We closed today! Let the people rejoice we did it. And we also happened move out of our apartment and into our home today! I am SO tired. And SO thankful. I will post pics of today and share more later. Hooray!

Waiting . . .

We were scheduled to close last wednesday. 6 days later and we don't even have a date set to close. That is how unsure our lender is on when they will get their paperwork together. Shouldn't closing on a home be a little more seamless? This is their profession for crying out loud. We wont even mention the fact that they might have lost our paperwork three weeks ago, I say might because they haven't fessed up to it. They just wanted us to sign those 40 some papers twice?

Praise be to the only God! He has provided perfect righteousness and payment for sins in His Son Jesus! Thank you Jesus for living perfectly for me, dieing for me and changing my heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

                        

thankful things

One thing we knew in Gainesville. We did not do a good iob of building close relatuonships with our friends in town. Sometimes we even wondered if we had them. We were surrounded by awesome students who did become friends. And our church and staff family were a great network of friends. But outside of work? Peers? . . . (cricket sounds).

We moved to Jacksonville knowing we wanted friends. And Jacksonville has been anything but lonely. There have been so many connections with people throughout the city. And we have made friends! Praise the Lord!
Two of those friends are pictured here. They don't know I took this picture on our last doublie-do date. Sharlie will know once she hops over here to catch up on all things Teten.
We are blessed by them. They are our peers and are not on Navigator staff, already we are off to a good start. He loves sports! She bakes bread!
Even more they share a love for Jesus, are like-hearted and can sympathize with us in our stage of life! I am thankful that Jesus has friends for us along the way of painful seasons who can cry with us, pray with us and play ticket to ride with us.

What do you do when its friday and all your stuff is packed in boxes because you were supposed to move on thursday and you have found out that theres no chance you are moving until monday or tuesday or wednesday?
You spend your day at the pool. And then begrudgingly start unpacking because you need to eat, and you need pans and plates and forks and salt, which are all in different boxes. Humphfff.

a delightful surprise

We had dinner reservations at the melting pot tonight because we were
taking advantage of their free cheese fondue promotion. To my
surprise, John told me once seated that he intended to order a full
four courses in celebration of our first year of ministry in
Jacksonville! What a man I married. We talked about what we will
remember about this year, about our new house (closing on Wednesday,
Lord willing), and about our last dinner together at Melting Pot,
November of 2005, after John propsed to me. That dinner five plus
years ago was also filled with excitement and anticipation as we
dreamt in our private dining room about the future. About dates,
places, guests . . . I called myself Melissa Teten out loud, and only
took my eyes off John long enough to look at the sparkling ring he had
just placed on my finger.
Memories.

flop

I have never practiced labeling things I put in the refrigerator or freezer. Tonight proved why that is a good idea. Our pot pie's flaky crust turned out to be sugar cookie.

thankful things

To John,
I am thankful for you! I am thankful that you love me so well. I am so very thankful for your commitment to Christ and leading our family to follow closely after Him. You have been a solid comfort to me. And you are the only one I want to live this life with, with all its blessings and afflictions. And I am thankful that I can beat you every once in a while at Words.
Love,
the wife of your youth

Sitting outside at night in 80 degree weather with my husband listening to music by candlelight. Playing words with husband (an app). A delightful sunday.

we just heard that the whole A/C unit is being replaced in our house.  At no cost to us.  Because of new requirements in Duval County the old system was not up to par.  Hooray for God providing for us in a crazy weird way.  Who knew how long the old system would have lasted?

timeless truth

                                                    

Yesterday John and I had the privilege to join other Florida Navigator colleagues and listen to Jerry Bridges teach on trusting God.  If you are unfamiliar with Jerry Bridges, he has been serving on Navigator staff for 50 years, he is currently 81 and still working, serving the Lord.  He served in the Navy as an officer in the Korean War before joining The Navigator work.  He has written 17 fabulous, time and truth-tested books. The Pursuit of Holiness, Trusting God, Respectable Sins and The Gospel for Real Life to name my favorites.

I needed to hear what he had to say yesterday.  Trusting God, he said, can be harder than obeying God.  Often obedience is clear because scripture is clear about commands to obey.  But trusting God can be harder because we do not know what God has planned for our lives, even tomorrow is a blur.  

A helpful truth that he communicated was God’s control over EVERYTHING.  I want to blame.  I want to blame myself, others, choices, timing and anything else I can get my hands on when my life is not written how I dreamed it would.  Blame rests on someone who has done something wrong, and I cannot say God has done anything wrong.  He is purely and always GOOD.  Despite the circumstances or the presence of blessing, He is good.  He is good because He is good, not because of the "good" He gives us.

The way certain circumstances in my life are playing out may be a disappointment to me, but to God it is pleasing.  He sees the whole picture.  And I am not forgotten.  Details of the past few years have made me feel forgotten, by God mostly.  But when everything and everyone else seem to move forward, I feel stuck, left behind, forgotten.  Thankfully Jerry pointed us to verses where God states He cannot forget me.

In all of this there is purpose.  And it is not for me to know or be able to explain.  It is for God to carry out and fulfill.  

It has been made very clear that I am weak.  I have proven over and over that I am not able to do what I want, when I want it and how I want it.  My heart aches with this realization.  But God's power is made perfect in my weakness. Will I trust Him with this weakness?