Music, Flowers, and Everything Beautiful

September has been crazy, one of our busiest months this year for sure. In the midst of the normal seasonal changes, so much has been thrown at us in the past few weeks, but there have also been so many blessings and moments of peace in the midst of it all.

We have our plans, sometimes they work, oftentimes they don’t, and we’ve learned to roll with it.

This month we’ve had some special date nights, many centered around music, we’ve been flower picking, to a concert, I’ve been experimenting with fun coffee and tea flavors at home, tried to find time to read for fun, prayed a lot, and caught some beautiful autumn sunrises. We’ve also got into some new routines with youth groups starting back up, having fall cookouts and get-togethers with friends, and the normal busyness of work and spending time with our family and friends and planning for the next few months. There are also the struggles, like struggling with the time to practice Spanish enough, seeing people we know become so divided over things happening in our country, and, most recently, having more family move into our house after they faced a fire in their own home.

As we try to focus on preparing ourselves for the DR, things keep coming up, so we miss a Spanish class here or there, or we aren’t able to get rid of our things when we wanted to, or we aren’t where we thought we’d be with support raising, the list could go on, and I could choose to stress over these things, but instead we put our trust in God and know that as long as we remain faithful, He will provide.

It’s been hard to find a normal routine, and I think we would both say that we operate better on a set schedule, but such is life. We are figuring out what normal looks like now that there are five people living in our house, figuring out what normal looks like for a couple who are busy every week but also preparing to leave it behind in just over two months, figuring out how to navigate complicated situations and lean on God through it all. Perhaps this is all preparing us, if things are constantly changing in our lives, maybe the change in routine for living in the DR won’t be as much of a shock (we know it will be a shock regardless, but at least we are used to changing routines). Despite all of this, there is something just a little comforting about it, about not really knowing what I’ll be doing in a week, or even tomorrow, it means that when things do come up, or something more urgent arises, it’s okay to change plans. This is something that has been a difficult lesson for me, personally, I’m the kind of person who stresses when plans change at the last minute, I’m a rule follower and like to do things the way “they’re supposed to be done,” but I have learned to roll with the punches, learned to lean on God when I don’t know what’s coming, when sometimes there isn’t time to prepare for a change, because it doesn’t surprise Him. He knows I like things in order, so He’s ready for me to come to Him saying this is hard and I don’t think I can handle it, and He knows what’s coming and He’s ready to give the strength His word promises. This is something that I’ve reflected on more lately; the things that surprise me and catch me off guard, can’t throw Him off, He says to let go and be held, why wouldn’t I trust someone who isn’t thrown off by the craziness of life?

Like I mentioned before, we’ve received so many blessings this month. First off, I am so grateful that we have been able to get away from the noise and just be together as a couple, this isn’t always the easiest thing to do but we’ve kept it a priority because it’s important to us. Starting off, we had a date night the first weekend of this month, where we went to a listening party for a Twenty One Pilots album a week before its release, neither of us had ever been to anything like that before but we had a great time, it was awesome to be somewhere with people who all had in common our love for this band, and be able to connect to new songs at the same time as others. The event was held at a local indie record store so it was also fun to browse the store, as we are both people who love music, so it was nice to connect over that, since sharing music with each other has been something we’ve been doing since early on when we were dating. Two weeks later we saw Twenty One Pilots live in Cincinnati, this was our second time seeing them live, and it was an amazing experience, I even shed a few tears.

Music is something I’ve always connected with; it’s been a big part of learning how to pray and also listen to God. In the times in my life where I’ve struggled the most, God has reached me through music, for this there are many songs that hold a very special place in my heart. I am so grateful for our creative God, who created creative beings, who create art, music, poetry and stories that just touch my heart in special ways. These are things that aren’t always easy to share with people, out of fear they’ll think differently of you or judge, but being with someone who shares this love and doesn’t judge you for what you like or connect with, has been a huge blessing to both of us.

The creativity of God is also something that I ponder a lot. There was one day this month, we went flower picking, which brought me back to this thought. Many flowers don’t provide a ton of practical use, you don’t eat them (some, for sure, but not all), they’re good for pollinators, but otherwise they’re just pretty. We cut them and bring them in, not because they will sustain anything, they don’t even last that long, and yet they have purpose in their beauty. When God created the world, He could have made it black and white, but He didn’t, he gave us colors and patterns. He has created some things purely because they are beautiful, and He cares about them. I think of Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

Matthew 6:28b-29 says “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil or spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” The point of this passage is to tell us not to be anxious, because if God clothes the field with this much beauty, then of course He will take care of us. This passage reminds me that if God knows about the flowers in the field, He knows and cares about me and the little things I enjoy, sometimes we think about God being so big and so powerful that we think He’d look over what we consider small things, but He doesn’t, He sees them and He sees us.

This last weekend, we got to spend a whole weekend together at a marriage retreat. The topic was communication, and it was so nice to be with other couples and get refreshed and encouraged. We learned a lot about God and each other, and felt like this weekend strengthened some areas of our relationship, especially as we prepare to be away from the community we know so well and will have to lean on each other a lot in the coming year, something we’ve definitely had some practice with, but we’ve never quite done anything like what’s coming. We do have confidence that our marriage will grow stronger as well as our faith and prayer life, as challenges create growth if you let them.

Prayer requests: