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About 365 days of marriage

I started this blog in April of 2011. At the time, Bret and I were wedding photographers and it was a way to share how marriage is more about the day to day and so much more than the wedding day itself. For about 5 years, I blogged about the joys and sorrows of the Christian walk, marriage, work, family and friends. I’ve blogged every day since a few weeks after I started. In May of 2015, we photographed our last wedding. Now, I have become passionate about simplicity, particularly in marriage, Christianity, business, travel and life. For a number of reasons, we have become minimalists. I’ve found that having simplicity makes life so much deeper, refreshing and joyful. I hope that this blog will help others see the benefits of living simply.

Day 1384 – Why I Love House Sitting

For the next few days, we’ll be house sitting for some friends. I LOVE house sitting! Mostly because I get to eat other people’s food! But also because most of the time, it’s a really relaxing time! I normally take more books than I can read…but this time, I think I controlled myself. πŸ™‚ I’m mostly looking forward to kicking back and catching up on said reading. Not sure how much actual work I’ll do….but that’s ok! It’s been SOOO busy, I’m going to enjoy a break!!

Here’s one of my roommates!

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Day 1381 – Do You Love Money?

As I was reading through my bible this morning, I came across this verse:

“Keep your life free from love of money,
and be content with what you have,
for he has said,
‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’
So we can confidently say,
‘The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?'”
Hebrews 13:5-6

This stuck out to me today because of the last year and a half and all that has happened to us. I’ve shared a few times about our financial situation, how it’s been tough and how we’ve grown through it. I would definitely admit to you that we had a love of money at the beginning of our marriage and my full-time photography journey. Not the “normal” love….but the trust in money….that if we have JUST the right amount, we’ll be ok. If we sold enough stuff, if we got one more wedding, if we didn’t go out to eat one more time. But God has a way of looking to our deepest core and saying, um, no, that’s not the issue here. Our biggest issue was that we didn’t trust that God would take care of us. Now, I’m not saying sit on your butt and wait for God to pour buckets of money out…that’s not how it works. You have to work for things. What I’m saying is that our trust and hope were in US to take care of things.

Thankfully, God didn’t leave us in that state. He broke us down to our knees, again and again…giving us JUST enough money to pay the bills, sometimes down to the penny…until we let go of the reigns and could honestly say “not our will but yours.” It has been such an amazing change that could only come from a loving God. Trust me, you would NOT believe the arguments (i.e. shouting matches) we would have about money and work. Whew! Glad those days are gone! A few months back, when we were having car troubles, I remember a specific conversation with Bret where I said, dang, I think I need to take the car in, we cannot afford that right now! Also, mind you, we were SOOOO close to paying off our debt. And in one breath, we let it go and said, BUT God is in control. Fast forward another week and we had taken in my car twice and Bret’s truck once.

I remember being so discouraged. We had just about tripled what we owed. I didn’t really have too many leads (at the time) for weddings. Bret hadn’t booked any clients either. But we still trusted.

Then something happened, almost overnight. We started booking a lot of clients. I have booked 3 weddings and Bret has booked 3 clients since then! We started being able to chip away at the loan and credit card debt, and then, it was gone. We are now at the point where we can put money in SAVINGS! I can’t remember the last time I was able to do that! We are able to budget money for hanging out with our friends and going out to dinner.

I truly believe it’s because we have taken hold of the second verse, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

So take heart, dear reader, there is hope. It isn’t an easy journey, trust me. But what good thing has ever come easy?

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Day 1380 – I Really Can’t Do It All Anymore

Friday, I helped prepare for a bridal shower. We stayed up until about 1 and got up around 8:30.
Saturday, I helped get ready for a bridal shower, enjoyed the bridal shower, went to a birthday party and stayed up until about 2 a.m…..mostly because I hadn’t seen Bret most of the weekend and we were chatting about what the other missed. We mentioned that maybe we wouldn’t make it out to church, but we’d see in the morning.

Well, this morning rolls around and we were way too tired to go. I slept in a little bit. I had planned on dropping off an album and then going to a photographer meetup. As the morning continued, I realized I was SO tired and it was just too much…so, I decided to stay home from the meetup. Then my client emailed and changed the drop off day…I cannot tell you how happy I was!

Why? Well, mostly because I was SO tired from the weekend. So worn down. It was definitely humbling to realize this. I used to be able to stay up late, get up early, do it all. But not any more. I will say I’m SO grateful that I work for myself and can make my own hours. If there is a day that I’m worn out, I can adjust what I have to do…If I need to take a nap, I will.

So, I totally rested ALL day today!

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