The Forever Roberts

  October 19, 2013     

           It was a cold October morning. The ground was wet with the morning dew as I walked around the wedding site. I had arrived early to clear my head and talk to God before the chaos started. The sun was rising and shining on the spot where Corey and I would become husband and wife later that day. I thought I'd be more nervous and anxious then I was, but even knowing all the things that needed to be done before the ceremony was to start, all I could feel was an overwhelming peace. No matter what happened, if everything went exactly as planned or not I was marrying the man of my dreams and my very best friend. Nothing could bring me down and nothing did.

     I was so blessed to have so many awesome people help me set up and make everything look exactly how I envisioned. I loved having a bonfire and scriptures everywhere. There were blankets and s'mores and all the colors just looked amazing. There was a wall of pictures of Corey and I and for cake we had zebra cakes! Yes, the little debbie kind. My wonderful friend Jess came to do my hair and makeup. She did such a beautiful job! It was so relaxing to just get to sit back and enjoy being forced to sit down. 

 
         The moment finally came to put on my dress. I'll be honest, I procrastinated doing this because I knew once I was in it everything would feel real. That's exactly what happened. The moment my dress was on I finally felt like a bride! I was getting married and even though everything was falling into place right before my eyes, this was the moment that made it all a reality. I loved my dress! It had pockets and I was absolutely in love with them. I knew as soon as I tried this dress on for the first time that it was the one. There were times after I bought it that I questioned if I had made a hasty choice but having it on, hair and makeup done and jewelry on, everything felt right. It was totally a ME dress and I knew Corey would love it too!

    Corey and I did a "First Look". That's right, we saw each other before the ceremony. I wrestled with this decision too but I'm so glad we chose this! It was one of the highlights of the day. As much as I loved spending time with all my wonderful friends and family lets be honest, I was getting ready to marry the love of my life and I really just wanted to be with him. I knew that I would be too nervous if I waited till the ceremony to see him and I knew that if I was able to see him and talk to him I would feel more prepared to be in front of all those people. It was such a special moment that I am completely biased to seeing your groom before the wedding! We got to spend most of our wedding day with each other, and I loved that. We also pre-read our vows to each other. The week before the wedding we were sharing with each other how we were struggling with the fear of giving up our single lives so we prayed about a way that we could really lay down that part of our lives for each other. I felt like God was telling me that our vows were that so I suggested that we read them to each other prior to the ceremony so we could really focus on what we were vowing to each other. It was so special and I love that I actually know what he said.

          Our ceremony was the most beautiful experience of my life. I really didn't know how I'd feel but I definitely didn't cry. I was actually all smiles and completely giddy through the whole thing! I have been told by multiple people that I was a very fun bride to watch. Haha, well I'm glad I was entertaining. We wrote our own vows to each other, took communion together putting God first in our marriage and then washed each others feet as a commitment to serve one another just as Christ did. Kneeling down to wash my husbands feet and pray over him was my favorite part of the ceremony. I couldn't have thought of a more perfect way to honor and lay down my life for him. I pray it will always be a reminder to me to honor and serve him all the days of my life.

         The reception was fun! It was relaxed and laid back and right at 7 o'clock it began to pour down raining. We didn't get to do all the things we planned and a lot of people left when the rain calmed down but really I could have cared less! The people that stayed had fun with us. The bonfire was still going and Corey and I got to roast a marshmallow together. The kids had fun playing with the sparklers and I was now able to socialize without the obligation that I needed to get to every single table and say hi to everyone! God knows me well and as much as I love every person we invited, if I would have had to say hi to all of them by the end of the night I would have been spent. The night became more of an intimate get together, the sky cleared up and we were able to really spend time with the people that were left. That my friends was the wedding I really wanted, and even if it took a downpour to get it, I got it and I couldn't have been happier! Corey and I were almost the last people to leave our own wedding and we spent the last moments of the night drinking a glass of champagne with the Weir family. It truly was a beautiful day and I wouldn't have done it any different. In the end, I was married to my very best friend and now we are blessed to begin doing life together. I am excited to learn how to be the best wife I can to support my husband. I am so happy to be with him and cannot wait for all that we are able to do together! So here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy! I hope you have been blessed by our wedding and that through our love you have seen the love of Christ! We live to model who He is and it is our prayer that how we love each other would be an example of how God loves the world.

