Year 1

This weekend the Mr and I celebrated our first anniversary. The obsessive party planner and over the top side of me spent the days and weeks leading up to this milestone feeling overwhelmed by the need to plan and the urgency to make it special. Yes we would have many anniversary's, but this would be our only first one. My mind raced to images of a fancy weekend getaway or a really great gift. Not because of a need for materialism, but because I wanted something "tangible" to remember this anniversary by. However it didn't take long for my budget to catch up with my daydreams.

We are blessed beyond measure, God has provided abundantly in the past year in ways that we still can't understand with human thinking. But let's be real...we're newlyweds. The "fanciest" vacation that we can afford is breakfast in bed. And by bed, I mean our own. See where I'm going here?

So we settled it-there could be no fancy vacations. No extravagant gifts either. But as we made these decisions we discussed how much we had grown in the past year. All that God had done in us. Looking back we realized we hardly even knew the people we were when we started this married life of our's a year ago. God has had such mercy on my stubborn heart, such grace on our feeble ways, and somewhere amid the days and weeks of the last year...He began to fix us...change us into who we were meant to be all along. Unless you've been in a moment similar to this, experienced God's transforming and redemptive power over your life like I have, you probably can't understand why I'm weeping as I type this. It was nothing by our own doing or power, all glory to God. No weekend getaway or fancy wrapped present could compare.

And you know what? I bet in the next 50 years or so...we will be able to celebrate an anniversary with extravagance once in a while. But I don't think it will be better than this one. It was simple, but so very sweet.

No we didn't have money to "go all out".
But we did exchange homemade, and very heartfelt, gifts.
No we didn't go to a fancy hotel.
But we did stay in our sweet little home and cherished each moment.

And as my husband prayed over me this morning, he broke as he said, "I praise You for her...You could not have given me better. You could not have given me more.

I need nothing more.

Linking with:

http://www.mercyinkblog.com/





http://raisinghomemakers.com/