so, you wanna get married? :-)

married life = hard, but worth it
“with God, all things are possible.”
“trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding…”
“do not fret…”
“He has shown you, o man, what is good. and what does the Lord require of you? to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

“coincidence? i think not!” ~from becky’s site

hurray! peace at last! clarity! connectedness! answers! assurance! surrender! relaxation! excitement! and all at once, too!

wonder what in the world i’m talking about? “what’s with all the exclamation marks, becky?”

well, i’ll tell you.

God has finally answered us. rather, we have finally heard Him. (it takes us thick-skulled, head-in-the-clouds kind of folks a bit longer to get through to, because we have our ideas of how things should go, and God has His ideas–which are a thousand times cooler, by the bye!–and we should learn to just trust Him!)

God has put the missions overseas thing on hold for a bit with us by closing every door we tried to pry open, and giving us several “no, not yet” types of answers.

but this is a good thing! it means we can focus on the here and now, instead of worrying and fretting over the future and how to make this thing that we thought God wanted us to do happen, when really He just wants us to love Him and trust His timing, and know that He knows what’s going on, and has this all figured out for us. He’s way ahead of us, and knows that He has some things for us to do here, right where we’re at, in the relationships we have, in the places He’s placed us in, with our families surrounding us, and a strong support system,… He has some work to do in us in general and quite specifically, as well.

so, it’s nice to know. it’s good to feel like we’re in the right place at the right time, that we’re not missing anything, and that we’re not being “lazy” or “wasting our time” by being here. when you’re resting in God’s hands, He can do with you whatever He wants, and you’ll know that you are right where you’re supposed to be. the pieces will fall into place, and you’ll say, “ooooh!! it all makes sense now!! that conversation, this predictament, this ‘coincidence’, that ‘chance encounter’, this job, that burger i ate yesterday,*…”–they all line up and point to the fact that He has you right where He wants you! it’s quite relieving, really. we can breathe again. laugh again. revel in His presence and knowing that our Daddy’s got us! *sigh* it’s a nice feeling.

*let it be known, i did not eat a burger yesterday. i am simply using that as an example of something God may use in your life. to set the record straight, i had o’charley’s with my fantastic husband, followed by this amazing drink!

no day but today

live in the moment. focus on today, because that’s all we have anyway.

yep. that’s our goal. and we’re gonna be praying and fasting tomorrow, to get some clarity, and redirect our hearts. “please, God, let it be so!”

“there’s only this, there’s only here. begin to love, or live in fear. no other path, no other way,… no day but today.”

whoo hoo!!

one year down, 70 or so more to go!

this has been such a blast, and if, as they say, the first year’s the hardest, well then, bring on the rest! With God being the very center and reason for us being married, there is nothing that can stand in our way. God has grown us so much this past year, and we’ve weathered it all, clinging tightly to Him and to each other. so, we are excited and waiting and eager and ready for whatever else He might have in store for us on this adventure together.

Coming Soon: Asia?

So a lot of our friends have hopped the ocean to go teach English or another class in Bangkok, Thailand. Because everyone is doing it and we want to be like the cool kids, we’re talking about going to visit. But here’s the catch that makes it awesome. We also have friends in Cambodia, and India. And hey as long as we’re over there, why not, right? Our flight also includes a 15 hour layover in Malaysia, which is amazing!! Why we fly south to Malaysia to go to Cambodia which is next to Thailand, I have no idea. Someone ask the airline gurus.

It only costs a mere $3500 a piece! Dang. We’re gonna keep working on it. We really want to go. Anybody want to book a photoshoot while we’re over there? Or just pay for us to go?

-daniel

new jobs!

for those who don’t know, we both have new jobs, where we are blissfully happy (at least becky is, daniel’s putting up with it and enjoying the joys of retail again)!

becky is learning the ropes of answering phones and doing office-type work again at HQ Global Workplaces (cincinnatioffice.com, for those who wish to check it out). she is trying to fit in to the corporate world and finding it to be easier in some ways and much harder in others.

daniel is starting his own photography business, with which we are not, as of yet, actually making money, but everyone loves his stuff, so it’s just a matter of getting into the right hands and charging them the right price. he has also entered the workforce wearing bright blue (as soon as they give him his shirt!) as a BestBuy home theater consultant/salesperson. he’s experiencing the pull of wanting to buy new gadgets and whatnot, but handling it quite well. becky’s keeping his feet on the ground with that, and daniel keeps reminding becky she looks great as she heads out the door every morning. it’s a nice arrangement.

you’ll be hearing more from us later, but for now, you can check out our other blogs (via the “us” page) for more info on our lives. love you guys!

signing out,

becky (on behalf of team smyth)

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