Where Faith and Family Meet!!!

We've hit a milestone today my friends ~~ site reader counter thingy-a-bob hit:

10,050 ~~ YAY!!! Ya'll rock my little mid-western world!!!!!

In honor of this most auspicious occasion I've changed the look of my blog (yes again =)

This, as I'm sure you have guessed, are pictures of our wedding day. We were married September 30, 1998, and it was such a beautiful day.

What you will not see in these pics are a wedding party, because there were none. It was me, my man, the minister and his sister, who took pics for us from our 35mm camera. One roll of film: 24 exposures, is all she would take. That was fine with us. We got such beautiful shots from that camera. They look beautiful don't you think?

There was no cake, no nuts, no mints, no punch, no need. All we needed was to be married. We so wanted our marriage to be Blessed by our Father. That was what we wanted more than anything. To know that together, we pleased our Heavenly Father. It was a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful day!!!

I loved that one of the section of verses that the minister read from I'd never heard read in a wedding before:

"Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Ruth 1:16 (KJV)

I loved that it was part of our ceremony. It really was beautiful!!! The whole day was a joy and delight to me. I am such a Blessed woman to have this man as my husband.

We have been through much in our 10+ years of marriage. I have had many health issues and through them all he has NEVER left my side. He is a doting caring husband who still nightly rubs my knee and checks on me from work AT LEAST twice a day. He calls me on his way home from work and he loves on me as soon as he comes home. Yes I am a well-Blessed woman!!!!!

Today in our study of Mrs. P31 I'd like to draw your heart to a little three letter word: far.

HUH? Stay with me.... "10 Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies." Proverbs 31:10 (KJV)

In the Hebrew, the word for far means precious. I kid you not!!! How completely grand is that?!! We know that Mrs. P31 is a virtuous, force of strength, kind of woman. But we see here that her price is precious, more precious than rubies. Can you imagine? More precious than rubies? Oh child we are, we so are to our Father. You are so precious to Him. Isn't that a completely transforming way to look at yourself; through the eyes of your Father?!!?!

I can't get that little tidbit out of my mind. Me....little broken knee-d, arthritis stricken, mid-western girl, who talks with a bit of an accent, is more precious than rubies to her heavenly Father!! That is mind-blowing to me and so wonderful!!! And yet should it come as a surprise to us. I mean seriously, He sent His only Son here, to this broken, messed-up world, to die a death He NEVER deserved, so we could live, really live!! Precious to Him indeed. He sent Jesus for you daughter, for you. He sent Jesus for you broken child. He sent Jesus for all of us!!! Precious indeed!!

So thank you all for visiting and leaving your wonderful comments and loving on me through this here little blog. Thank you for all of your prayers and the kindness of your hearts. This is a difficult season physically for me right now, but this too shall pass!!! I am moving ahead and not looking back, except to see how far I've come. Although there is some pain right now, it is not even comparable to the pain felt back in November after surgery, so I am marching right on remembering how far I've come and looking forward to how far, how precious, I will be moving on to in the future.

Have a Blessed and Beautiful Thursday,