{PerfectOneTwentyFive}

So it's been awhile since I've updated my thought & life. I've just been a bit busy. 

Recap: I got engaged. Yes! Well that's what I was supposed to say, pretty sure I just mumbled letters as he out the ring on my finger. But in 65 days, I am going to be Mrs. Joseph Davis. Exciting right? Well it is for me. 

So my abscene is due to the fact that I am crazy busy. While waiting tables during the day, I'm going crazy with my princess business & getting all kinds & sorts of gigs & events. It's great to see things really flying. 

My busyness has led me to go almost a little insane. Sleeping poorly, not keeping a regulated diet, super hard lack of exercise. My life is kind of falling into a mess all while I'm supposed to be the most organized I have ever been. 

So, I've dedicated this post to me taking a breather to sit down & write. 

Wedding planning is going great. My mom & Aunt Lori are so helpful. My family is supportive & my fiancé is absolutely the best man. We've got a date & venues. My dad is ready to start building & designing to make our ceremony beautiful. Flowers are ordered, The Dress is almost finished with alterations, Joe looks so good in his new suit and shoes. We've got ties and earrings. I'm working with our caterer this week & crafting out the wazoo. 

Seriously, weddings are so much fun to me. I've always enjoyed them. I can remember when I was younger going to my cousins' weddings or people my parents knew, & when I wasn't a flower girl, I would always try to sit on the end of aisle. My favorite part was to have the bride's dress trail over my feet as she walked down the aisle. For some reason, that moment was so magical. 

As I've grown, & played the role of bridesmaid or maid-of-honor in my friend & sisters weddings, I have grown to see the magic in the grooms face as he sees his bride for the first time. Or the weepy happiness in a fathers eyes as he gives his daughter away. Crazy how one day can leave so many different elements of magic all over the place. There's magic in the dressing room as the bridesmaids all laugh & playfully tease so to ease the bride's nerves. 

I brag about my soon-to-be husband to people I wait on at work. I show off the beautiful ring he picked out, I tell them "He's alright. He'll do for now." But they know I mean more. Because he deserves more of a beautiful description. I'm not easy to deal with or handle at times. I can still get moody, upset, frustrated, he deals with me when I'm purposefully annoying him & trying to get a rise out of him. He's got patience & I lose count of how many times a day I hear the phrase, "I love you." People tell him he is lucky to have a catch like me, they're right, but they're also wrong. I'm the lucky one. I got the prize. Never would I thought that I could fall so hard for someone else, love as purely as I love Joe.

He's my absolute favorite person to spend my days with. 

I'm the lucky one. Joe brings an uncanning amount of joy to my life. He makes me laugh, he laughs at me. Joe knows how to cheer me up & how to level my head. 

I bet everyone has heard the saying, "When you know, you know." Well, it's so true. Funny because I was beyond against Joe at the beginning. Scared of what people would think of me & my decisions or choice in judgement.  But what I wasn't aware of was the amazing man God placed into my life when we both were at difficult & uncertain times. I just want to go back in time & tell myself to let go of my heart & hand it over to him, because he's the best one fit to guard it.

Love is beautiful. I hope everyone can experience just once in their life someone who fully & selflessly understands them.

Follow our love story & fairytale at www.theknot.com/us/PerfectOneTwentyFive or watch my page for wedding updates, pictures or just more snippets of my bragging on my Joe. 

Peace & love.

B.

{Recipe}

I never thought I would be the type of girl who would mourn the absence of her boyfriend when he leaves for work or for a weekend speech tournament. I never thought I would become so obsessed with the presence of him. My daily routine of seeing him as many minutes in a day as I possibly could has plagued me with an aching feeling that I can't match with anything else. I have never felt more complete, loved, & wanted than I do when I am with Joe.

This is how my relationship with the Lord works, too. & as much as i love Joe & would do absolutely anything in the world to serve him, I would do that much more to honor & glorify my God. You see I get my worldly fulfillment from Joe & am beyond blessed that my heart was opened to him, but my soul is sustained by my Lord & Creator.

First & foremost, I give myself to Him. From the beginning of our relationship, I told Joe that my heart belonged to God, & luckily, he has come to share a piece of it too. 

I've admired watching Joe's faith. Watching how he analyzes sermons & devotions, how he can depict out the smallest piece of an argument & cause the other person to really think about what they believe in & who they believe in. His faith & constant search for the real truth has brought me to find mine. 

Secondly, any young Christian girl sat through some Wednesday night purity class & they talked about their future husband. They listed traits that would describe him: hardworking, loving, handsome, funny. But a trait that usually made the cut would be "God-fearing." The classic good girl response & if you didn't put that one down first on the list then where did your priorities really lie, right? Not to say that you shouldn't desire that trait in your life partner, but have you ever realized that there is more than one version of a follower of Jesus Christ?

