oh my goodness....35 days

Where has the time gone? How is it that in 5 days I take my last final and in 20 days I walk the stage of Texas A&M? In 35 days my name changes and in 37 days...hello Mexico :) This weekend we had our last shower before the big day. TJ got so many tools so I have started coming up with a honey do list ;) Watching his face light up at each gift was hilarious and very fun. We got to hang out with some very dear friends of ours who we haven't seen since their wedding in May. It is so nice to have friends that you can just come back to after being apart and it is like you never left. You know what I mean? The awkward coversations that we go through with most people..."so how is school? how is your family?" With Jenna and Andrew we just skip all that and catch up on life.

Let me sum up our life lately
me: "hey TJ want to have dinner together Tuesday? I'm making fajitas."
TJ: "No I can't i have to work on my senior projects for my engineering classes"
me: "That's ok, I forgot... I have to work, finish 435 hw and figure out how to cook fajitas"

All of this takes place from opposite couches.
1. purity
2. petroleum
3. work

welcome to the lives of the future Mr & Mrs White. Patience is key. Humor is essential. Laughter is often needed to keep your sanity. Aside from all this, we are still wrestling through how God wants our lives to look post january 2. Alot has happened this semester, most of it focused on money. Long story short, BP failed to remove TJ from payroll and we came into a large sum of money. Only to later have to return it. Which is lame. But the thing we learned is that the riches of this world are so temporary. There is no reason to put our faith, our existence, our livelihood on these things. God is the supreme ruler of all and has proven Himself faithful over and over again. Yet when I look at our bank account I constantly catch myself swinging back and forthing between thinking "we don't have enough..." and  "what will we do with this money?" Clearly my life is an emotional roller coaster. Often my fiance looks at me and says "God has always provided for us. He has never let us down or let us starve. Trust Him" I am so blessed to have a man of God who speaks truth to me when I get all caught up in what our lives look like on paper. And I do get very caught up in that. Number are a big deal to me. And when the numbers don't add up that is usually when I take the license to go ahead and melt down. More and the more the Lord has been pulling my heart towards teaching. I want to be someone He actively uses to further the Kingdom, and teaching seems like a great way. God has shown both of us that He has a big family in store for us. We don't know exactly what that means, but we know He is very serious about it. You know the movie Cheaper by the Dozen? That's my dream family :)

Totally crazy, mostly out of control, chaotic and wonderful. Sounds like the life of a petroleum engineer and a teacher? It amazes me that after 400 days of engagement, 6+ years of friendship we are almost husband and wife. God has been very specific in showing us ways that marriage works, and ways it doesnt. We have been blessed with fantastic families that are great role models for us. And yet, the Lord continues to challenge the way we view marriage and the way He commands us to act in marriage. Needless to say, I am intimidated by the roles God has for me, but I am excited to serve TJ in that way.

Prayer requests
1. PURITY- 35 days til the wedding...need I say more?
2. Peaceful transitions for our family and for our new family. The leaving of the parents to cleave to one another is exciting, but a little sad at the same time.
3. Pre wedding stress and jitters- This one day has been in the works since before we were born, but it has been actively planned for the last 14 months. Thus there is some stress and anxiety that come before the big day. Please pray for peace for us and to calm any pre wedding nerves
4.  Pray that we continue to seek God and what He has for our family. Pray for TJs leadership that he would lead our family well, and that I would submit to his leadership well.  Pray for unity for the two of us and that we would reflect Christ and the church


Shalom
Amanda

Oh blog...you get neglected

54 days til the wedding. Our weekends are packed. Only 7 weekends left until the wedding. Strangely enough, wedding details have yet to stress us out too badly. We have spent time with new friends over the last 2 months which God has totally used to refresh us daily. God has really shown us what it means to be the Body of believers and reach out to those who need help and serve in whatever ways our church family needs help. The devil has been active causing insecurities, doubts and nerves. But above all our Savior is mighty, and His grace is sufficient. Daily I ask Him for more grace.

