What is Marriage?

I read an article this morning about weddings - a topic that has really been on my mind during the past year or so. I live in a culture that is so wrapped up in the "Wedding Ceremony" and hours of Pinterest searching to find the PERFECT guestbook alternative or most unique centerpieces that really aren't unique at all because every girl and her sister are pinning the same things. We are cultivating an epidemic of discontentment. You don't have to look long to see the effects of this epidemic - just turn on your television and you will get to watch a "Bridezilla" in action who is ripping her family and friends heads' off because something in her wedding planning went wrong. I've personally seen so many girls spend thousands of dollars on their dream wedding, then when something goes wrong, they have a mental breakdown instead of just laughing it off and enjoying the day of celebration. When the honeymoon is over and all of the excitement has died down, what's left? Oh just your marriage, that's all. In the midst of all the expectations, sometimes it's difficult to take a step back and evaluate what IS marriage, really? As my mind raced at the thought of this GINORMOUS question, I decided to take a piece of paper and a pen and just write down what marriage is to me. The result was the following five things: 1. Marriage is becoming part of a team. You no longer look out for your own best interest. You look out for your teammate's best interest. 2. Marriage is sacrifice. You give up your desires, dreams, and wants to create NEW desires and dreams that you BOTH share together. You let go of individual hopes - and you hope together. 3. Marriage is a double-team spiritual defense. You no longer have to fight the wiles of the devil alone. You have a comrade to back you up - or even stand in the line of fire for you. 4. Marriage is a lifestyle, NOT a ceremony. A wedding is a ceremony - it only happens once - then it becomes a thing of the past. Marriage is an every-day occurrence for the rest of your earthly lives. Marriage cannot survive on living in the past - it has to grow. It changes with each season of life. It constantly moves forward - and you have to move forward with it. 5. Marriage is love. Just as you don't "fall" into marriage, you don't "fall" into love. You "fall" into infatuation. Marriage is the kind of love you CHOOSE. Every day - even when the one you love is unlovable - even when that person is not showing you love in return. Of course, marriage is all of that and so much more, but my point is, just those five things alone are so much DEEPER than a Pinterest Perfect wedding. Why put more effort into ONE DAY than you put into your marriage? My generation is going to continue to live a life of discontentment, always looking for "the next big thing," until one day, when their lives are coming to an end, they have the realization about life that Solomon did - it was all vanity. The lesson will be learned too late, and the ruins of their marriage will be the proof. So, what is Marriage to you?

Celebrate Good Times - Come On!

Happy Hump Day! I'm so ecstatic to have a short week this week! Not to mention July 4th is one of my very FAVORITE holidays! Speaking of holidays....I thought I would just give everyone a little "Celebration Update" on my #makeeverydayacelebration challenge. I have officially been celebrating for 22 days! I'm not going to lie, I didn't keep up with EVERY single day, but I did my best! So far, I'm having an absolute blast! I hope I inspire some of you to find your own way to #makeeverydayacelebration. In case you haven't been following my daily celebration updates, here's just a few of my celebrations in picture form....

Have a great rest of the week!! ~E.C.

Make Every Day a Celebration

Can you believe that we are already halfway through 2015? It seems unreal, but it's true. Life happens, and it happens fast - whether we're keeping up with it or not. As I was reminiscing about the first half of my year, the one regret that kept coming to mind was that I lived too much in the future. You've heard of people living too much in their past, right? Those who constantly dwell on their past mistakes and failures and let them paralyze them in the present? Well, in the same sense, if we are constantly dwelling on what is going to happen in the future and always looking for the next big exciting event in our lives, we are paralyzing ourselves in the present. Wishing our lives away as we constantly say, "I can't wait for THIS to happen" or "I'll finally be happy when THAT happens." I have been very guilty of living too much in the future during the first half of 2015. So, my "Half-Year Resolution" is this: Make Every Day a Celebration - no matter how big or small. You've heard holiday scrooges say, "They have a holiday for everything!" Well, I used to think that was just a figure of speech. But it's not. At all. There is literally a holiday - and sometimes several - for EVERY single day of the year. That is a nightmare to holiday scrooges. To me? A dream come true! I LOVE Holidays! And what better way to Make Every Day a Celebration than to celebrate a different Holiday every single day of the year. So to put my Half-Year Resolution into action, I have compiled a list of the holidays, and I will be celebrating in some way every day for the rest of 2015. I will also post a picture that represents HOW I'm celebrating on both Instagram and Facebook with the hashtag #makeeverydayacelebration. I'm super excited and ready to start living more in the moment than in the future. Feel free to join me in my celebrations! :)

Ya'll ready for this? ;)

Week of Thanksgiving - Day #3 - Friendship

Just because one day isn't enough to tell of all the things that I'm thankful for, I have been celebrating a whole week of Thanksgiving. But today is ACTUALLY Thanksgiving! So I had to make time to speak of one of the most important aspects of my life that I'm grateful for - Friendship. I say Friendship, not just friends, because I'm thankful for the entire idea of Friendship. The whole "institution" of friendship, if you will. Friends come and go, but no matter how long a friend sticks around, they have an impact on your life, and who you are.  So today, I am thankful for friendship. I'm thankful for those friends of my past who aren't really around anymore - because they had an impact on the woman that I am today. I'm thankful for the friends who are currently in my life, because they are my support system- spiritually, physically, socially, and emotionally. I'm thankful for the friends that I know God will bless me with in the future - both new friends, and those who stuck around despite my downfalls. But most of all, I'm thankful for my BEST friend. The one who knows me better than I know myself. The one who will ALWAYS stick around, no matter where my life leads. He is always there for me when my other friends cannot be or when it seems like I am alone. Jesus Christ. He is the ULTIMATE friend, and I am extremely grateful that he thinks I am worthy enough to be called his friend. 

