Tag: weddings

Journey to Trust

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If Christy ever thought all the uncertainties of life would vanish after her wedding day, she finds out plenty soon that isn’t reality. 

In the second installment of Christy & Todd: The Married Years, Christy finds herself facing challenges as big (or bigger!) than those she faced during her growing up and dating years. Not only do she and Todd still need permanent work, they need a permanent home. Christy longs for the security of home. Then, just before they are supposed to leave for two very important weddings, Christy’s mom faces major health problems. In a leap of faith, Christy and Todd act to keep long-ago promises…and Christy forgets something very important for her best friend Katie’s wedding!

So it is that Christy finds herself on a journey. A journey that takes her halfway around the world. 

Yes, she stops in the Canary Islands and eventually arrives at a Kenyan retreat center, but that’s not her journey’s end. While she might wish she were on a journey to answers, that’s not the real destination either. 

No, Christy Spencer is on a different journey. A journey to trust.

Have you ever been on a journey like that? Yes? Me, too. 

As Christy wonders where in the world she and Todd will call home, she sees God provide for her friend Katie. Katie is the girl who didn’t know where to go after she graduated from college and prayed and prayed until God moved. Now as she looks forward to her wedding day, her parents are disinterested. But Christy sees that God has provided for Katie in beautiful ways with a new family who love her and a sweet spot to call home (even if cockroaches are included!)

This and many other experiences bring Christy to the point where she realizes,

“If God can give a garden cottage to Katie…I’m open to wherever He leads us. Here or Newport or someplace we haven’t even thought of yet.” [1]

Have you come to that place? 

Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe you were there once and are back on the journey. I think in some ways it’s the trip of a lifetime with rest stops and lookout points along the way. 

I think that’s how it’s going to be for Christy, too. Time (and the next book) will tell.

Until then, we can all benefit from Christy’s journey with a few helpful tips for us real-life livers.

  1. If you think your dating-and-waiting days demand strength and trust, just wait until your married days!
  2. Watching God working in others lives bolsters our own faith. What if our stories are meant to be the ones others can “read” and find encouraging? How are we doing in this? 
  3. Sometimes it takes a long time for God to give us answers to the longing of our hearts. Sometimes He gives us answers that look different from what we expect. For Christy, God eventually does provide a roof to shelter her and Todd (very unexpectedly!), but Christy first learns to practice Proverbs 3:5-6 and discovers a couple of powerful truths about where her home is.  

May we travel this journey well with Proverbs 3:5-6 as our motto. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (ESV)

[1] Robin Jones Gunn, Home of Our Hearts, Christy & Todd: The Married Years, no. 2 (Kahului, HI: Robin’s Nest Production’s, Inc., 2014), 209. 

For Snail-Mail Saturday: A Letter from Patrick Henry to His Daughter

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I first learned about Patrick Henry's special letter to his daughter Annie in this book by Susan Olasky.

I first learned about Patrick Henry’s special letter to his daughter Annie from this book by Susan Olasky.

On March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry delivered his “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech before the House of Burgesses. His words still echo down the halls of history. With that in mind, he’s the focus of today’s Snail-Mail Saturday post! However, I decided to give you a glimpse of him that you may not be familiar with – just as I wasn’t until several years ago.

Below are excerpts from a letter Patrick Henry penned to his daughter Annie on the occasion of her wedding in 1786. I did my best (with the time I had) to find an accurate copy. (I  found several that differed slightly.) At any rate, the advice Patrick Henry shares seems like a good reminder for all of us, whether married or not. And perhaps this letter will paint you a picture of Patrick Henry as not only a Christian statesman and the “Trumpet of the Revolution” but also as a loving Christian father.

My Dear Daughter

 You have just entered into that state which is replete with happiness or misery. …                              

    You are allied to a man of honor, of talents, and of an open, generous disposition. You have, therefore, in your power all the essential ingredients of happiness: it cannot be marred, if you now reflect upon that system of conduct which you ought invariably to pursue – if you will now see clearly the path from which you will resolve never to deviate. …

    The first maxim which you should impress upon your mind is never to control your husband, by opposition, by displeasure, or any other work of anger. … Little things that in reality are mere trifles in themselves often produce bickering and even quarrels. Never permit them to be a subject of dispute; yield them with pleasure, with a smile of affection. …

    Cultivate your mind by the perusal of those books which instruct while they amuse. Do not devote much of your time to novels. … History, geography, poetry, moral essays, biography, travels, sermons, and other well-written religious productions, will not fail to enlarge your understanding, to render you a more agreeable companion, and to exalt your virtue. A woman devoid of rational ideas of religion, has no security for her virtues; it is sacrificed to her passions, whose voice, not that of God, is her only governing principle. Besides, in those hours of calamity to which families must be exposed, where will she find support, if it be not in the just reflections upon that all-ruling Providence which governs the universe, whether inanimate or animate? 

    Mutual politeness between the most intimate friends is essential to that harmony which should never be broken or interrupted. How important, then, it is between man and wife! … I will only add, that matrimonial happiness does not depend on wealth; no, it is not to be found in wealth; but in minds properly tempered and united to our respective situations. Competency is necessary. All beyond that is ideal. Do not suppose, however, that I would not advise your husband to augment his property by all honest and commendable means. …

    In the management of your domestic concerns, let prudence and wise economy prevail. Let neatness, order and judgment be seen in all your different departments. Unite liberality with a just frugality; always reserve something for the hand of charity; and never let your door be closed to the voice of suffering humanity. Your servants, in particular, will have the strongest claim upon your charity; let them be well fed, well clothed, nursed when in sickness, and let them never be unjustly treated.

Isn’t it interesting to peek into life during America’s early days? I especially like getting to know people of the past through their own words. You can read the letter in its entirety here on GoogleBooks, Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence and Speeches Vol. 2 by William Wirt Henry, 1891. See Chapter XXXIV, pg. 305-309. Newer republished editions are also available on Amazon.