Restarting, Sort of

I have to admit that I forgot that I had started this blog. Over the last couple months I have been thinking of starting another blog and when I logged into Blogger, I realized that I had this one. Why start something when you have a perfectly good place already? I can't think of a good reason and thus will just start trying to get motivated to post on here.

I come here on a very important occasion. Its my 1 year anniversary for my marriage. I know that a year isn't a long time, but its noteworthy in the life of a new marriage. Its hard to believe that a year has passed since I stood on stage at church and got married. It has been a wonderful year. Of course, this gives cause for me to look back and make generalizations that later in life I will think are completely crazy or that I have no clue about life. Either way, here goes some thoughts on this past year.

First, I am thankful for my wife who is amazing. She puts up with my silly and often random rants. There are many times that I will get stuck on a topic and just keep going no matter if no one else is laughing because I think its funny. She just sits there and smiles and waits until I am done. Its actually gotten worse because we have the child starter kit, a dog. This gives me another source that I can talk in a different voice and claim its him saying these things to her. Yeah, I do that. But, I acknowledge that her love for me is truly immense to put up with this almost constant annoyance. Its either that she loves me so much or that she loves God so much and has decided that there is some reason He put her with me. Either way I am happy.

The next major thing that I have noticed is my complete amazement at our family and friends. They are great. I know that my personal relationship with my wife is awesome and that has a lot to do with God. But I also know that its because we don't have strife dealing with family or friends. They have done nothing but be supportive to our marriage. Last year before we got married, I got calls and emails from her family members wishing me a Happy Birthday. Its not a big thing, but they made sure to make me feel welcomed.

I am sure that God has many things to teach me about marriage and that I have many more years to look back and see where He has led me to. But today is definitely a great day and I am thankful for every nuance of awesomness that God has given to my marriage.

Before I go and leave for months (not really), I wanted to tell some of the things that God has been doing personally with me. I am a big fan of Andy Stanley's teaching. I usually check out his stuff online when they put the new messages up. The current series about "5 Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith" is really good. Its not a "how-to" list, but rather things that happen to us that when we look back we see how God used them. The last message, Personal Ministry, just floored me. I recommend it. But, the other thing is that my wife and I are leading a bible study based on one of Stanley's message series this fall at our church entitled "Faith, Hope, and Luck". Its about faith, in case you didn't realize that. We had our first meeting but really didn't get into the study. I am so excited about this topic because it means to much to me that I long for others to hear these words. I just don't want to become discouraged due to small numbers. But I guess all small group leaders deal with that to some extent.

I guess that gets me back to posting something. Hopefully that won't be an unlikely event anymore. I also hope to share more about what I am studying. We will see.