeness of Jesus. I want them to fall deeper in love with Him than I am. I want them to do extreme work for His kingdom. And as a parent, my deepest desire is for my kids to experience Jesus. For all that He is. But I fail all of the time at this. I am a sinner. I try so hard to lead them by example. I pray daily for each kid; that they would know Jesus. But I'm messy. I'm literally a disaster. I get frustrated, argumentative, short tempered, and a lot of what the Lord says about "slow to anger" goes out the window when I have asked for the 400th time "would you please brush your teeth." (I'm glad the verse does not say never get angry, or I would consider myself even more unworthy than I am now to raise these kids). Taking all of this knowledge of myself into consideration, I still did not let my heart from dreaming and picturing the perfect evening