Happy Anniversary, Hannah! It was two years ago today that we started dating. It was one year ago today that we got engaged. In sixty-eight days from today, we will be getting married!

God has been so faithful and good to us as always. His never ending faithfulness has kept us following Him together. It will be His faithfulness and grace that keeps us following Him as we proceed into marriage as a commitment to each other as long as we both live.

I praise God that He has given me such a woman of love, kindness, beauty, uniqueness, and charm as you have. God has taught me much through you. He has taught me that love is much more than a feeling, but yet it involves a lot of emotion. He has taught me that we are all weak and we all fail, yet He is our strength to continue on. He has taught me that the cross is to never be forgotten…and never can be when we realize what He has done for us for His glory. He has taught me that it is a wonderful thing to love you because He has given me a perfect example of what it is like to love.

I look forward to seeing a lot more of what He has for us as we continue down the road of life together. I love you! Je t’aime ma chérie. Je t’adore. ¡Te amo!

- Josue

Current status: “hating that people think life is about competition”

Real conversation with co-worker:

co-worker: why is life about competition?

me: it’s not. Life is about God, but a lot of people are so stuck on “I am doing a better job than that person.” or “My new toy is better than yours!” or “I really don’t like the way this person is doing this because I can do it so much better.” It drives me nuts (even though I am guilty of doing it too) because we cut our vision short of seeing our majestic God and what Christ has done and is doing for us. Why must we get so stuck on such petty things????

co-worker: because everyone tries to look good
to try to do it a better way
I don’t know…
what happened today???

me: I think that it is that we think we are so much better than we are. There is nothing that we have that we have not received from Him…our skills, our mind, our families, our jobs, the money from the jobs, every breath that we breathe. We are so dependant on Him yet we think it is all about ourselves.

Nothing much happened today…why?

co-worker: Yeah, we do think it is about ourselves
yeah, you are right
it sucks that we think that way….now that I think about it

me: yeah, it really does. I mean, in a small scale, we laugh at 3 year olds that brag about how great their little plastic trucks are better than the other persons when it was not them that made it. It was not them that bought it. It was only given to them. Those little plastic trucks are pretty much worthless compared to a nice F350 Dully Diesel with a Hemi. We are doing the same thing though…
What is the point of it? what does it accomplish??
What if we spend our whole lives fighting and bragging away and completely forget that we are nothing and that the Creator, Savior, and majestic King of all Kings reigns above and has given us everything that we call our own and more. We completely miss the point that He is such a good and great God who takes care of our needs and treats us with such gentle care
anyways…I am sure you wanted to know all that…

co-worker: no, I think it’s nice for you to share…I had to read it twice to really understand….people don’t need to brag about what they have or what they think they can do better ….blah there is no point..
did something happen today? or you were just thinking about it?

me: no, there is a lot of stuff that is kinda building up and I was just reminded of it…that’s all. I do not even know why I put it on my status…but then who really cares. haha

co-worker: cause you always put on your status how you feel and that’s ok…I think it’s cool

This is just in case you were wondering.

Pursuing joy in Him,

Josh