Like a Bride Waiting For Her Groom

Please watch this video before you read this blog post. It seriously gives me chills and makes me jump up and down and cry happy tears. 

I never truly understood the beautiful analogy of the church being Christ's bride until I got engaged. 

The waiting.

The expectation.

The excitement.

The joy. 

The anticipation.

The longing to be held in the arms of my groom.

Being a follower of Christ now takes on a whole new meaning! My Lover, my Friend, my Redeemer. 

The One I want to hold me in his arms and never let go.

The only One I ever truly need to love me for eternity. 

the One. 

my Groom. 

As I am preparing my heart to be married to my earthly groom, Matthew, I am full of anticipation. Just simply living with him and sharing this gift of life together is going to seriously be the best thing ever. I have been exercising to present myself to him in my best shape possible. I have been learning how to cook and collecting recipes to be the best wife I can be. I have made hair appointments, bought a dress, and have been preparing my heart to submit to Matthews leadership as the husband. 

"Like a bride 

waiting for her Groom

we'll be a church 

ready for you. "

These lyrics really got me thinking... if I am preparing myself physically, mentally, and spiritually for my earthly husband, how much more should I be preparing myself for my heavenly Husband who is coming to get His bride?!

As I think about this beautiful scenario I can't help but imagine it in the way I see my wedding going in my little church. Except Jesus is the groom..... I was just a girl in tattered rags, dirty from head to toe, clinging onto my pride and my sin. And He saw me and picked me up, and loved me despite of my spitting in His face. Then He went through torture and died on a cross so that He could present me blameless before His Father. He removed my dirty rags, washed me clean, and gave me this beautiful white wedding dress. And now He is standing at the front of the church...and I'm waiting behind the closed church doors..watching for them to open so I can walk that aisle and be with Him for eternity. And I dare not leave my spot. Not for any temporary satisfaction. Not for any person. Not for anything. I am waiting on my groom. 

"Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the prudent answered, 'No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. -- -----Matthew 25:1-10

I am waiting for my earthly groom to marry me (70 more days!!!) But I long even more for my heavenly Groom to come and get me. My deepest desire is to be READY. I am longing for my King.

 More than anything this world can give me. 

More than anything Matthew can give me.

 More than Matthew.

God we wait for you,

You're coming soon.

Even so come, 

Lord Jesus come.

Fall Family Fotoshoot (minus Charlie&Steph)

 

It was such a beautiful day with such beautiful fall trees so at the last minute I asked my fam if we could go take some pictures. I really really wanted some more pictures of my mama, granny, and daddio. But then it turns out that I am terrible photographer and only daddy's pics turned out good. So now it seems like all the pictures are of Matthew and I. Oh well. I'll keep practicing!

 

Happy Fall, y'all!

xoxo,

Lacey Beth

I D O L S

I D O L S.

That big, ugly, bad word that starts with an I. 

This is what God has laid on my heart for the past week. This is what he has been whispering in my ear, telling me to give up, to let it go, to realize what is actually important in life. 

When I was younger, I thought that an idol was something that was made out of gold or wood, like the Old Testament describes. Like when Aaron made the people a golden calf to worship. Then, my pastor taught on idolatry a while back and it all seemed to click. 

An idol is ANYTHING that takes God's place in our lives. It could be a physical object, a person, or even a habit. But I want to take it a step farther...an idol is anything we think of or devote more time to than God. I'm just going to be real here: school, netflix, Matthew, and wedding planning has become my idols here recently in this season of my life. A few of those seem to be decent things to devote time to (wedding planning, school, and the fiance) but the other is just ridiculous (Gilmore Girls on netflix...I mean really? get yourself together Lacey. I may or may not have gotten through four seasons in a month.............) 

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you might be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry."

1 Corinthians 10:13-14

-------I used to always think of this verse as an encouragement to flee from temptation, and never went on to verse 14. But as I was studying, and went on to the next verse, I realized that it was saying this verse on temptation in relation to idols. God will always provide a way of escape from the idols in your life. They have no hold on you. 

Idolatry is that big ugly cloud that hides us from shining our light.

Idolatry is sin, and sin separates us from God, so obviously replacing him is sin. 

"Their idols are silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak;

eyes but do not see.

