Summer Adventures, Courtship, and More...

 

This summer was full of new adventures, new beginnings, joyous celebrations, dreams coming true, hard work, and long quiet days learning to rest in Jesus more.

My sweet friend from North Carolina, whom I have known since infanthood, got married in May. I myself, started courting a kind, godly, tenderhearted, young gentleman at the end of May. I worked landscaping during the month of June. Then went home for the month of July to spend time with my family before my sister, Priscilla, married the man of her dreams at the beginning of August. I started my senior year of college, while my middle sister started her freshman year. I turned 24 at the end of last week, which was actually quite exciting, but only because my sweet beau made it a very special day to be remembered forever, otherwise, 24 isn’t too remarkable. ;)

Busy as this summer has been, it has also been a very special season to me. Starting a courtship relationship with one of my best friends of the last two years is a unique and special kind of joy that is not always expressed outwardly, but rather experienced deep inside one’s heart. Yet in the midst of this joy-filled new journey, there does come lessons and hardships, too. Not every moment is smooth and perfect. We are both learning what it means to court. We are learning how to love each other better and we both make mistakes and fail some times, but it is a beautiful thing nonetheless, and not at all a journey that I am sad I started on.

Just as God has taught me so much in my years of singleness, so I do desire that he would continue to teach me and grow me in his great love in this new season of life. Sometimes, one season in life can sound more important or exciting than the other, but I am ever so thankful for those 23 years of singleness that I had. I am thankful for the things God has taught me through those years, thankful for the trials, and thankful for the joys. There is something special about being single that the one courting or married does not get to experience and yet, the one courting and the one married also has its own joys and sorrows. Never is one season of life supposed to be taken for granted nor should one season be better or worse than another.

I am also learning that no season is without its share of waiting. If you are not waiting for one thing, you are waiting for another, yet it’s how one waits that makes a difference. I can choose to wait on the Lord with patience and a joyful spirit, taking in those treasures that exist in the moment of now or I can continually be wishing for the next step, the next season, the next adventure, missing out on the pleasures and lessons of this moment.