plans!

I could do a whole post on how we can make plans but God actually decides what happens.... but I won't.... so instead I'll just make a quick comment about it.

You know how we can make plans but God controls what goes down? Well He does! But that doesn't stop me from making plans. I just have to know that things could change based on what God thinks is best. Back to my plans. I made some summer plans! They include:

• spending a week in Alaska
• teaching 5 weeks of dance camp to 1st-3rd graders
• taking violin lessons again
• taking an online physics class
• possibly getting another job to pay for all my adventures (my mom (and half my hometown) thinks I should open a sewing business :O we'll see what comes of that....) 
• being in my cousin's wedding

HOPEFULLY I can do some running and biking, and keep up on my sewing. And spend more time with my family. :) And hopefully I'll be cool if God decides things need to change.

Do you have any epic summer plans? Are you okay with God changing them if that's His plan?

justifications

A friend told me a story a few months ago, about something that happened to him. What choice did I have but to believe him? He'd never lied to me before - from what I knew anyways. He told me the other day that the whole story was fabricated and something totally different happened. "Oh, I didn't tell you the real version of the story? Ha - oops!" he joked. My emotions for the moments following consisted of anger, sadness, disgust, and the realization that my friend wasn't very trustworthy anymore.

It would have been different had he come back and apologized for lying, for not telling the real story, and being sorry. But he wasn't - that was the hard thing. He listed reasons why he lied - and not to me either, to lots and lots of people - trying to justify his actions. It was pretty disheartening, to say the least.

The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that I do the same thing. Not with lying, necessarily, but there are definitely things I do that I try to justify in my own mind to make them 'okay.' Are my justifications any worse than my friend's? Absolutely not. We all have a conscience, and it's our decision whether we listen to it, or go against it. If we go against it, of course we have to make it 'right' somehow. According to God, that's not right. So this is me telling myself, to stop justifying wrong things and just do the right thing. Easier said than done, but do hard things, right?

a lovely wedding

My family and I drove to Kentucky this weekend for a good friend's wedding. We have been friends with the groom and his family since 2000! So 12 years. That's a long time, and our friendship has remained really strong throughout all those years. We were pretty ecstatic to hear that the oldest son, Barrett, was getting married. He and his lovely bride Devin were betrothed in Israel last fall, and were married this weekend. Here are some photos I took :)

the bride and the groom hadn't seen each other since January, so she was eagerly waiting his arrival with her bridesmaids

the groom pulled up in this carriage, and together they rode to this gorgeous amphitheater type thing on the river, while all the guests followed them on foot

the canopy where the got married - by the river - at sunset - it was gorgeous

the bridge on the river.... the bridge was out (as you can see) but it was still pretty

got to put my 70-200mm lens to good use and see that the bench had their names carved in it! :D

the bridesmaids waiting for the bride and groom to come

the groomsmen waiting

there they are!!!

the ceremony begins

the grooms dad talked and blessed them

the best man (the groom's younger brother) holding their Ketubah - they read it out loud together (it's a Jewish marriage contract - they got it in Israel when they got betrothed!)

they drank wine together

this was cool - they did the salt covenant - where they each had a bag of salt and poured them together, symbolizing how their lives were coming together. the only way their marriage covenant could be not-in-effect would be if Barrett got his salt back and Devin got her salt back.... which after being mixed is kinda impossible. it was cool :)

and I hate that this photo is fuzzy, but this is Barrett's dad announcing "Barrett and Devin Warren!!!" so exciting. then Barrett smashed the shot glass in a bag - Jewish tradition

then the men carried them around in their bench, to partying Israeli music. after that, there were photos, food, dancing, toasts.... but it was too dark and I'm a bad photographer in the dark. :( but it was an exciting day to be sure!