Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Wedding Project #5: Engagement Photos

Here is a sampling of the engagement photos we had done.  Our photographer, Sara Renee, is absolutely awesome and we are so excited to have found her!  She is so easy to pose for and we had a lot of fun!  I was pretty nervous but she set me at ease very quickly.  Sara Renee, you are the coolest!

He sure is handsome :)

I match the tree :)

My personal favorite :)

Couldn't be happier!

We look like this a lot!

This one was a little challenging but I love how it turned out!

TTFN!
The Future Mrs. Miller

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Wedding Project #4: Thumb twiddling...

So I am afraid to admit it and jinx myself but I have to say I just a little at a loss as to what to do now in regards to my upcoming nuptials.  Those 2 months of unemployment were really the best thing to happen to me in order to allow for me to focus on planning.  If I had known that I would have that much time on my hands for that long I probably would have set the date for sometime in September.  My fiance and I are both kind of kicking ourselves a little bit on that one.  But God knows and I think November will be a lovely month to have a wedding!  

All in all I have really had such a great time planning this whole thing.  The Lord has remained active in this process with me and things have just beautifully fallen into place.  It has been such a blessing and an added assurance that God is behind this.  

So far I have:
venue
caterer
officiant
music
photographer
videographer
invitations are out
RSVPs are coming in
cake
dresses for me, bridesmaids, and flower girls
flowers
rings (as of today)
Programs are in the works and almost ready to send off to the designer (AKA: my awesome future brother-in-law) 

I am pretty much set!  And it is a great feeling.  I am now at the point where we just have to get the marriage license and we are set!  So now I feel like I am in a little bit of a waiting game.  The next thing on my list is to get my dress in and have my first fitting!  That is going to be a pretty sweet day!

So I guess we can go back to painting and getting the house ready while I wait for the dress to get here.  So in between gazing longingly at the pictures I have of my dress I will be picking out paint swatches and rolling away on the walls of my future home :D

TTFN!
The Future Mrs. Miller 
69 days!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Confessions of A Chatty Girl: The Last Year...

It's my birthday again!!! Yep, that's right.  Another year has gone by and it has been a full one.  The craziness started with quiting my job and moving to Chattanooga completely on faith trusting that God would provide everything I would need and it hasn't stopped since. Once I moved here there was a lot of adjustments which I am still getting used to.  I had to realize that Chattanooga was not Lynchburg.  Covenant was not Mercy.  My friends here were not my friends back in Lynchburg.  In the first few months of living here there was definite doubts and homesickness.  I missed my mom and dad.  I missed my church.  I missed my friends.  I missed the familiarity of my surroundings.  I missed knowing a town like the back of my hand.  I missed my comfort zone. I can't lie and say that there aren't times when I get homesick or I miss certain things about my prior life in Virginia but now I don't doubt for a minute that this is definitely where God wants me.

In just the very short 8 months that I have been in Tennessee I have learned a lot about myself and about different sins that I had yet to identify.  Being in a new place with new people and new situations has brought to light a lot of things about myself that I didn't know.  For instense, until I moved here I prided myself on what I called southern charm.  I thought that was a great asset and a wonderful trait until I realized what the second half of the definition was,

           South-ern charm (srn chärm): n
                 The art of making someone feel special, welcomed, loved, and/or appreciated when in their company, even though one secretly dislikes, mocks, or gossips about them when not in their company.

Turns out Southern Charm isn't so charming afterall. The real trait and asset I needed to be cultivating was charm that is born out of genuine Christ-like love for others and is therefore missing that second half in its definition. That is just called the Gospel lived out.  God has brought into my awareness how I was decieving myself in thinking I really loved people when all I really was doing was being fake.  By God's grace He has made me aware of this tendency in my life.  Please be praying with me as I see to be moulded by the Gospel in this very specific area.  

One of the biggest tools that God has used to besides a change of scenary has been my future husband.  It is amazing how being in such a close relationship with someone can highlight so many sins in your life and even just strange oddities about your personality that you didn't know you had.  Until he came along I thought I was selfless and humble.  I thought I was practical and easy-going.  It hasn't been all bad obviously the things he has brought out in me though.  I thought I would have a hard time submitting to anyone's headship other than my father's.  I thought I was afraid of commitment.  I thought I was to independent to ever really be married.  I thought peers were the only people group I could minister to.  

This year has been a learning experience for sure.  My 20th year was far different from my 21st.  My 21st will be far different from my 22nd.  I have had to trust God in ways and at depths I didn't think possible.  I have had triumphs and set backs.  I have had exciting changes and terrifying ones.  I have had times of being scared out of my mind and times of complete peace and security in who God is and what He is capable of.  God continues to prove Himself faithful.  As I have said before the future is unknown its scary and exciting all at once.  One thing is for sure though.  No matter what is ahead in year 22 I know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  And you can take that to the bank.

So happy birthday to me and heres to another year of discovering how God is going to use me!
TTFN
Rachel

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

EWF seeking GOD: My grace is sufficient for you...

When I sat down to write this blog I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go with it.  The last few days have been a jumble of thoughts and emotions.  The one word that kept springing to my head as I looked back on the events of this last week was grace.  I will spare the details for privacy's sake but suffice it to say that a tragic loss occurred in my fiance's family this week.  It rocked my new family to the core.  When my fiance got the phone call late Tuesday evening, my heart broke and went into a tail spin.  "What am I supposed to do?" "What is my role?" "How can I help?" "How can I comfort?" "How do I make the pain go away?" "How do I wipe the sadness from his eyes?" I felt helpless. I felt at a loss.  I felt weak.  These people that I loved so much were hurting and I could do nothing to stop it.  I instantly began praying, "God what can I do? Show me what to do!" I should have realized I was thinking and praying completely wrong.  The reoccurring word that kept popping up in every avenue was "I" and "me".  What in the world can I possibly do? I can't reverse time. I have never been through anything like this. I don't have insight or wisdom. I can't heal hurts nor can I change hearts. What was I thinking? I was thinking I had to DO something. I was thinking it was up to me.


So, here I sat trying to wrap my head around this crazy week and put into words what has been spinning around in my heart and these verses came to mind.  "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10, ESV) I am weak. I am helpless. I am at a loss.  But His grace is sufficient.  His grace steps in where I fail.  His grace moves in and takes over where I can do nothing.  His grace is what changes everything! Not me. Not my strength or my ability or my right words or my well timed hug.  None of that has any power without being bathed in His grace.  As a well loved minister from my past used to say, "Grace has a way of overflowing and splashing out over all those whom you come into contact with."  Instead of praying for the right thing to do or for the right words to say I should have been praying that the healing grace, which is mine through Jesus Christ, would overflow and shower my hurting family and that they would be able to taste the sweetness of Christ in spite of the bitterness of sin, especially to those hurting who might not yet know Him.  


Thankfully, God is not reliant on my cooperation.  Thankfully, God accomplishes His will whether I sanction it or not.  Praise God that He works continually with and through my weakness.  Praise God that His power is perfection. My prayer is that I will be able to say with Paul I am content in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  Because God is my strength and my portion.  Sinclair Ferguson said in a sermon I recently listened to, He supplies me my daily bread. And His mercy and grace are fresh and enough for each day.  I pray that His mercy and grace will be poured out on my new family and that Christ would be made evident to them through this and above that through all of this His name would be praised.  


I am weak but I AM is strong.


Hallelujah!
Rachel