Some Random Thoughts Wrapped Up as a Flashback

So this morning I did something I never do...I check my Samford email. 

I have my Samford email forwarded to my current email address, so there's never any reason to log in to my Bulldog Mail. But today for some reason, I did. 

After clearing out all the junk, I realized that I still have a few saved folders for that email account. One of the folders is entitled, "Jason," so of course I wanted to see what I'd stored away there. Among some flirty "I miss you" emails from when Jason was traveling or I was home for a holiday, this is what I found:

Subject: Just a quick thought...

I got out of class early and am reading Romans in the food court waiting to leave for work. Thought I'd share. This reminded me of my life and how much I've changed and also us and how far we've come in our relationship. "I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification." Romans 6:19. Praise God for his grace in our lives! 

:) 

 

The email is dated December 9, 2010...not even three months after Jason and began dating. Even though we've admitted to each other later that by this point in our relationship, we probably knew we wanted to marry the other person, we still had not said anything about it, or said "I love you", or even really met each others family. We were a  beginning. 

Jason and I around the time I wrote that email -
I only hoped we'd be where we are today...together forever.

 It's so neat to be a newlywed and see how accurate the bible is in comparing the church to a bride and Christ to the bridegroom. Just as Jason and I were something new when this email was written, we don't have an ending. But each day with Jason, I never cease to love him more. I reflect on how as a new believer, I was so in awe of Christ, His love, His sovereignty in my life. 

 

But, unlike my marriage, my heart breaks a little bit when I think about how complacent my love for God can be as the calendar grows further and further away from June 9, 2009. This realization makes me want to strive to love God more and more and be captivated by who He is more and more each and every day.

My sisters and I about 4 months after I became a believer -
Incredibly thankful for the journey God's taken me on since then.

Just as this verse that I quoted to Jason almost two years ago says, it's a process of sanctification. I cannot grow to love God more and more each and every day by my own efforts...I need God's grace to accomplish that. Similarly, I cannot grow to love Jason more and more everyday without him playing an active role in our marriage and outwardly loving me back.

Praise God that He doesn't leave us alone in this world to fend for ourselves; if that were the case, I'd fail miserably at this whole life thing. Praise God that I am a new creation and my relationship with Christ does not have an ending. Praise God that forevermore I am a slave to righteousness, not by my own accord, but by the Holy Spirit dwelling within me. 

With all of that said...

I've blogged to you...

Now you can blogbacktome.