Week of Thanksgiving - Day #3 - My Health

Just because one day isn't enough to talk about all of the things that I'm grateful for: Week of Thanksgiving: Day #3 - For the past 5 years, my health has been a roller coaster of good and bad. It all started when, right before I was supposed to leave on a trip with my youth group, I passed out four different times and ended up having to lay on a couch rather than go on the trip. It seems like since then, it has been one thing after another - test after test after test. After that first episode of passing out, I had 3 more episodes in the same manner over the next two years. Then, I started having extreme migraine attacks periodically. Dizziness, numbness all over my body, vomiting - the whole nine yards. Then, in 2013, I started having random symptoms like extreme heart burn almost every day, anxiety attacks, heart palpitation episodes that would occur every night for hours - causing me to lose sleep and replace it with anxiety attacks, weight gain, random dizziness and nausea, and so on. I was at a loss for what was happening to my body. I went to my thyroid doctor after suffering from all of these symptoms for months, and I found out that the one side of my thyroid that I had left (right side was removed when I was 13) had a large nodule on it - possibly cancerous. He told me that surgery to remove the other half of my thyroid was unavoidable while also mentioning that it could damage my vocal chords and give me a calcium deficiency. After dropping the bad news, he performed a very painful biopsy, then referred me to a specialist. Once at the specialist, I also found out that I am pre-diabetic. You might be thinking, "Ummm...I thought this post was supposed to be about what you're THANKFUL for? Not what you're suffering from?" And you're right. But this is what I'm thankful for. I am thankful for how far I have come since my health issues worsened in 2013. I'm thankful that my biopsy results came back negative for cancer! I'm thankful that it has been a year since the declaration of "necessary surgery" and I haven't had one knife put to my neck! I'm thankful that I haven't had a fainting spell in over 2 and a half years. I'm thankful that my migraines, although they still come every once in a while, are less frequent than when they began. I'm thankful that God is helping me work with my high blood sugar instead of having to be on medicine for the rest of my life. I'm thankful that I no longer have heart palpitation spells keeping me up at night. I'm thankful that my random dizzy spells only happen every once and a while. I'm thankful that the words "anxiety attack" no longer plague me. But most of all, I'm thankful that it happened. You might call me crazy, but I'm thankful that all of these sicknesses came upon me. Why? Because God has revealed so many things to me during these times. If I never had a problem, I wouldn't know that God could solve them. Yes, I still have high blood sugar. Yes, I still have days where I just want to stay at home and cry because I don't feel like I have the strength to deal with the tiredness and the dizzy spells. BUT GOD IS IN CONTROL. He has all the answers when the doctors have none. So, on this third day of my Thanksgiving week, I am thankful for my health - every last bit of it. God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.

Week of Thanksgiving - Day #2 - The Love of my Life

Just because one day isn't enough to talk about all of the things that I'm grateful for: Week of Thanksgiving: Day #2 - It is no secret to anyone that I am completely captivated by and head over heels for Seth - the love of my life. So then, it should be no secret that I am extremely thankful for him. As I look back on everything that we've been through together, I just have to smile. There have been bad times during our 7 years of dating, but there have been SO many more GOOD times. He has put up with me in my times of immaturity, in my times of nonsensical thinking, and in my times of over-dramatic, emotional fits. He has let me go, knowing that once I was done with one of those over-dramatic fits, I would come right back - like I always did. He loves me more than any other human being possibly could - and he always has. He treats me like the princess I am not - contrary to popular opinion ;). He spoils me and makes sure that I am always taken care of. Always wants the best for me. Always wants me to be happy. Always looks out for me even when I am not looking out for myself. There is no wonder why I am so grateful for this guy, and how much I love that he is in my life - and has been for so many years. I pray that God gives us many more years together to do what we do best - laugh, act crazy, argue about silly things but always quickly make amends, be comfortable around each other, talk about deep things, lift each other up spiritually, pray for each other, and the list goes on and on. I love you Seth, and words could never say just how thankful I am for you. :)

Week of Thanksgiving - Day #1 - Family

Just because one day isn't enough to talk about all of the things that I'm grateful for: Week of Thanksgiving: Day #1 - I can't even begin to express just how thankful I am for my family. My family - the ones that I fight with the most. The ones that sometimes I just want to scream at. But also the ones that bring a huge amount of joy into my life. When I say that I have the most crazy and fun family around, that's not an obligatory statement. There is NEVER a dull moment with us. We have our flaws, we have our ups and downs, we fight, we scream, we make a dramatic event out of every little thing that happens, but most importantly, we're there for each other. We make each other laugh like none other. We tell each other the hard truth. We love tough, and we love without boundaries. I am SO thankful for the family God gave me. They keep life interesting. They keep life happy. They keep life crazy. They keep life meaningful. I love you guys!! :)