She Must and Shall Go Free

I've been meditating on the doctrine of justification lately and continue to be amazed again and again that God declares Christians "not guilty." Our ransom has been paid through the blood of Christ - We're free to go.

May I suggest that you listen to a song by Derek Webb, "She Must and Shall Go Free." While Aaron and I are not sure about all of Derek Webb's albums (some of his songs sound a little emergent); this album/song gets the Gospel right on!

Aaron and I were discussing justification yesterday morning and we're so thankful that Jesus isn't having to decide if his blood can free us from any particular sin. His Cross says it all - She (the Church) must and shall go free!" To do otherwise would be to go against Himself. The verdict has been decided and is never up for debate - For those of us who are Christians, we must and shall go free. (See Romans 8:33-34)

Holiday Catch-Up

We greatly enjoyed our Christmas trip to SC last week...it was all too short (even though we were there 5 days!). Sadly, we didn't get any pictures of the festivities or with family...things were too busy to think about our camera, but we did manage to have one taken of the two of us in front of my mother-in-law's tree. Since we both had New Year's Day off, we used the day wisely and took down our Christmas tree, washed laundry, and got things back in order around our home from the holidays.

Toby had a blast seeing so many of his favorite people...he even got a Christmas sweater from his Uncle Chris and Aunt Bethany (which makes him look like such a preppy boy). :)

As you can see, he is not enthusiastic about his new sweater...don't worry though, we didn't make him wear it for too long!

Date at Longhorn Steakhouse

To celebrate our anniversary, we went to Longhorn Steakhouse last Friday night. We both enjoyed salad, bread, filet mignons, and a baked potato (we even topped the night off with their Chocolate Stampede - a truly amazing dessert, but it was big enough for 4-5 people so, sadly we couldn't quite finish it all). Our kind waitress took our picture and turns out, she's trying to get into photography, so she was happy to take it.

Tonight, we leave Greensboro and head to Columbia for Christmas festivities - We're so excited to see our our family and go back to what will always be our "home."

Have a Merry Christmas as you enjoy family, friends, and food as we celebrate the greatest gift of all - God becoming man to save us from our sins!

Aaron loves Jennifer!!!

Hi, this is Aaron sneaking onto our blog for a rare post. I have a natural aversion to blogs and usually don't read or write them, but I happened to look at ours for the first time in a couple months and was really impressed at how good of a job Jenn has done with it.

Baby, I know that I've written you many letters telling you how much I love you, but I though I'd send that message publicly to the blogging world: I love you so very, very much!!! As we are celebrating our three year anniversary tonight, it's such a joy for me to look back over the beginning years of our marriage and take in what a blessed adventure they have been.

Thank you so much for letting me pursue you and thank you for your love for the Lord which makes that pursuit such an edifying and God-honoring joy. You are my treasure, my best friend and after God, my greatest love. I'm so excited about spending our anniversary, Christmas and the rest of our lives together. I love you!!!!!!

Celebrating 3 years as One!

Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary! God has been so good to us over these past 3 years. I remember when we were engaged and someone would say "You're too young to get married!" or "You should finish college before you get married" and comments of the like...we respectfully disagree with them. Those who choose to marry young have the best chance of celebrating 50+ anniversaries.

We were only 20 & 24 when we were married and I still had another year left in college. Our society has taught us that education, age and bank accounts will determine the success of your marriage - God's word says differently. Proverbs 5:18b says "...and rejoice in the wife of your youth." In 2 Corinthians 7:9b Paul says "...For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion." (Quoted in the English Standard Version)

Over the past 3 years, we've learned how to live on a budget and trust God for his daily grace and provision (and we've completely paid off our college debt!). And as our world's economy is showing...we can't put our marriage in the hands of a "stable job" because you could lose your job tomorrow. No...age, education, and/or jobs (money) aren't the criteria for a successful marriage. Rather, it's a daily dependence on a faithful God - And any married or single person needs God's grace in their lives no matter how young or old they are!

Aaron and I believe the same truth that we believed when we decided to get married so young...We both married sinners and know that we will sin against one another. Yet, because of God's great grace towards us through the Cross, we also can forgive each other and live in the goodness of a Gospel-centered life.

***The picture above is one of our engagement pictures in which Aaron does look quite young (not that either of us look old now).

Reindeer Toby

My friend, Leslie, bought Toby these reindeer antlers - What an adorable little reindeer he is! He's hoping to help fly Santa's sleigh if one of the usual reindeer get sick this year...

Oh and Nikki...I saw that you tagged me on your blog...sadly, I haven't done a very good job of organizing my folders...I usually just dump all my pics into the same folder, so I couldn't really follow the instructions... Maybe though, I can find some older and random picture to post later for fun. I'll look for one. :)

Our Christmas Tree

Our apartment did not have a place to store our artificial tree, so we left it in Aaron's mom's attic in Columbia, SC. We had sadly decided that it would be too much work to try and get it from Columbia right now and so we just wouldn't have one this year. Last week at care group, I was sharing a prayer request regarding our (especially me) being homesick for SC lately. The sweet ladies in our small group decided that they wanted to give us a live tree with all the decorations so that we would feel "at home" in Greensboro this Christmas season (complete with 2 Greensboro ornaments). Too sweet... Neither of us grew up with a live tree, so this is a new experience for us...so far though, we love it - it smells great!

Thank you guys again so much for your kindness to us! We are grateful for your hospitality.