Engaged

So on Monday, January 16, 2012, I got engaged to my best friend, soulmate, and love of my life! I am still floating around on cloud nine. One girl from school said she's been married for six years and she is still floating. Seems there are a lot of people who have wonderful things to say about marriage, and I think that is because I am surrounded by wonderful people! It is amazing how people either have really awesome things to say about marriage or really awful things to say about it. Usually I find most people have a strong opinion either way. I think if you have the right person and you have God, you will develop and awesome opinion about marriage. And for good reason!

It goes back to one of my blog posts. (http://katelyn-grace.blogspot.com/2011/09/basics-of-my-faith.html) Remember when I said God only creates good? Well God created marriage! So how can people say marriage is awful.....? Simple answer! They leave God out of it!! I believe 100% of divorce cases would be prevented if the couple submitted their lives to Christ.

Now, I do NOT think I am immune to problems... I am fully aware of Murphy's law and I do not tempt it! ;-) I realize that my marriage will be as wonderful as I allow God to make it. I am so excited to have found a man that loves the Lord like I do and who wants to walk with us through the rest of our lives. I know that I have so much to be thankful for, and the beautiful ring Kyle put on my hand reminds me every day to thank God for 'my gift' (that's an insider between me and my Matthew!) ;-) ;-) I am obviously still giddy with happiness. I can not wait until we are married and walking through life together, but I will also enjoy this last year at home with my family. I know it is their love and support and the Lord's guidance that has made me the woman Kyle chose to be his wife. :o)

Maew wedge

I was reading an article on why our generation has problems with divorce. This response by a reader was my favorite:


"No guts. The real reason is we have a generation of wimps. Fear of responsibi¬lity. To weak to take a stand and work through daily problems of life. Unwillingness to make a committment and stand by it to the end. To lazy to work steady at a job to provide for long-term committment and those precious little children. Sure the road is tough in spots along the way but so great are the rewards for those who stick with it. By what authority do I speak? Been married 46 years to the same woman, worked 45 years for the same company, reared two children who both have doctorate degrees and now enjoy five beautiful grandchildren. Was it easy..NO!!, but I committed to it and saw it through. A Christ centered faith is the key. I could not have survived without Him."

Basics of my Faith

So much of what I know or think about God and eternity is stuff I am not entirely certain about. Some people are completely sure of certain theologies or whatnot, but more often than not I generally say, I think it may be this way, but in the end it doesn't really matter and I could be completely wrong. I actually can not think of anything at this particular moment, but I thought that would be a good disclaimer for anything I do ever say in the blog. With Christianity, you have the basics. God is good and he can only create good. The way evil exists is because he gave beings free will, and with free will we do things that deviate from his original purpose. Anything that deviates from what God intended is evil. Actually, some people argue that God created evil. I guess even some things I consider basic knowledge are debatable. But I have no doubt that I am wrong. I just think some people are misinformed. :)
Anyways. Another basic. God gave us free will because he wanted a loving relationship. If you program a robot to love you, is that true love? I say no. If someone falls in love with you because of their own free will, is that true love? Well I would say that it is to be preferred over robot love! So... with this free will, what did we ultimately decide to do? Sin! Which brings me to my next basic...
Everyone has sinned, is unrighteous, and unfit for the presence of God. Yeah. No matter how much good you do, one sin and you are unholy! It kind of goes with the illustration I have heard a million times. If there is a purified water bottle on the counter, would you drink it? Of course you would, why not! Now unscrew the water bottle and drop just a little bit of poop in it. Not a lot, just one tiny little drop. And it's not even bad poop! ;) Okay, so you would not drink it. My facetious comment of "It's not even bad poop!" was meant to be a sort of parallel to how we talk about different sins. For instance, people look down on someone who murders someone more than a person who lies about something. And although I personally would much rather see someone lie than to see someone murder, the fact of the matter is that God can accept neither. So that's that! But the good news is.... there's another basic!
God STILL loves us! So much in fact, that He sacrificed by being born in human flesh, living decades on Earth resisting the same temptations we give in to and being persecuted when He was completely innocent. After living a perfect life, He then gave Himself up as a living sacrifice to bring about a new covenant. How awesome is that? He not only resisted huge temptations, (I've heard people say He was not tempted, but I believe Satan did everything in his power to stop Jesus from God's plan. And that includes a LOT of temptation!), but He who was so good literally took upon the sin of the world. I will quote something quite descriptive from a book I read called Boy Meets Girl . It is actually a quote from When God Weeps, and it was put into the book I read because it is the reality of what Christ experienced.