© Photography by Kayce Shoffner

- Sarah Robert

"She was a Princess worth waiting for"

     

          My name is Sarah. In hebrew, Sarah means "Princess". Growing up it always made me feel special. What girl doesn't want to be able to tell her friends "I'm a Princess!" and then knowing that they're name was not Sarah, I continued to ask...."what are you?". Maybe not the most princess thing for me to do, but I was little. A princess in training really. As I grew older and started to see how popular my name was, I began to lose my pride in the title. I didn't feel special anymore. Apparently, I was not the only Princess in the world, there were MANY! Even in sunday school, I would hear that God is the King and when we invite Jesus to come into our hearts, then that makes us a Princess because now we are daughters of the King! Well now my teacher was telling me that EVERY girl was a princess. My feelings of superiority and uniqueness had been stripped from me and instead of taking pride in my name, I began to hate it. As I grew older, I met so many Sarah's and then to top that off, Sarah Elizabeths, that my name made me fade into a sea of girls who were told they were just as special as me. What's so special about that! What was there left to make me stand out!

      We now live in a day where Disney tells every little girl they are a princess. They have so many dresses and tiaras that they can choose from not to mention the movies they can watch of princess' who they aspire to be, but what does the term princess mean to them? Every little girl wants to be one but why? From my "research" of disney princess movies, I've found that they all end with marrying a prince and get to wear a big pretty dress and a tiara. They have reduced being a princess to having everything you want, getting your prince charming and living happily ever after! Reality is, these princess' don't end up marrying a prince charming because they don't actually have princess qualities. They just look like one. In the ending scene of "Tangled", Flynn describes Repunzel as what I feel separates the Princess' from the Posers....

"She was a Princess worth waiting for......"

    What makes you a princess worth waiting for? And so I turn to Proverbs 31 (NASB). I won't post the whole passage here but I've gone through and pulled out the qualities it mentions.
A princess worth waiting for is: trustworthy, encouraging, has a good work ethic, eats properly, leads by serving others, knows how to manage money, dreams of the future, exercises, is discerning, prepared for the future, is generous, takes care of her family, is positive, wise, and is kind with her words.

    These are the qualities a Prince will look for. You can't have your happily ever after as a Princess if you don't act like one because you won't attract a Prince! If we are going to tell young girls that they are Princess', then we need to be teaching them to act like them. We have to explain that what truly makes them a Princess isn't the title, the dress or the tiara, it's the qualities they possess. If they expect a Prince to wait for them, then they need to be a Princess worth waiting for.

   So as I am getting ready to marry my Prince Charming, I will be diving into this passage even deeper. I want to be the Princess that he's been waiting for. I want to have a happily ever after, but wether or not I get that will depend on if I'm truly a Princess, or a Poser. And if God decides to bless me with a little princess of my own one day, I want to be ready to teach her how to be a real Princess like the Bible describes, not disney.

To the Bride who is ready to elope!

   I hit it. That point in wedding planning where I started to loathe the process. From craft projects, to food choices, to guest inviting people not on the list; yes I'm ready to elope. What started out as fun, crafts, dreams coming true has now turned into the thing in my life that I want to procrastinate even more so then laundry!

   Worries have started to settle in my mind taking the place of excitement and expectation. People asking a totally logical question or offering helpful advice feels more like a huge boulder added on top of my already toppling mountain that I've been carrying around. It's not them, it's me. And if I don't get rid of the load, I will not make it to my wedding day.

   My problem is fear. Fears of regret, that I will make decisions that 10 years from now will make me want to smack myself upside the head. Fears that I won't have enough for ALLLLLL these people that see our wedding day as something they can't miss out on! (tell me why do we have to be so popular!?!?!?!) Fears that things won't turn out as I'm planning them. Fears that it will rain! Stupid stupid fear!

