September

September has been a busy month for Justin and I.  Between Justin starting a new job and me adding an internship, it has taken a little while to adjust to our new day to day schedules.  We are definitely enjoying our weekends off together, though!  First, we got to go to Early to visit Geoff and Jamie.  Then I got to go wedding dress shopping with my precious friend, Savannah, while Justin took my parents (who came into a town for a family friend's wedding) to the pumpkin filled arboretum. I wish I could have gone with them but I would never have wanted to miss dress day - I obviously can't post any pictures of her, but let me tell you - she's gorgeous.  Last weekend Justin and I went down to Belton so that he could ride in a couple of races in Salado.  He did well and had a lot of fun.  It's so nice to be able to make plans together on the weekends!

Justin is really enjoying teaching and is very good at it. He has such a heart for his students and a natural ability to teach creatively.  That isn't to say it hasn't been a challenge (it's never easy to play catch up when you start three weeks into the school year!), but he is handling it well and is excited about the opportunities he will have with his students this year.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers as we waited for this job.  Please continue to remember him as he adjusts to the challenges it brings.  I am so proud of Justin and I am looking forward to seeing how God uses him this school year!

I am back in school for the fall semester and have started an internship with Garland ISD.  It is going well and giving me a good picture of what working for the schools is like.  It seems like the theme for this new semester for me and Justin has been "challenging but good." I am already having to make plans for the spring semester - my LAST semester of grad school.  I know that everyone says I will miss school, and I'm sure that there will be times when that is true, but right now the idea of finishing is a pretty joyous thought. :) I am still working and really enjoying my job. I am so thankful for the environment and opportunities that I have there and am very thankful that God led me to it!

This has been a week of celebrations in the family!  Sunday was Justin's mom's birthday, and yesterday was his brother, Jacob's.  Yesterday was also Jason and Katie (my brother and sister-in-law)'s 3rd anniversary, and today is Geoff and Jamie (my sister and brother-in-law)'s 4th anniversary!  Happy birthday to Cindy and Jacob, and happy anniversary to Jason, Katie, Geoff, and Jamie!  We love you all. :)

Guest Blogger

Hello all! As the title of this post would suggest, I am not Jana. I am her bike racing, waiting-to-be-teaching, strangely-similar-to-an-old-man husband. Jana has done such a wonderful job updating people on our lives that I felt like it was time for me to share.

To begin, a short explanation: Fire codes. Apparently, due to fire codes, churches cannot allow people to stand in the aisles or sit on the stage in order to get more people in. You wouldn't think this would matter to me, but as it turns out, it does. Jana and I arrived for the 11:15 church service ten minutes early, only to find out that the church was already at capacity. This is unfortunate and hopefully it doesn't turn people away from Christ, but The Village has little choice and did give us a cd explaining the situation and it had a sermon on it.

The sermon is where the thoughts for this blog originated. Matt Chandler, the lead pastor at The Village, spoke about the Gospel of Christ. And while I will do a terrible job paraphrasing him, there were two elements of the gospel that he wanted us to hear. One, very familiar and oft thought about element, is the Jesus died for me. This is true and I find the more I realize just how great Christ is, the more I realize how much of a mess I have made. And the more I see the mess that is me, the more I see the beauty in Christ.

The second element of the gospel is one that I haven't spent as much time dwelling on. Matt said that everything in this world was created by a perfect god and creation was meant to give us love and reverence for God. This is where the blog post comes in.

Marriage, companionship, and friendship were all given to us by God. These are beautiful things that I have been blessed with. My marriage to Jana has brought so much joy and so much pleasure. She is an amazing bride and an amazing woman. (I mean - she wakes up at 3 to go to my bike races...) She is so wonderful, in fact, that it is easy to see our marriage as blessing enough. To see our friendship as the end all. However, as Matt reminded me earlier this week, our marriage points to the grace of God. It is great, but it is great because of what it shows me about God. I fear that if our marriage ever becomes all about our marriage than it will falter under the weight. Our marriage is another creation of God that is meant to show us God, show the world God and to be a source of worship toward God.

So this week, I have been extremely grateful for the marriage I have with Jana and my reaction has been more worship of God and his Goodness.