Raising the Bar

This post has three purposes:

1. To encourage the single women around me

2. To raise the bar for my brothers

3. Most importantly, to praise my husband.

I must be the luckiest woman in the world. I am continually amazed and humbled by my husband. Let me give you some examples of why he is so great.

• He is gracious - Eddie is one of the most gracious people I have ever met. The number of times that I have sinned against him over this last year of our relationship and even more so in the last 5 months of our marriage is countless. And yet he always sees past my sin and recognizes that it's not who I am. And because of that he can love and accept me even in my most sinful moments. I have never felt condemned by him.
• He is generous - With everything: his time, his money, his effort, and his possessions. He is quick to offer what he has to a person in need. When he looks at our home and our belongings, he doesn't see wealth obtained, but he sees ministry tools given into his stewardship. And he's always way ahead of me in serving. By the time I notice a place to serve he's already been there for 15 minutes offering his help.
• He has a passion for unreached people - When Eddie looks at the people of the world he sees beauty in how God designed them. And yet at the same time his heart breaks for the many people groups that have never heard of the name of Christ. There are too many people in the world that will not know Jesus unless someone goes. Eddie wants to go. And I love that about him.
• He is genuine and sincere in his love for me - When he tells me that he loves me, I don't doubt it for a minute. The other day he posted this on Twitter: The heart of a Christian husband. As I read it, I knew that it was true about him. He lavishes love on me. And I don't deserve an ounce of it. And yet he gives it. He is such a great example of how Christ loves me.

There is much more that I could say. The list goes on and on in my head. But hopefully you can see a good enough picture of my husband and how wonderful I think he is. For my single sisters, I hope this comes as an encouragement to you that these kind of men do exist. They are out there. Never lower your standard and settle for less than God's best. And for my brothers, I hope I have raised the bar a little for you. If the women around you do have their expectations set this high, then I hope that you will live up to them like my husband does.

And Eddie, I hope you know how much I love you and how lucky I feel to be your wife. Thank you for loving me.

Something From Nothing

So Eddie and I are growing some plants on our deck. We went to Walmart a week ago and bought planters, soil and seeds. We are growing basil, cilantro, snap peas, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes. Eddie has been very eager for them to start growing and he checks on them multiple times a day even though I have told him that we have to wait another week before they will start to come up.

But I was thinking about a seed and how crazy of a thing it really is. Think about it, some seeds are so tiny. The tomato seeds we planted were so small that I couldn't find it in the soil once I dropped it in. But in a few weeks (hopefully) we will have a plant that has tomatoes growing off of it. Have you ever thought about where that comes from? Where does all that matter come from? No where. It's all from replicating cells. It's not like there is a bunch of matter laying around that gets pulled together and organized as a plant. The matter is just created. It's literally something from nothing. Crazy!

Or think about a baby. All you start with is a little, microscopic egg and in 9 months you have a human being with arms, legs, eyes, lungs, a heart, skin, a tongue, and vast variety of other things. Where does that matter come from? No where. It's just replicating cells.

I just think God's creation is amazing. How a big, real, tangible, functional thing, can just come from a tiny, losable, insignificant thing. And that matter, which wasn't there before, is now in existance. It's just crazy.