Team Tuohy

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!