  So yesterday, I got sick of fear. I went to God about the wedding. He reminded me of a wedding that Jesus went to. The one that marked His ministry. The one where they ran out of wine and He made more! He reminded me that Jesus also calmed a huge storm. (Why am I worried again?) He reminded me of Isaiah 45:2-3 which tells me "He is going before me and making the rough places smooth. Shattering the gates of bronze and cutting their iron bars. He is giving me the treasures of darkness and the hidden wealth of secret places because I have made Him my God and He knows me by my name!". He reminded me that it's just a day. My marriage is what matters. He reminded me that I know how to make good decisions and He trust me to make the right ones but even if I fall short on a decision I have Isaiah 45:2-3 to fall back on. And then as I was talking things out with my future husband (whom God then reminded me why I love Him so much), Corey pointed out that there is a reason all these people are coming to our wedding. That's when God changed my complete idea of what this wedding is about.

   God has given Corey and I a day where we can stand in front of close family, extended family, friends, friends of friends, and allow them the honor of staring at a miracle. They get to witness the very work of God as Corey and I vow to each other to honor and serve one another. They get to witness us paint a picture of Jesus, just as He laid down His life for us, we get to lay down our lives for each other. We get to surround our guest with the very love of Christ as we show love towards one another just as Christ showed love towards us. This wedding is not just about me, it's a way for God to work through me by using the testimony Corey and I have. We would not be where we are without Christ and we want Him to be the center of this day. By coming to this wedding, our guest won't just see Corey and I get married, they will see Jesus Himself.

  My perspective has completely changed for this day. It is no longer about looking back and making sure I don't regret my decisions. It's no longer about what hair style I have or what the centerpieces look like. It's about being a picture of Christ for our family and friends and giving them the chance to encounter the One who has made this all possible. God has brought us together not to put on a party, but to glorify Himself. With that thought in mind, my mountain has melted away and I feel the freedom to move forward in confidence that He will make this day far more then I can ever imagine. I will fix my eyes on Him, the One who has caused all things to work together for our good. I want to look back 10 years from now and remember how many people encountered Christ because of one day. THAT my friends, is my dream wedding.

Happy Wife, Happy Life

   I could not have thought of a better way to spend such a gorgeous saturday morning then to walk to Starbucks with my sweet friend, Jess. Coffee and a lovely conversation, yes please! God has blessed me with someone to enrich my life with fun and also wisdom, not to mention she's actually the same age as me! (which if you know me, that's rare)

   Something we talked about today was the phrase, "A happy wife means a happy life!". We both stated how we had mixed feelings about the saying so we talked it out. Yes, on the one hand there is truth to it. Men if you love your wife she will want to love you back (so feel free to do so), but so often this statement is translated as "It's my husbands job to make me happy at all times and if he doesn't make me happy, then I don't have to make him happy". Newsflash, that's not love. The Bible does tell husbands to love their wives, but love doesn't always look the way we want it. Sometimes love has to tell the truth and sometimes the truth hurts. But God didn't create marriage to suck because of the hard truths, He made it become even more wonderful because - I love the word Jess uses - it sanctifies us. It makes us more like Jesus because "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another".

    It's the purpose of marriage. This can be applied to relationships in general but God created a way for one man and one woman to enter a covenant based on a trust and a love that can only be shared between two people. It is meant to be a representation of what God wants to have with us. A relationship that reveals our flaws and causes us to become more like Jesus. Our self focused culture has taken the truth of the "hard" parts of marriage and lied to us saying that marriage is too hard and once theres no emotion to keep you together, then clearly it's time to call it quits. They reduced love to an emotion and once that's gone, they have no obligation to work at it because they are no longer "in love". The people who believe the lie that it's all downhill from marriage don't understand the concept of marriage. Dating isn't meant to fulfill you, it's only a stepping stone to the real deal. It's the reason you feel drawn to marriage but know that the hard parts in your dating relationship will only be amplified when you enter marriage. It's a turn-off for those who listen to the marriage definition of todays society, but at the same time it's a longing of the heart. People enter it based on how they feel, but when the person isn't making them feel the love that made them long for marriage, they have no obligation to try. If you base your love for people on how they make you feel, then you have not learned how to love.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8


