One Year

Well, that year wasn't so bad.

In all seriousness, we had heard some horror stories about the first year of marriage. Living with someone for the first time, having your lives more intertwined than you've ever experienced before. We won't lie to you, it wasn't easy all of the time, or even most of the time. But we've learned that marriage isn't supposed to be easy. After all, it is all about dying to yourself and putting the other person's interests above your own. We've been reading Tim Keller's book, and listening to Mark Driscoll's sermons (based on his book) on marriage. They have been helping us with some of our personal issues that we brought into the marriage that have been magnified by marriage. One of the biggest lies our society communicates is that marriage and romantic relationships should be all pleasure and happiness, and if it isn't, you need to keep looking. As we've read/heard, marriage is about making us more like Jesus. And by God's grace marriage has helped us do that.

But our first year of marriage has also been a blast. We have had so many awesome experiences, culminating in this Europe adventure, and we feel incredibly blessed. Since August 12, 2011 we moved to the great city of Hamilton, we've become part of a church that we love to serve in, we moved into our first house, which we love, Julia got a supply teaching position and now a permanent position, I have been in a grad program that I enjoy, we have spent lots of time with family and friends who we love, and now we are in Europe! We are confident that God has placed us in these positions so that we can serve Him best, and he is helping us do that by His grace.

http://vimeo.com/27969190

 

We are immensely excited for what God has in store for the next year and beyond, Lord willing. We are so thankful to Him for all the blessings he has given us, first of all, our salvation made possible by Jesus' death on the cross, and secondly, each other. But another huge gift has been all of you, our family and friends who have been there for us through the ups and downs of the first year of marriage. We're so thankful for all of you in our lives.

Finally, I want to wish a happy anniversary to my amazing wife! Thank you, Julia, for your love and friendship, and for pushing me to be more like Jesus. I'm SO thankful God has placed you in my life. And sorry for all the non-blissful moments of our first year, God is working on me, and us. I love you!

- Andy