Team Tuohy

Photo Credit

I was inspired by a blog I recently read about being "that wife" that resembles a housewife in today's world. It strikes a cord that I so often battle myself. Asking myself if am I "old-fashioned"? Wondering how I can stand firm and be confident in cleaning the house, doing the dishes, making the meals, folding laundry and more in a society that tends to look down upon that. 

Thankfully I am encouraged daily by the women in my life who consistently point not only me back to Christ, but my marriage. I am truly blessed to have this- another beauty of living in community! However, on those days I just need simple truth I try to remember the following:

1. My approval/acceptance does not come from this world, but from Christ. I was just reminded of this in a sermon on Sunday- we are called to "suffer" for Christ. We are suppose to look funny and do things differently for this world is not our home -John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." If I belong to this world- I do not belong to Christ, I would rather be persecuted and look funny than to give up my salvation. At the end of the day the world has dramatically changed, however we are still held to the standard of the Word.

2. God intrusts me to use this as an opportunity to honor and glorify Him. A large part of the time these "roles" and equal submission (Ephesians 5:22-33) are why our marriages succeed. Your marriage is your number one ministry for others to see. USE IT! They will see differences in your marriage - as said before here- and when you are asked "why" it is an opportunity to lead them to Him. 

3. It is ultimately not for our husband but for Christ. By doing those things you are submitting to Christ and glorifying Him through it. This is done by taking such wisdom from proverbs and choosing to follow God's lead for what a wife's role looks like. Mike is always willing to help out when I need it or on the days I decide to be "self- righteous" but I find when I change my focus to serving God not only am I immediately humbled but I enjoy doing it even more.

4. Proverbs 31:10-33 * Epilogue: The Wife of Noble Character*

  ^"A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her  and lacks nothing of value.She brings him good, not harm,  all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously;her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed;  she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate,  where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them,  and supplies the merchants with sashes. She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.  She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed;  her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things,  but you surpass them all.”  Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;  but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. "

I love this! Look at all the hard work this women does, you could totally focus on that. Instead focus on all she gets from that work- she is worth more than rubies, her husband has FULL confidence in her, she has no fear about the future but laughs and is clothed with strength and dignity. She speaks wisdom that brings glory to Christ and respect to her family, her children call her blessed and her husband praises her with words so encouraging and appreciative. I want to be this wife, truly. To have my family respected, my husband love me and my children call me blessed- there is simply no greater honor. All else will fade away but this woman will be sustained by Christ for she submits, respects and follows the Lord regardless of worldly views- absolutely goodness right there.

4. It pushes me to be more like Christ, any Christian's ultimate goal. More of Him, less of me. The great news is the Lord has gone before us and He cared enough to give us a path to be more and more like Him."These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. As I heard in an example this Sunday -  At the end of it all our goal is to chip away everything that is not of Christ- Jesus he served and submitted faithfully. Take joy that He is changing you to be more like him- for it is hard now in this world, but blessed will we be when we stand before Him.

Ultimately, I believe in the role of a wife. I truly love serving my husband in these ways because I dearly love him. Every marriage will look different, every husband and wife will have different expectations. None of that is wrong. However, for all the wives out there, myself included, who enjoy being "that wife" or strive to be "that wife" - this is just a sweet reminder for why we do it. I know it encouraged me today!

In His grace,

One of the wonderful ladies in my community group, Kristin, found this devotional called Jesus Calling and after a few she sent out for all of us to read I fell in love with it, it was the only devotional I had come across that spoke "directly to me." It made me feel as if I was truly with God hearing Him talk to my heart, in a way that is similar to reading through the scripture and stumbling across that passage that was clearly put in your path for that day. Yummy goodness.

So on a search for the book I went and ended up coming across the Jesus Calling App and thought it was a brilliant idea to have it so downloaded it to my nifty iPhone and am encouraged by the ability to have it at instant access. There is definitely something about opening a book in the morning sipping a cup of coffee (especially when God's Words are in it) but unfortunately I am of the generation that likes immediate satisfaction (working on this!) and this app does just that- I can share it at any point in the day or re-read myself! All about this!

