Mr & Mrs Robertson, The Wedding of

We were so blessed to attend the wedding of these two love-bugs this weekend.

 

 

I am so lucky to call Nicole my friend, and Logan is lucky to call her his wife! She is the most loyal person I have ever encountered. She is an incredible friend; anyone who has ever met her can attest to that. And, she was a BEAUTIFUL bride.

 

 

Thanks so much for having us - we had a great time!

 



In or Out?

One of the things I have come to realize about the Lord is that he speaks to us all in a magnitude of different ways. One of the best ways he speaks to me is through visuals. Sometimes they are visual representations that he places in my mind as I am trying to understand something (for instance, when I was teaching in El Salvador about why it is important to have your own relationship before trying to help others, I used the metaphor of putting your own air mask on in an airplane before you put on others - totally from God because until about three minutes before I spoke, I had no idea what I was going to say). Other times, God literally places something in front of me that I need to see.

At church on Sunday, a young man sitting across the aisle from me caught my eye during worship. He was raising his hands to the Lord, even dancing at times, but every few minutes was interrupted by a text on his cell phone. He would read, respond, and then dive right back into worship. I feel like that is a perfect picture of my life (and probably not just me).

 

There seems to be this in between place that I live in. I'm half in and half out - like when I can't decide if its cold enough for covers or not, so I have one leg under the blanket and one leg on top. I know the Lord, and I trust the Lord, but I still struggle with how to fully and completely hand my life over to him. I still want to step outside of Jesus every once in awhile and live here on earth even though I know living within his will is a much better place to be.

 I wish I had some big realization or piece of encouragement to end this with, but I don't. I simply wanted to share, and maybe challenge you to think of what things pull you away from Christ (as that is what it caused me to do).

And because I couldn't think of any good graphic to go along with this post, here's a puppy.

Blue or Pink?

 We found out just before we got engaged that Ryan's sister, Lindsay, and her husband George are expecting
their fourth baby! Today, they hosted a gender reveal at Kyle Field. (I thought Lindsay was going to save me from the Aggies!)

And... It's a girl! 

So excited for them, and excited to gain THREE nieces and a nephew in November. 

SmithTV

If you can't tell by our book themed blog and save-the-dates, reading is a big influence on our relationship.  I love that she appreciates good literature (and I'm very lucky that my English degree came in handy for something!) The downside to this is that in our early phases of dating, reading together was not a top priority. (At one point Becki did ask me to read The Phantom Tollbooth to her, but I wasn't ready to be Miss Frizzle to her Magic School Bus class quite yet).

Because of this, Becki and I began watching TV shows together frequently, and to my amazement she has been left completely in the dark to some fantastic shows. (I, on the other hand, have dozens of shows I watch consistently, which both amazes and annoys her whenever I say something is "my favorite"). Most of the shows we're watching are ones I'm going back over with her, thinking things to myself like, "No wife of mine will be able to say 'I've never heard of Greendale Community College' or 'what does Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose mean?'" It'll be a long process, but here are ten shows that Becki has/will have to see, in no particular order, and how they can improve our marriage.

1. Friday Night Lights - because every marriage can use a few pointers from Coach and Tami's relationship.

 

2. Mad Men - because every marriage can use a few pointers from Don Draper's relationships...on what not to do.

3. The Wire - because every marriage needs to see both sides of the story, i.e. his opinion vs. her opinion, the street's side vs. the police's side, etc...

 

4. Justified - because every marriage needs a little man crush on Timothy Olyphant.  Wait... I meant needs to appreciate his acting. Yeah, his acting...

 

5. New Girl - because every marriage needs to complete their zombie novel eventually.

 

6. Community - because every marriage needs to consider the dark timeline.

 

7. Damages - because every marriage needs to see the downside of always winning.

8. Breaking Bad - because every marriage can be spiced up with a gentleman's amount of meth. (Bad joke...don't do meth.)

9. Chuck - because every marriage should be just a little bit nerdy.

10. Parks and Recreation - because every marriage can use a DJ Roomba.  (Don't worry, we registered for one.)

 

The Honorable Mentions: 

- Arrested Development

- Happy Endings (RIP!)

