The Jewelry Box-Part 1

I must begin this post by saying that my God is great, incredibly good, and so amazing!
The last two years have been an incredible journey filled with trials, victories, valleys, and mountain top experiences.  The lessons He has been teaching me are so priceless and I wouldn't trade them for anything.
This is my story...

August 16, 2013-
I was on a mission! Mom and I (with little Macheus in tow) had gone to town to run a few errands. The following day was to be a pretty important one and I was determined to find a new top of some sort. My Aunt Monica knew about the upcoming occasion and her advice was, "You should wear something that is cute but not too dressy." As I entered Kohl's I glanced over the racks of tops trying to figure out what in the world I was supposed to be looking for.  I was terribly unimpressed with everything I was seeing until I found a line of cotton button-downs. My mom snapped a picture of two of the tops that I liked to send to my aunt. Aunt Monica liked the brightly colored one and my cousin Carrington liked the green one. I decided to keep everybody happy and pick the turquoise and navy one! :p

August 17, 2013 (6:30 PM)
My heart was beating out of my chest, my palms were sweaty and I thought that I was really close to getting sick. I nervously pulled my bangs out of my face and began to apply my make-up. My normally simple routine was extremely difficult that night due to very shaky hands. Mariah found my nerves to be quite hilarious and snapped pictures with my iPod while I was getting ready.

"You can stop now, Mariah!" :)

 

I finally managed to finish getting ready and I was a complete ball of nerves! I knew I was not going to be able face my visitor if I didn't calm down. I've never been that excited and nervous at the same time! I grabbed my Bible and slipped downstairs into my parents room and locked myself in their closet. *When you live in a large family you have to get creative when it comes to finding a quiet place. :)

I leaned my head against the wall and asked the Lord to give me a calm spirit, to let me feel His presence, and to give me peace. I was still slightly nervous but God did give me a peace that I was in the center of His will and I was able to come out of the closet with a lot more confidence than I had originally entered with.

As soon as I walked out of the bedroom, I looked up to see a man standing at our front door wearing the biggest smile I have ever seen.  All the fear started to melt away and I was actually able to walk over and let him inside.

 

Three months earlier........

May-2013

 

Almost nine years ago when we moved to Pecan Pastures we were introduced to a Christian, homeschooling family down the road. They had a fifteen year old son who was a huge help to us "city people". He and his father helped my dad with our first fence building project.  He also occasionally would come over to workout with my dad.  He and his family made our transition to country life so much easier and never made fun of us as we tried to get the hang of everything.  I remember them coming to our rescue on more than one occasion.....:)

We have stayed good friends with this family over the years, but when the son left for college we lost touch with him.  I attended a Bible study at his parents' home earlier this year and I am very good friends with his older sister.  I heard a little about him from his family, but all I knew was that he was in college and he wanted to be a missionary.  I saw him last February at a mission conference at a local church, but we didn't speak. A couple of months later my family and I were invited to his parents' house to hear him talk about his trip to Nicaragua. It was the first time in years that I had been around him for any considerable length of time, and I must admit that I was a bit surprised at how much he had changed!  I really enjoyed hearing about Nicaragua and what God was doing in his life.

That evening, he and my dad spent some time talking together and I spoke to him very briefly before leaving. When we got home I learned that he and dad had decided to work out some together while he was home for the summer.

They started out running one or two evenings a week and afterwards they would sit together in our courtyard and talk for hours.  I didn't think too much about it because my dad loves spending time with younger men. His passion is encouraging guys to go deeper in their relationship with the Lord and to see them become strong leaders.

As the weeks went by, we got quite used to having this guy over and he began to join us in family activities.  It sorta felt like we had a new adopted brother and everyone enjoyed having him around.

He was always very friendly but I got this impression that he wasn't interested in girls. ;) I actually told my mom that he reminded me of a young Jim Elliot.

Here are a couple of pictures (you may recognize one from an older post:) of him from this summer...

 By the way....His name is Daniel. *smile*

 

 

 

Okay.....The next picture caused me some big-time humiliation! One evening Daniel left his hat at our house.  For some stupid reason I thought it would be funny to take pictures of myself sporting it. I took numerous shots really enjoying this thing often referred to as "bathroom selfies".  I deleted all the pictures but two.... A couple of days later Daniel came over again and I was letting him look at some pictures on my iPod. While he was looking through them, I suddenly remembered that the pictures of me wearing his hat were still on there. I panicked and came up with a lame excuse for why he couldn't scroll through anymore images.  He left the kitchen a little while later and I let out a huge sigh of relief. My mom asked me what was wrong and I sheepishly grinned and told her what had almost happened. When she heard the "excuse" that I had given Daniel for not allowing him to look at the rest of my pictures she gave me a very blank look and told me that I should tell him the truth. I laughed thinking surely she was kidding... My stomach did a flip when I realized she was quite serious. "You really expect me to go tell him that I took pictures of myself wearing his hat!?!?" I whispered impatiently. "You've got to be kidding!!!!" Never the less she insisted that I confess my stupid fib.  With cheeks burning red, and nervously laughing I walked into the next room and showed him the picture. I'll never forget his reaction. He nervously laughed, looked extremely awkward, and made a beeline out the front door. :/ Yeah, I pretty much felt like a complete idiot for the rest of the evening.

 

 

 

 

This was taken in July on one of those evenings when Daniel was just hanging out like one of the family. Only a real man can play two rounds of 'Candy Land' without feeling awkward. :)

Okay, okay, I know you are really ready for me to "cut to the chase!"

As Daniel's time at home was coming to a close, God started working on my heart.  The whole summer I had truly enjoyed Daniel being a part of our lives. Then one day, towards the end of July I realized that the thought of him leaving made me sad.  In fact I was really surprised at exactly how upset it made me.  I had not even been considering a relationship and then all of the sudden I discovered that I really was thinking about him way too much. I knew that my focus should not be on any guy and I began asking the Lord to take him out of my heart and out of my life. It certainly wasn't easy, but I knew that I needed to give my desires to the Lord and stay focused on what He had me doing in this season. 

It seemed like as soon as I started praying that way, Daniel started coming over just about every evening! Talk about frustrating.....

Then about two weeks later on the evening of August 13th, Mom and Dad told me that Daniel had asked permission to court me.  Needless to say there was MUCH joy on the front porch that night!

The picture below was taken right after Daddy told me. ;)

 

To be continued.......