Today's devotional was so sweet to my soul. More than that though I loved getting to exchange the simple text with Kristin about how good it was- giving me another opportunity to watch the Lord speak into our lives and friendship. Part of living in community is getting to "do life together." It was so small but awesome this morning to watch this devotional strike me and then hear from Kristin that she as well loved it. It lets us encourage each other and share in the same truth. I love this kind of stuff. 

I then sent it off to a sweet friend and my hubby and decided that it was one of those that everyone should get to soak in. So.... here it is, in all its goodness- hope you enjoy:

KEEP WALKING with Me along the path I have chosen for you. Your desire to live close to Me is a delight to My heart. I could instantly grant you the spiritual riches you desire, but that is not My way for you. Together we will forge a pathway up the high mountain. The journey is arduous at times and you are weak. Someday you will dance light footed on the high peaks; but for now, you walk is often plodding and heavy. All I require of you is to take the next step, clinging to My hand for strength and direction. Though the path is difficult and the scenery dull at the moment, there are sparkling surprises just around the bend. Stay on the path I have selected for you. It is truly the path of Life.

If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. - Psalm 37:23-24

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. - Psalm 16:11 (NKJV)

Seriously now... what an awesome God. It gives me chills to know we can actually delight Him, it gives me strength to know He selected this path, for as much as I may not understand or always think it is great, He selected it which means there is a divine purpose behind it, Glory will surly come. It gives me hope for the days I will dance on the peaks, and more than anything I tear up at the thought that He, an almighty God, will forge a path TOGETHER with me, Erin Tuohy, with all my sinful ways. Simply love. I am encouraged to cling to Him for that is all He requires and to see those sparkling surprises that are yet to come. How great is our God.


xoxo

Lately our world has relied on soaking in scripture and leaning on God to answer our questions (as it should always be). We have such a blessed life, but it is not without trials. If our life is easy peasy I would seriously question whose hands we were in =). This is not to say our lives should not be full of goodness and joy, I am just a firm believer as children of Christ living for Him that if we are not doing something to make the enemy tick, we are probably also not doing something that brings glory to our heavenly father. Think about it...

So today, we wanted to share some of the sweet promises that we are holding on to for they alone are truth. It is funny how I have struggled my entire life since becoming a believer to memorize verses, until now. When you need those sweet promises, and turn to those sweet promises daily- they penetrate your heart and are engraved there forever:

"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still" Exodus 14:14

"The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing" Psalm 34:10

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

"Look at the nations and watch- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." Habakkuk 1:5

"Trust in the LORD with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all of your ways follow Him and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13

What sweet sweet promises are these. Man, Exodus 14:14 "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still" how truly beautiful is that. Right now as Team Tuohy battles through some heavy stuff from my childhood this is huge for us. So often I find myself wanting to go to battle for my heart and my feelings, for what happened but I do not need to. As long as I am living with Christ, He will go to battle for me, I need only to trust Him in that and let Him do His works. For as it is promised in Habkkuk  His works are far better than anything I could believe, even if I were told. This sweet promise I am soaking in daily. I know the Lord has a plan for my life, my life verse since I was saved was Proverbs 3:5 which tells me this. However, I have still always wanted to push forward and plan our life; deciding where to go and what to do trying to sprint this race He designed to be a marathon. I can say with full confidence He is preparing us for something with all we are going through right now, I don't know what and so we wait with an open heart for whatever He is doing here, we only want His will to be done and are guarded of making it something of our own. As I told my sweet girlfriends the other day, I welcome that plan with giant open arms and so therefore I welcome all this yuck that it takes to get us there because I believe our God is good and I know He will do things with our life that are far greater than we can even begin to fathom. How he loves us....Until then we continue to hang onto these sweet sweet sweet promises full of love in hopes that we are constantly being changed to be more like Him along the way.

