Learning to live in content....

This week has been incredibly hard......It's funny that even when God gives us amazing, good gifts, He still wants us to learn to dependend on him for everything and to be satisfied in every situation.....

I'm in my last semester before I sit for boards, and so everything is crazy....Not to mention that UAB is not the most organized place in the world and my graduate program is brand new so my class gets to be the ginny pigs.....I am currently in a Public Health Nursing class and it's an online class with clinicals at different places throughout the community.  The first week I spent time with a hospice nurse in Bessemer, this week I was privileged to ride with a VA Home health nurse and visit 2 different nursing homes, and in the coming week I will participate in a Good Health Screen and also get to perform a puppet show in an Elementary school through a program at Children's Hospital called "Kids on the Block"....not to mention that every Friday I spend time during another clinical at a Mental Health Community Day Program.  The Lord is truly challenging me, working in this facility, to be a listener.  (As you all know, I am much more of a talker than a listener!) So many people have been through crazy traumatizing experiences and I am completely blessed to have an awesome family who loves me.  Although there has been much pain and hurt in my life, the Lord is faithful and has become my father, my love, my Bride, and all that I live for.   

 In the midst of crazy business with clinicals, I have a great deal of work in my online course and my Psychiatric nursing course.  Every Monday and Wednesday I have a test over multiple chapters.  Yesterday, besides working out and getting a quick dinner with my grandma, I stayed in my PJ's all day and night and studied.  Today I am also studying all day....I'm not going to lie, I get pretty sick of reading and studying and taking quizzes and trying to prepare for tests that will cover so much information.....Not to mention that I live by myself and spend so much time alone.....And there are various situations at work with scheduling and those over me that I am struggling with and praying about.

I know that God has Ron and I separated right now due to the huge amounts of work and learning both of us must get done, but it is such a challenge to not being able to be with him and not be able to minster together.   Skype makes things a little easier, but I find myself so alone sometimes.  I realize that if I let Satan use this against me I would fall into a great depression and every day I truly have to fight this battle against this black cloud and also find complete contentment in my situation, even though, most often, I truly wish thing were different..... 

"No one wants to be alone"... How true are those song lyrics...and it the midst of anguish, desperately missing those I love, and stress on the outside, I realize that Christ has called me to be a Conquerer, and through him I am complete.   My prayer has been that His desires for my life will truly become all that I want....it's so hard to not question, "What's going to happen in May? When are we going to get married? Where am I going to work?" And at the end of the day, the Lord calls to me saying, "Jenny, trust me, I am here for you....When you are alone, I am here...." And there is just a sense of peace I find in knowing that I am not alone, but the Lord walks with me, studies with, and finds joy and delights in me......

When David writes in Psalms 51:12, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation 

       and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me....."

Notice he doesn't say, restore his joy, but rather YOUR joy....the Lord's joy.....

This has to be my prayer, what I lean on.....

Here's something you could join with us to pray about......

1. Direction for where to go in May.....Whether is be in Florida, Birmingham, a third year for Ron, or to possible get married......

2. Favor at work with those above me

3. Questions to finally be answered at a big meeting with the Nursing Director at UAB tomorrow (Monday morning)

4. That I will pass my board the first time

5. Contentment as we're apart......

trusting in things unseen and learning to be satisfied daily....

jen

my side of the story....(*jen*)

When I think about the journey that brought us to where we are at, the beginning of a new year with great hope and promise for the future, I am in awe of God's faithfulness....God truly does what he says he is going to do and always stands true on His promises....

This time last year I was applying for PA school, working at Brookwood in L&D, and not really looking for a husband or someone to share the rest of my life with....I had a rough journey in college and with previous relationships (I think Ron and I both have similar stories and experiences) and could have chosen a completely different path for my life, but God loved me enough to allow me to go through certain things that happened to hurt a little bit, but also allowed me to grow......

Last spring I truly had to learn to fall desperatly and madly in love with the Lord because He was all I had to cling to ....In May I moved out on my own, started a seriously intense graduate program, all my friends changed, and truly found myself alone in world, only clinging to God....as I read Capitavating I realized how much the Lord wants to romance us and desires us to fall in love with him...

In fact, in Hosea 2:6, the Lord tells us, "Therefore I will block her path with thorn-bushes, I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way...." and further on in verse 14 the Lord proclaims, " Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her"
This passage of scripture became my hope and my light....Although I really had begun to think there were truly no more Godly men left in the world, especially in Birmingham, I realized that God would supply all my needs, that He desired to be my lover and He called me beautiful....

I found hope in Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighy to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing"...
The thought of God singing over me every morning, the idea that He would save me, the idea that He takes delight in ME, wow, can you just imagine every morning, you wake up out of bed, you lay there thinking, "Gosh, I really don't want to get up!", you pull the covers over your head or stretch...at that exact moment, the Lord is watching you, smiling, and singing over you, claiming that you are His daughter, and you belong to him....wow...
.....and this became all I needed and wanted.....
AND then....

An amazing man of God came into my life....God sure does try to switch things up bit.......Although I must admit, I never imagined myself with Ron, and when I first met him I was satisfied where God had me...I almost didn't even wanna get to know Ron....but slowly but surely the Lord allowed me to see Ron as He sees him, as a Man after His own heart, and diligent worker, passionate and incredibly in love with Jesus.....it's really funny because anyone who knows both of us always say that they would have never put us together but somehow it just makes sense....

It's definitely been a challenge....when Ron left for Florida the first time we had only been talking for a little while and we didn't see each other for 2 months and 24 days...ha..I definitely was counting....but over the last couple of months it has been so incredible to see God use Ron with 24/7, at Bayside, going to Mexico, and truly learning to be the leader God has created him to be.....And also to see the Lord allow me to get involved with Switch, to find joy everyday as I learn to be a nurse, and one day a nurse practioner, and to help take care of my amazing grandmother who is my best friennd.....

The holidays were a great way to spend time together and get to know each others families, although it was funny trying to schedule it all in....and the next blog will be about all that craziness....

I'm so excited about what God is doing in our lives and although we have no clue what is going to happen in May, there's an awesome hope that God has given us and peace to sustain as we are apart....I'm in the final semester of the RN part of my program and it's still just as crazy, intense, and unorganized as ever...but I'm excited about the new DreamCenter highlands is opening up, leading a small group for high school girls....and the fast that we are about to start.....

God is good....and like always,
trusting in things unseen
Jen

New beginning and written words

so.....

after much procrastination.....

we finally got a blog....kinda crazy, but this way everyone can keep up with all that God is doing in both of our lives and this way we also have somewhat of a "scrapbook" and history of our journey....

We hope we encourage you as you read and see how amazing the love of the Lord is and how much he truly wants to bless us and love us....