In church we have been talking through Galatians, and how Paul loved the Galatians so much that he was on his knees begging for them to turn away from their sin and rebellion. Over and over again the question is presented, do we love people that much. Hell is real, and sadly, many people that claim to know the Lord are going to have Jesus say "Depart from me, for I never knew you, you worker of iniquity" Heartbreaking. Looking at how life is about to change and the relationships within family and friends that we are going to face as a married couple, we are starting to see how love for the Lord is hatred toward the world; and what it means to be truly sold out for the Lord and love others out of the overflow of Christ's love.


Rescue the Perishing
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.
Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting,
Waiting the penitent child to receive;
Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently;
He will forgive if they only believe.

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.

Rescue the perishing, duty demands it;
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide;
Back to the narrow way patiently win them;
Tell the poor wand’rer a Savior has died.






Waiting stinks. Please pray for us. Please ask us how we are doing. Please hold us accountable.


1 Cor 6
12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”[b] 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.[c]


18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Where are we at?

67 days until the wedding...studying for midterms, running petroleum simulations, working 9 hours a day, serving at LHBC, driving home to do wedding stuff, trying to spend some time together before the big day. Life is getting hectic for us.

Oh Wedding Planning....why do you cost so much?

Funny story about wedding planning....it has its own agenda. Sure you tell it, lets only spend a certain amount on this one day....but then it gets its own ideas. You are just sitting there happy as a clam until one day you pull out that trusty calculator and realize you left the budget back in the dust. It is unfortunate as you scramble looking for quarters in the couch cushions, car seats and winter coats. And Ms. Wedding Planning just sits there and scoffs at you.

I'm told that in retrospect this will all be funny one day. We will look back on these days of frustration and laugh. Maybe. But despite all the number crunching, coupon clipping, and debit card swiping, we have been blessed to have parents that love us and help us pay for this once in a lifetime day :) Even better has been the number of married couples who have come alongside us an encouraged us to stay focused on our marriage and make sure that it is built firmly in Christ. The women who have encouraged me to use this time as a learning time to focus on the Lord and have Him prepare my heart for marriage and the men who have challenged TJ to imitate the leader that Christ was to the church have been the biggest encouragement and blessing through the last 11 months.

So here we are 2.5 months left until the big day. What an exciting thought!! Through Countdown this semester God has slowly but surely changed our way of thinking and our heart attitudes towards one another. It is so cool to see God change habits that we have made over the last 4 years. What a great joy it is to serve our King!

Ephesians 5:22-33
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.


25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.


1 Peter 3:1-7
1Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. 4Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 5For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, 6like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

7Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

Gianna Jessen Abortion Survivor in Australia Part 1

Where we are at

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. -Gandhi
This was someone on facebook's religious views. How heartbreaking, because too often it is so true.

Psalm 145:13b-14
The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.
The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down

Basically we are in a state of waiting. TJ has accepted the job at BP and now we are trying to figure out what I am going to do. TJ will be gone 2 weeks at a time for the first year doing rotation work to provide for our sweet new family, which leaves amanda alone, without a clue what to do with her life. I graduate in December ( by the grace of God) but do not have a meteorology job. I've been throwing around ideas of teaching high school math, applying to oil companies, tv stations etc. But TJ will have a full week off when he comes back so its hard to commit to job that would cause me to miss out on that week. Please pray for peace for me. We are seriously considering me staying in CS another year to be close to our Living Hope family. We have watched the body take care of wives when their husbands are gone and that is the main motivation to stay here. But what to do for those two weeks. I'm watching all our married/almost married friends who seem to have everything together and the truth is I'm not sure what this will look like come July. I know that God is faithful and He clearly provided this job at BP for our family. There was one line that God put in TJ's offer letter that was clear evidence God was at work here. Uncertainty is still here as people ask me over and over what I'm going to do since I'm graduating and it is very disheartening to say "I don't know" over and over again. But the LORD is faithful to all his promises and we trust him in that.