It took me a long time to come to terms with that. My man was to stand out but also blend in. To be called on day after day & Sunday after Sunday. He would have the respect of the elders & other members of the church. A lot of pressure. When I think of a Christian man, I think of my father. I think of my grandfathers. I think of my brother. So many other wonderful leaders I have had in my life. I have seen them work in the church. I have heard them praise. I have witnessed their broken hearts. I had a cookie cutter version of what I wanted my husband to be doing to express his faith & love for his savior. 

But finally, I was blessed with Joe. The man who I'm not going to see standing up every Sunday to lead praise & worship. Or be asked to say a prayer for every Lord's Table. He might be the one getting up to do announcements or reaching it to those who may be in financial, mental, spiritual, or physical conflicts. I see a man who will support & pour him whole self into a person or a project. A man who is driven by passion. 

One day, I told Joe to lead me. He said no, walk beside me. We've been hand in hand ever since. 

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return fir their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls & has no one to help them up. Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." 

Ecclesiastes 4:9,10 & 12.

1Also, 12 Th

I don't want a gingerbread man, a cookie-cutter version of the Christian man picture I painted in my head many years ago.. I don't need a gingerbread man & his sugar coating & gumdrop buttons. I need someone who will put a bitter taste in my mouth that will help me to think, that will help me to challenge & try until I find my own recipe of faith.

God gave me my God-fearing man. In a way that I would have never expected.

Peace & love.
B.

{Thankfulness}

I don't think people realize how blessed their lives are. This past summer I have had many friends go on mission trips to places less fortunate than where we have come from. Some places were out of the country, across seas, & others were right here in our own backyard America. My good friend Karlie is heading to Africa in January 2016 to work with a group called The Mercy Project. She is following my friend Tyler's younger sister, Katey who is going to be working with the same mission. My friend Ally goes to Port Au Prince, Haiti every year to give back to an orphanage that has cleared a special place in her heart & I love to follow her story about her journey & her realization of God's love. York's beloved Beth Brock & Troy Kelly just headed to China to teach English for the next year. So many beautiful people are doing so many beautiful things for our Lord's Kingdom. I am so thankful for people like Karlie, Katey, Ally, Beth & Troy who are willing to go out & stretch themselves to their thinnest, to give up the luxuries they hold so dear & be the clay that God is so excited to mold. I am thankful for those who daily serve where hands are needy & food is scarce, where the water has deadly bacteria & the sun scorches their skin, but everyday praise the Lord continuously.

How are you contributing?

How am I contributing? How are we servicing our Father? How am I being a fisher of men?

I have struggled with knowing the right way for me to full heartedly serve my God. I don't know if my efforts in praise & worship are ever enough. Because unlike my mission driven friends & family, I've stayed put for all nearly twenty-two years of my life. I find my peace here in the Midwest. But that doesn't mean I can't go & be a servant for the Lord.

Constantly, I ask myself, how am I serving?

I work as a server in the food industry.  From about 11:30 until around 9:00 every Tuesday through Friday and then Saturday nights, I'm running hot plates of food to tables, refilling glasses of various beverages, rolling silverware, taking out trash, cleaning windows, along with a variety of other tasks required of this position. My feet hurt every day. My back hurts every day. My clothes get dirty. I spill things that make the floor dirty. But every day I leave my job thankful. 

My favorite couple comes in every day, Rollie & Annie. Though I don't always see them or speak with them, I know they've been in. They are an older couple who just melt my heart & bring me so much joy. I have never seen them not smile or say a cross word to the other. Out of habit, I always ask them how they are doing & Annie will always without a doubt answer, "thankful."

They are my daily reminder to be thankful for my own life. They’re my reminder to be a little nicer to the rude customers sitting at the corner table. They’re my reminder to refill drinks with a smile, even if it's after midnight or after a ten hour shift.

So today, I ask you to be thankful. I urge you to take a look at what you have, to evaluate the life you live. Are you thankful? Are you grateful? Are you filling your days with love? 

I’m thankful for my boyfriend. For the love that we get to share freely. I’m thankful for his new job & that he gets to go back to school & coach speech. I’m thankful for the puppy he bought me, even if she annoys me or tries to sit on my lap as I type this on the broken computer that I have, but am also thankful for. I’m thankful for the caffeine in the coffee I’m drinking. I’m thankful that our friend is loaning us a car to drive so that each f us can get to work every day. I am thankful for my bosses & how well the little town of McCool Junction has treated me for the past couple of years. I am so incredibly thankful for my family. My parents are a beautiful example of love. My sisters have taught me to share. My brother has taught me to work. I’m thankful for my “brother” Raymond who is always the first to jump up & greet Joe & me when we come back to visit & for my brother-in-law who is providing for my sister & being a spiritual leader in our family & church congregation. I could go on & on about the big & small things that I have in my life. My service to God is through thankfulness.

To the God who is faithful, I am thankful.

To help support Karlie and Katey, here are their GoFundMe links

Karlie Mountjoy: http://www.gofundme.com/sy2z98ng

Katey Cox: http://www.gofundme.com/y4vwd24

& Please remember to pray for those who are willing to work as the Lord’s missionaries & servants.

Peace & love.

B.