They have ears, but do not hear;

noses but do not smell.

They have hands but do not feel;

feet but do not walk;

and they do not make a sound in their throat.

Those who make them become like them;

so do all who trust in them."

Psalm 115:4-8

I don't know about you, but I do not want to be like that verse described. 

I want to experience LIFE. All of life. And the ONLY way to experience this life to the fullest is through passionate, radical, undivided devotion to God. I don't want to spend this brief life chasing things of this world. Chasing idols and things that will make me numb to the Holy Spirit. 

If I do ANYTHING at all on this earth. I want to be devoted to my Savior. not kinda devoted to Him and kinda devoted to schoolwork. I refuse to allow Satan to come in and distract me. This life is wayyyyyy too short for distractions. 

I believe idolatry is a sneaky way for satan to come in and wreck havoc in our day to day lives.

You know, the devil is a sneaky guy. he is actually really beautiful and captivating. he is also really good at portraying a bad thing good, OR making something good be bad. Ever heard the saying "too much of a good thing is bad" or "not all good things are God things"? 

Gilmore Girls is not necessarily a bad show, but watching it when I should be spending time with God before I go to bed is a bad thing. And planning a wedding is a good thing! but too much time with it and stressing out about it is NOT a God thing. satan just gets in our heads, you know? 

The only way to prevent idolatry is time with our Savior. I really feel like this is all I post about...time with our Savior. Because how in the world are we going to fight the schemes of the devil if we are not digging deep into God's word and praying without ceasing? We guard ourselves with God's truth. and just think about it. How scary must it be to the devil to see all of Christs followers getting up every morning and putting on the armor of God. Then the devil is powerless! We will be this huge army standing up for Christ. Deliberately dying to self on the daily and living for Christ. His schemes will fail and God will get the glory. But how are we to do that when our main focus is elsewhere? on idols? 

"We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but the one who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true;and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

1 John 5:18-21

If we are not for Christ 100%, we are against Christ 100%

We MUST die to self. Die to idols. 

and live life for the Savior of our souls. 

Wedding Wednesday// "pinspiration"

I LOVE Wedding Wednesday.

Actually I just love Wednesdays in general because I don't have to go to school & I can catch up on homework and studying. 

This Wedding Wednesday I am going to share with you some of my wedding "pinspiration"

I won't be doing all of this exactly, I always put my own flair to it...but it has shaped the direction of how I want my wedding to look. 

So take a look at the pictures! 

It gives me butterflies thinking about this special day, and I want to savor every moment!

P.S. That ring in the last collage is my ring :)

DREAMY.

P.P.S. If you're reading this, Matthew...I love you. And I can't wait to marry you.

xoxo, 

the future Mrs. Lacey Beth Martin

Wedding Wednesday: [NEW PICTURES] How I Asked My Bridesmaids

I'm sure everyone knows by now that asking your bridemaids is not as easy as calling them up on the phone and just asking them anymore.

Nowadays we have good ol' Pinterest.

Pinterest is great, but it can be a little overwhelming for brides at times! There are so many new cute ideas. And as a sucker for all things cute and happy, I fall into its trap all the time. However, the way I decided to ask my bridesmaids came from a thrift store (shocker, I know). My mama and I were at one of our favorite thrift stores and came across these cute little tin mailboxes.

Then I had this idea of asking my bridesmaids with "mail in the mailbox".

I wanted to do something original and new, and this is what we came up with:

-White tin mailbox

-Wedding details on a tag

-The wedding color scheme (made by cutting scrapbook paper into large circles)

-The letter asking the friend to become a bridesmaid

-A wallet sized picture of the friend and I when we were little

-A diamond cookie and a Save the Date cookie from Whimsey Cookie Co.

-Lots of ribbon and washi tape

This project was so fun to do with my mama. She is my maid of honor after all!

The only downside was that she was with me through the whole planning, so she knew everything that she was getting, and also what role I was asking her to play in the wedding (Matron of Honor). However, she did not know what all I wrote to her in the letter OR what picture I picked of us, which are both pretty sentimental things (she cried). Love her :)

Below are pictures of all the goodies!

And here is a sneak peak from the night Matthew proposed! That post will be for next Wednesday! :)

xoxo,

Lacey Beth