- Twin Peaks

- The Office

- Scrubs

- Freaks and Geeks

- How I Met Your Mother

Bonus points to whoever can convince Becki that she needs to watch the following shows: 

- Game of Thrones

- Lost

Becki has made a similar list and we have watched every single episode of this show but let's move on: 

- Pretty Little Liars

Shows that used to be good but are now terrible and will never make it on this list: 

- Dexter

-RS

 

We're Homeowners!

It is OFFICIAL. We are in the very first debt of our lives, and SO excited about it!

 

 

This is the official "Smith House".

 

 

Thank you SO much to our realtor, Brittany Taggart. If you are looking to buy (or sell) a house, please please please let us refer you to her! She is incredible! 

Salsa padre.

I haven't celebrated Father's Day in awhile. For those of you who don't know, my daddy died in 2000 from a severe heart attack. Mother's day has become an even more special day of the year for us, as my mom stepped up to take over both parenting roles. (She rocked it by the way.) But Father's day kind of slipped away.

Lucky for me, I was able to celebrate it yesterday. I am being welcomed into an incredible family with open and loving arms. I am so grateful that Ryan has grown up with such an incredible father. He sets an example of a Christian husband, father and grandfather. Although I wish that my daddy would be around for Ryan and I's future family, I am lucky my children will get to grow up with at least one incredible grandpa.

 

Plus he loves spicy food and making Aggie jokes at Ryan's expense. Could he be any better?

 

Hook 'em.

Five Loaves

After posting the "Bible Study Pitfalls" onto our blog last week, it was only fitting that our Sunday morning sermon encourage us to take a new look at passages we think we know. The focus was on one of the most well-known miracles of Jesus, John 6 - Jesus feeding the 5,000.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. ⁷ Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” ⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” ¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. ¹² When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

It hit my pretty quickly that I have never really understood this passage. Peter from Hope International who was giving the sermon started out with what he has always seen in the passage - which was already different than what I read into it as. I mean, its a miracle by Jesus, right? What else is there to it?

Peter said he always thought of this passage with the boy at the center of it. The boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish. He gives these fish to Jesus, and Jesus multiples them. It seems like he has so little, but Jesus is able to do so much with it! That is true in our lives as well; when we tithe, when we give our time, when we give our talents. From a human perspective, it may seem menial, but when you give it to Jesus, he can make SO much of it. Great interpretation - one that I hadn't even thought of- but an interpretation that doesn't give it enough credit. (It gives it more credit than my naive "its a miracle! thats it!" but still not enough.)

While that understanding of the passage is true, and it teaches us a great deal about giving even when we don't think we have enough, it doesn't encompass the full capacity of the story. Peter gave us a lot of background details next and why this was such an intense time - causing Jesus to withdraw. I wish I had been taking notes, because I surely cannot relay everything to you at this time. But the overall jist is this:

The people, knowing only the human side of what the prophet who was coming was supposed to look like, wanted to overthrow the Romans and put Jesus into power to rule. They compared him to Moses in the Old Testament and knew (correctly, knew) that Jesus was the man that they had been waiting for to come and save them. But what they didn't know was that Jesus didn't come to save them the same way that Moses saved their people by leading them out of Egypt. They can't comprehend what he is about to do! They think they know - but they really have no idea.

While this is powerful enough of a story just as a miracle, and it is powerful even more when you think about how it demonstrates Jesus using what we give him to do much more than what we are capable of alone, and it is even more powerful than that when you see the connection from the Old Testament. Context is everything.

So now, reading this story, I am thinking about what situations I have my human blinders on in. Do I think I know what God is doing? Because thats just not possible. Even if it makes sense from my human perspective, I still need to be open, need to leave room for God to do even bigger things. Just think if things had gone the way those 5,000 thought they were going to go - if Jesus had overthrown the Romans and ruled on earth. It wouldn't be nearly as miraculous as what God was really up to.