"The face that Moses had begged to see--was forbidden to see--was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth's rebellion now twisted around his own brow....
"On your back with you!" One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier's heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner's wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier's life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on--he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.
As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm--the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless--the nerves perform exquisitely. "Up you go!" They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breathe.
But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being--the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father's eye turns brown with rot.
His Father! He must not face his Father like this!
From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.
"Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped--murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten--fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk--you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp--buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves--relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?"
Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.
The Father watches as his heart's treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah's stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.
"Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!"
But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply. The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied.

The Rescue was accomplished."

Don't move too quickly from this scene. Keep gazing.
The Rescue accomplished here was for you. Did you see your own offenses on the list of sins that necessitated the Cross? If not, name them yourself. Name your darkest sin. Now reflect on the fact that Christ bore the punishment for that sin. He took the punishment you deserved. Do you feel His passionate and specific love for you. He died for you. He was condemned and cursed so that you could go free--He was forsaken by God so that you would never be forsaken (Hebrews 13:5).

So the basics. God is good. We have sinned against Him. He died for us.
What does it mean?
My next basic is that if you believe and love the Lord, His gift of salvation is extended to you.
I won't go into all of the theology behind this, I will only say that the Lord seeks a relationship with everyone. He wants you, and He did His part. If someone gives you a gift, but you do not take it, it is not yours.

So these are my personal 'basics'. Things that I will never question, and are the foundation of my faith. I didn't even intend to write about that, but I went on a tangent from what I intended on writing about so this is the end result. I guess I know what to write about for my next post. Comments are welcome.
Questions go to katelyn.cowart@selu.edu

Love Languages

So I have been bored, so I decided I would take a quiz on my love languages since I always hear people talk about them. Although I am pretty sure everyone uses all of these languages, I think the quiz was correct about which ones are the most important to me.
And here. we. go.

My primary love language is...

Quality Time

In Quality Time, nothing says “I love you” like full, undivided attention. Being there for this type of person is critical, but really being there—with the TV off, fork and knife down, and all chores and tasks on standby—makes you feel truly special and loved. Distractions, postponed activities, or the failure to listen can be especially hurtful.

So true! Secondly were Word of Affirmation, which was also not a surprise. Acts of service, physical touch, and receiving gifts followed in that order. Interesting. There's a whole book on it, so maybe I will read it one day. :-)

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.
Hmmm I would say that someone who I can call anytime with any problem would be my two closest friends, Jess and Tiff :D


Day 09 - A Song That You Can Dance To
Well I guess I can dance to a lot of songs!
But who can't dance to Footloose?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU0f5bgbj0s

7 & 8

Well, somehow I managed to miss out on four days of the blog! Time to play catch up...
Day 7: A picture of my most treasured item.
Well geeze, I don't even have a 'most treasured item'. So I'm not quite sure what to put here. If my house caught on fire, the only thing I would think about saving is other people or my pets. So maybe I should put a picture of my animals. :)Day 7: A Song that Reminds me of a Certain Event
This songs reminds me of the 9-11 attacks.


Day 8: A Picture that Makes me Laugh
Hehe This one is funny because Jessica really drank the Easter Egg dye. She does kind of silly things sometimes.


Day 8: A Song that I Know All the Words to...
Well I know all the words to a lot of songs. Like... a LOT of songs. But here's a good one:

A song that Reminds me of somewhere/ Day 06 of Challenge!

Day06- A song that reminds you of somewhere.
This song reminds me of Africa. It was played a lot during FIFA last summer and it always got stuck in my head. It's an... interesting song.


Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.
I would love to trade places with a professional ice skater. There's something so cool about ice skating, and to be able to have the skill to gracefully speed around the ice would be amazing. :D