Your Love oh LORD, Reaches to the Heavens

“When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.”- Psalm 94:18-19

God's love is amazing. On my way to work today I was reflecting on how loving God is, even when we fall. If we throw ourselves down in to the pit of sin, God's still there beside us, offering His hand to help us back up.

His mercy is endless, His grace is abundant and His forgiveness is sincere. Wow.

A lot of questions...

Why walk when you can run?

Why survive when you can thrive?

Why have a small wedding when you can have a huge wedding?

Why be content with unhappiness or shortcomings?

Why give up when you know you can persevere?

Why give only half of your effort?

Why don't you improve yourself?

What is Love?

There are many different ways to categorize love. I'll focus this blog on one way to categorize love: selfish love and selfless love.

Selfish love is your love for something because it gives you pleasure, comfort or security. I love soft tacos. I love money (in a healthy way). I love having a steady job. These are all selfish loves, I would only give up something of lesser value to me for a soft taco, more money or a better job. I wouldn't pay more than five dollars for a taco; I wouldn't compromise my morals for more money and I wouldn't move away from loved ones for a better job.

Selfless love is something entirely different; selfless love means you lay down your pride and selfishness to do something for another person. You can witness selfless love is Christs' death, a friend going out of his way to help you or marriage on a day-to-day basis.

Marriage is a unique love; you are becoming one with another person. Your decisions no longer affect yourself, they affect you and the one you love. Your mistakes, your issues, your downfalls, your blessings, your gifts and the risks you take no longer affect just you - they also affect the one you love. You must be selfless to have a successful marriage. This is not to say that you must be a doormat or forfeit your desires, but now you must take into consideration what affect your dream-chasing is going to have on your love.

Please, share your thoughts with me.

Discerning Advice, Discovering Wisdom, Discarding Opinion

During the course of me and Kathy's relationship we have been blessed continually by people taking the time to share their hearts with us and pass on some of their thoughts regarding our relationship. The hard part is what to do with the ideas or concerns expressed to us. Now that me and Kathy have taken the next step and are on our way to marriage, the words of wisdom are pouring in! We get thoughts on how to stay pure, what married life is going to be like, how we're going to change, what kind of reception we should have, and dozens of other topics. We talk about a majority of the conversations we have with others and talk about how we can incorporate that wisdom into our relationship.

However, there are a few things that people say that we don't agree with and do not follow. If we do not follow through with your advice or adhere to your guidelines for our relationship, neither one of us is minimizing your input or devaluing your friendship. We both sincerely want to hear your thoughts so we can continue to improve and refine our relationship and plan the best wedding we can!

The Process of Going from Man to Husband

I am going to be a husband in eight months from now. The emotions that I'm feeling range from exuberance to depression to anxiety and fear. This is going to be the biggest change in my life up to this point. I've been doing a lot of thinking as to what has to happen for me to make this transition in my mind and my attitude.

My actions are now going to start affecting myself and another person. My mistakes harm me and my wife. Any blessings that touch me now also bless my wife. Any risks I take also put my wife at risk at well. I'm used to having the ability to "go all in" when I see potential, I won't be able to do that because someone else's well being depends on my decisions.

The last month and a half has been a growing experience, I've been stretched more than I could have possibly imagined. God's shown me His power, His mercy, His grace and His love. The community around me has shown me what a Christian community is by convicting me of my wrongdoings and loving me even though I fall.

The next eight months are going to be a wild ride...

Talk sense into me!

Why should me and Kathy wait until next year to get married?

We started joking around with the idea of getting married in September-but I can't think of a reason NOT to! Anyone? Talk some sense into me! alex.branning@gmail.com

A Little Story of Our Big Night

I took Kathy out to dinner at the local Outback restaurant for our five-monthiversary. My original plan was to sing to her in the restaurant and propose in front of all the diners eating - but I just wasn't feeling it as the night went on. So after we ate our amazing steak dinner (me and Kath are both lovers of steak) I took her to the Botanical Gardens to "walk around."

We walked around and enjoyed the scenery, oohing and ahhing over the flowers - and then I found it. The perfect spot to propose; an enchanting little, circular area surrounded by flowers with two "love seats" on the outside and a statue in the middle. We sat down on one of the love seats and then I said "Oh! I want to sing to you..."

I got up to sing her our song (If You're Not the One by Daniel Bedingfield)..and froze! I had a hard time breathing, I was SOOO nervous. After I mustered up the courage, I sang her the first eight lines of the song-that's all I remembered. I didn't sound that good, but she was beaming. I brought her up for a hug, we embraced for a few minutes, then I got the ring out of my pocket and got down on one knee. I said:

"Kathy. I love you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to go to sleep looking at you, wake up next to you, and live my life with you. Will you marry me?"

And then I brought out the ring - and started to put it on the wrong hand!! *blush* She laughed, led me to the right finger, and the ring slid on perfectly. It was so great!