A New Season

The past few days, we have been reminded of God's faithfulness in a huge way! On Friday, January 20th, Austin interviewed for a job at Health Connect America and received the job that same day! He will be a therapist (counselor) and will travel around the Dyersburg, TN area seeing clients in their homes. This is so exciting!  

When we got married in November 2010, neither of us had jobs (not something we recommend for newlyweds). Austin was in the midst of graduate classes for his Masters in Professional Counseling and I was adjusting to living in a completely new town as a new wife. During this time, we learned to trust the Lord in an entirely new way. In His provision, the Lord gave Austin a job at Union doing Safety and Security January of 2011. His supervisors knew that he was doing school and that he was ultimately looking for a job in his field, so they worked really hard to accommodate his school schedule, which we are very appreciative of. He worked first shift (7 am until 3 pm), which coordinated with his night classes perfectly. The only downside was that he had to work weekends. Because of this, we were not able to attend Sunday school and church on Sunday mornings together. 

About a month after Austin started his Safety and Security job, I began working at Union as well as the Office Coordinator for Campus Ministries (which I absolutely love and am still doing). These jobs were an answer to prayer and have given us what we've needed financially and more. However, the inability to be involved in the local body of believers as a couple has been frustrating these past several months. 

In addition to frustration about church involvement, getting the required number of practicum hours (in order to complete the masters) was proving difficult, despite Austin working with the Keystone program at Union (in addition to his regular workweek). In order for him to graduate in May, we knew he needed to get a counseling job so he could count his work hours as his practicum hours. We felt so close and yet so far away from that goal.

Now, Austin's new job at Health Connect will allow him to have a job (in his field- yay!) AND complete his practicum hours. May graduation here we come! God is so good! 

We are so excited about getting involved in church and being able to spend our weekends together :-) We are so thankful for God's provision and can't wait to see what He has in store for us in this new season. 

Elizabeth

"We should have a blog about us!"

Welcome to our adventure! As the title suggests, today we decided to have a blog about our lives, and whatever else we feel like posting on here. We think it's a great way to keep up with our friends and family, so we would like a way for people to keep up with us! We don't promise creativity, wittiness (is that even a word?) or anything super-exciting. We do promise to be candid and simply ourselves. We are so thankful for the life that the Lord has blessed us with, and we want to be good stewards of what we've been given. We desire to walk more closely with Him and pray that He will draw our hearts closer to His and to each other's with each passing day.

Marriage is hard, but so rewarding. It is designed primarily for our holiness, not our happiness. It is a picture of the gospel.

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church- for we are members of his body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery- but I am talking about Christ and the church.
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

Ephesians 5:22-33

This amazing passage of Scripture was read during our wedding ceremony over a year ago. It paints a beautiful portrait of true love, and our world is starving for it. Why else would shows like "The Bachelor" exist? (yes, we watch it)

It's in the midst of the piles of laundry, hectic schedules, exhausted bodies, clothing that doesn't fit anymore, bad days at work, problems with family, sinus headaches and having nothing to fix for dinner we are called to LOVE. It's easy to love when things are going well. Loving SELFLESSLY is doing so despite the circumstances, and is fueled by the love of Jesus Christ and growing in a relationship with Him. It is a constant decision.

This is the legacy we want to leave on this earth.

This is what we're all about.

This is our adventure.

Welcome.