    So next time when you're faced with a hard truth and it doesn't feel like your husband is making you happy, he is making you happy. You're not going to feel it instantly, in fact it may actually hurt in the moment but momentary affliction is worth it because of where it leads. It leads you to deal with something that is actually hindering your walk with God and your relationship with your spouse. That's true love. Love will take that risk of telling you something you don't want to hear because they want to see you grow. Love will put up with you when you get angry and decide not to make his favorite dinner because he made you upset by pointing out your flaw. Love will still be there waiting for the moment the light bulb goes off and you realize he was right. Love will respond with walking you through whatever you need to help you become the person you were created to be. And when you are walking in your destiny, you can't NOT be happy.


PS. You don't have to wait till you're in a relationship to do this! God has called us to love each other. That means your family, your best friend, your co-workers ect... It's the same principle. God gave us each other so we could spur one another on towards Christ. Thank God for the people in your life that love you enough to push you to become better, and strive to love people enough to show love even when you don't feel like it. It's good practice for marriage!

Prayer and Social Media

  Recently I've noticed that prayer status' have become a trend amongst my christian friends on facebook. At first I just passed over it and wasn't even interested but the more I've seen this trend, the more interested I became and decided to read what people were posting. Now, I can say that I LOVE when people post scripture and testimonies! There's nothing like being able to scroll through facebook and read truth and see what God is doing in my friends lives. It is encouraging and beneficial to my life. So for those of you who are doing that, THANK YOU! But something that I just have not had peace about was people posting prayers about themselves on social media.

Before I continue here is a disclaimer: If God has specifically told you to start praying on facebook, by all means please do. I'm all about being obedient to God and the last thing I am trying to do is judge peoples actions. I only see the outward appearance, it's God who knows your heart but I would caution those who are praying publicly and haven't sought God about why you are praying over social media. I would encourage you to do so.

  So here were some of my thoughts as I was trying to figure out what my deal was. If I'm being honest, the prayers annoyed me. At first I thought there was something wrong with me. I mean, praying on facebook, that can be pretty bold and risky for some and they should be commended, right?! I thought I was irritated because they were doing something that I wasn't. But as I was reading these prayers I have no doubt that they are sincere and heartfelt, but in all honesty they didn't seem like prayers that I could agree with and say "Amen" to. To me they more so seemed like a way to let the world know how spiritual they were or to get a point across. Then I was reminded of a popular people group in the Bible that did the exact same thing.

The Pharisees. They flaunted their status and their entire identity revolved around appearing to say and do the right things. It looked like they were holy and they talked like they were besties with God, but when the Lord Himself walked in the room, they had no idea. They completely missed Him because they were so focused on keeping up appearances.

In Matthew 6, Jesus talks about how we should pray. In verse 5 He says "When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full."

So after reading this passage let me ask you, how serious are you about your prayers? Do you really want to see them happen or is the recognition from your 500+ facebook friends enough for you? God created prayer not as a means for drawing attention to ourselves, but to draw us closer to Himself. Prayer to me is a very private thing. It's like sharing secrets with my best friend. I don't get up on a stage and yell my secrets for the world to hear, I pull my best friend aside and spend one on one, private time with them. Sharing the depths of my heart with them. That is what prayer means to me.

Now before you argue and start debating me about praying for other people and countries and problems publicly and insert the "when 2 or 3 are gathered" line, I will ask you to consider this. When any of the great leaders of the Bible discussed with God something that was really on their heart, that they really wanted to see changed or made better, how did they approach God? Was it in public where everyone could agree with them and shout an "AMEN!", or did they go off and have a heart to heart with their Lord, the One they knew heard their cries and would answer them, not because of how many people they got to agree with them, but simply because they asked.

Change in your life won't happen because you posted a prayer on facebook. It will happen when you sign off facebook and spend time with the Person you are asking to change you.