The Grown-up Life

Learning to live like a grown-up is hard.

Even when I have my much older, (should be) much more life-experienced husband to help guide me, I feel like life's lessons are sometimes ones that just need to be learned. Examples:

1. In the past year, my parents have had to put down both of our family dogs. This is something that I (fortunately enough) didn't really have to deal with when I was growing up, and...it's hard. It's hard to face the death of someone you love head on and face it with grace. (Yes, we love our dogs that much. Get over it.)

2. Taxes. I hate taxes. Last year, taxes were our friend. Our very good friend who got us a new T.V. when all was said and done. And this year? Well, suffice it to say, we are no longer friends. We are now enemies.

3. Cody and I have been trying to figure out over the last few weeks where we want to call our church home. We are at a weird turning point in our lives both individually and together, and we are really trusting the Lord to lead us to a new church family and a solid example of the body of Christ. But while we wait and search...it's kind of exhausting.

4. The future. Right now, instead of typing this incredibly insightful blog post, I should be writing a paper on God's calling and guidance for our life-long vocation. Ironic? I think so. Because instead of writing said paper which is supposed to be written as a tool for young adult readers, I am wondering how we really can be sure of and confident in the will of God for our future. It's always been relatively easy for me to personally trust God with the now...but how do we trust Him with our next steps? How do we know which ones to take? We are in such a fun and exciting stage of life because, in reality, a year from now, our lives could look nothing like they look now. We might be living in a different state, in different jobs, with different plans and different mindsets, undergoing different life lessons. I guess the lesson in all of it is to be confident because God has yet to let me down or lead me astray. Why should we start worrying now??

The good news is...in all of it, Cody and I get to share these trials and lessons together. And we are so unbelievably blessed to have the guiding hand of our loving Savior walking alongside us.

And the dog said, "whine..."

Our dog, Howie (formally Howard Robert Montgomery...aka Howie, Howie Bob, How Bo, HRM, little spoiled one...whatev) has developed a new habit in our lovely home. He has started hiding his bones under the couch where only he knows they are. He then will sit at our feet and whine for us to find them. When we ignore him, he takes matters into his own hands, attempting to stick his head under the couch so that his booty is in the air, tail wagging...whining. Now, Cody and I would discipline him for this...were it not so dang cute. So instead, we laugh silently as to not interrupt his cute-ness. When push comes to shove, either Cody or myself is forced to get down on our hands and knees to retrieve said bone, or move the entire couch away from the wall, depending on how good of a job little Howie did that time at "hiding" his toys. I guess God is just using His mysterious ways to prepare us for parenting. So one day, when our little son or daughter hides his/her toys under the couch and cries for us to get them, we can be confident that if we just wait, eventually they'll put their little head down, whine with the best of them, and wag their cute little tail.