Have a blessed day sweet friends!

xoxo

Well. Michael and I have officially been married one year and six months. Every time I say that I have to laugh a little as I hear that child in me saying "I am three and a half!" or even the adult now "I am five foot one and three quarters!" There is something about that extra half that makes a difference. When I was talking to a friend of mine this week about plans for the weekend I said we were booked up Saturday as we were being dorks and celebrating our anniversary. She kindly responded "Not dorks, sweet!" which led to my response of admitting it was only the half way anniversary mark. "Okay, dorks, but still sweet!"

It got me thinking though and the more I thought about it the more I realized that in today's world that extra half really does mean something. To easily people are divorcing left and right and choosing to put themselves first, thinking they "just don't fit" or believing they are not like those couples who have made it 25+ years (shout-out to the in-laws!!!!), they convince themselves they just are not meant to be.

Let me tell you something, marriage is not easy, it is a full time job which takes most of your effort and on some days can drain you to the pit. Michael and I have gone through high waters and back discovering just how trying those moments can be -I know, your thinking it hasn't even been two years, but you would be surprised all we've fought through, hence the name Team Tuohy- and we are no different than any other couple. The piece that is different was in the simple choice we made on that September afternoon that divorce was simply not an option. The moment it becomes an option, you have set yourself up to fail. Think about it, if you knew it was impossible, would you not work a heck of a lot harder to push through it so you were happy and not miserable? I sure would, I sure do.

 Marriage is about selflessness, it is about choosing daily to put someone else before yourself. That can be a hard pill to swallow, especially if you go into marriage not knowing how selfish we all truly are on our own! Which leads me to the ultimate single reason we are here today to celebrate. It is only because of our sweet sweet Savior who is teaching us daily what marriage is suppose to look like, how to be selfless. My favorite verses of scripture regarding this are found in Ephesians 5:22 (NIV) "Wives, submit to your own husbands as you do to the Lord" and on the flip Ephesians 5:25 (NIV) "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Wow, as a wife that is huge!

As Michael and I study these scriptures among others it is amazing to see God transform our hearts for one another, to know that God created marriage as a physical symbol of Christ loving the Church, that is a lot of love right there to be seen between husband and wife. I know I sure feel loved when its like that. Just like it is amazing how responsive Mike is when I submit to him and let him lead our family. He feels respected and in turn loves me well. There are still trying times and of course we need to daily fix our eyes upon the Lord to stay strong in each part of this, but there are also those tender moments that are such sweet rewards and such eye opening times to how much we are loved by our Savior.

In today's world one year and six months is definitely worth celebrating, as is one day. That is one more day we get to feel the joy of this truly blessed thing God created for us, and one more day we get to glorify Him by being present in it. I once heard that your life may be the only Bible someone ever reads. I pray that when people see our marriages, that is exactly what they are getting a glimpse of, Him and His love.  Happy Anniversary to each one of you out there that have said "I do" and continue to say "I do" each day. May you all go celebrate tonight and praise God for whatever number you are at while loving your spouses well. As for Team Tuohy, Drive In here we come!!!!







 Some goodies from the engagement and wedding!

I came across this post on Facebook last night with this Kutless video, it is beautiful and so aligned my heart with Gods. So this morning during my quiet time I listened to it again and it just put my heart at peace once again. Something they say in the interview of the song is it is based off the the fact that "you don't realize Jesus is all you need, until that is all you have." So true. When we went on a mission trip as a family years ago to Juarez, Mexico I remember going down thinking we would help change their world and make it a little brighter and faithful to Jesus, what I was not prepared for was how they would change my world. They have faith like I desire to have, they rely on Jesus for their next meal, next paycheck, next everything. Their entire world can be going wrong and they still have faith and still are faithful servants. Could we say we would be the same, I do hope so. Enjoy this video and get right with your Savior who loves you and longs for you to need him and solely him.