geez it's about time!!!

i doubt that any of you have REALLY been missing by blogs that much, but i really have been doing a bad job at updating. i really do want to be better at this, because i really blog for myself more than anything else.

so, what's been good in my life lately? LOTS!! about a month ago, i got a 12% raise at work!! God is so good! when i got my promotion back in January they told me in 90 days they would "evaluate" my progress and give me a raise based on how i was performing, well i guess i have been doing really good and they decided to compensate me accordingly!! actually above & beyond since i walk in the favor of God! even my boss was shocked when she told me the amount of a raise i was getting. the coolest thing about it all is how the FAVOR of God is stamped all over this, because no one in the company is getting a raise this year, but not only did i get a promotion and a raise in january, i got another LARGE raise a month ago. talk about walking in the blessing!!! along with my promotion, we found out that our mortgage company had been doubling charging us for an insurance fee and so we got a refund and our monthly payment when down by $200!! HALLELUJAH!!! i think the most awesome testimony in this all is that a week before this all happened, scott & i were talking about how frustrated we were that with our bills and income that we weren't where we wanted to be and that it would take a raise for both of us to just be semi-comfortable and we were just really down about the whole thing, and not even a week later the Lord had rocked our world and completely changed our financial situation. He is a God of results!! His word and promises to tithers will not be VOID in our life but it will accomplish the blessing on our behalf!! He is doing big things in us, through us, and FOR us!!

this past saturday, scott & i celebrated our 1 year anniversary and i cannot believe how fast time goes by! our first year of marriage was wonderful, honestly if every year is good as this one, i know our life will great! we didn't have the typical "hard" first year of marriage. i think after dating for 5 1/2 years before tying the knot really helped us because there weren't many surprises, just adjusting living together and the differences in opinions, but really it was a GREAT year. i am realizing how blessed i am to have a happy marriage, to not face a bunch of challenges that come so standard in other marriages. the Lord really equipped us for each other and it's been a learning process, but i know the reason we are a success is because HE lives in us and is the centerpoint of our marriage. i mean don't get me wrong, we HAVE challenges, but it's nothing that we cannot ever fix or work through. i love being married to my best friend and i love seeing the growth in scott since we got married and his love and passion for the Lord. it really has deepened in him a way that i have never seen in previous years, and i am so in love with him for being committed to the things of God in his life, my life, and our life together. i cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for us, i know it will be good.

i think more now than ever before in my life i am content in such small little things, little joys, and little moments that i took for granted before. the Lord is really doing a work in me right now, molding and shaping me more into who He wants me to be in order to accomplish what He put me on this earth for. i have been challenged in ways that i have never been before, and i have given the Lord access to work in areas of my life that i have never let Him into before. it's been interesting growing in Him, i know that every day for the rest of my earthly life will be filled with growing up spiritually, but i think now my outlook on it has changed. it's not something that i feel is bothersome or hard to do, it's simply the Lord and i walking out life every day and it's the little change here and there. it's not attain perfection all in one day, but getting better at things every day little by little. i love learning with my creator as my teacher. i really love my life right now. i feel like in growing closer to Him that it has pushed me further away from other things/people in my life, which isn't always a bad thing, because he has blessed me by placing others in my life who have the same heart and passion for Him as i do. it's been interesting but i am loving every moment of this life!!