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So what is love? What does it mean to be loved by Jesus? Love means giving us what we need most. And what we need most is not healing, but a full and endless experience of the glory of God. Love means giving us what will bring us the fullest and longest joy. And what is that? What will give you full and eternal joy? The answer of this text (1 john 11:1-16) is clear: a revelation to your soul of the glory of God—seeing and admiring and marveling at and savoring the glory God in Jesus Christ. When someone is willing to die—or let your brother die—to give you (and your brother) that, he loves you.
Love is doing whatever you have to do to help people see and treasure the glory of God as their supreme joy—to help people see and be satisfied with the glory of God.
Ian and I have been talking about how we can change the blog to better serve our readers and those faithfully praying for us. Over the past five years, the blog has morphed significantly – initially set up as a way to update our friends and family on the constant changes to Ian’s immediate health right after the accident, we now don’t have many medical updates or big progress posts. We’ve entered into a new style of life, one that without a miracle, will become and has become the new normal. With that, we feel that the messaging of our blog has changed and will continue to change, hopefully without losing sight of the gospel or the reason that most of you visit the blog – to simply pray for ian.
Where we see the blog taking us for the next few months and if the lord allows, the next few years, is to really be able to share with our readers what it looks like to live in the midst of a significant disability at a young age and what it means as a christian to live that every day. and, more importantly, to not just live it, but to share the battle to see the beauty and grace that encompasses a life (and marriage ) disabled. we know that our blog already has expressed this in some ways, but we want to be more intentional in what we share and how we share it.
The first addition is a new daily gratefulness list, which is a right-link as a flickr photo stream. We know that daily thanking God for all of his blessings is critical in fighting against bitterness in the face of suffering. colossians 3:15 says it best – “and be thankful.”
We also have some exciting ideas and really great things coming up the first of the year to share with everyone.
More importantly, we want each of you, our readers, to know that you have played a role in our lives that we won’t fully understand until we reach heaven. in ian’s words, “thank you.”
We are grateful and continue to pray for grace to humbly share our lives/struggles/joys with you.
Ian said to write whatever I wanted tonight and said he wanted prayer for whatever I think he needs prayer for. I caught on quickly and realized he was brushing it off on me because he’s totally distracted by Oprah’s soothing voice on the Discovery Channel’s premiere of “Life.” He’s such a loser..
So, since I have to guess, I would ask prayer for Ian’s initiation and that he would have a breakthrough here at therapy. We don’t have a date of when he will be discharged- he’s allowed to stay as long as he’s making progress.
The gospel should pervade every part of our lives. I think we often tend to compartmentalize the gospel, trusting that God has forgiven our sins because of Jesus’ death on the cross, but then not recognizing how that does and should affect every decision, every thought, every part of our being.
Our every hope for marriage rests on what Christ has done. We are both entering this marriage with extreme weaknesses, difficulties and challenges that most marriages never experience. But we have hope. We have hope because the gospel affects everything about our lives. And we have everything we need for life and godliness through Christ. Our affection for each other and therefore our marriage cannot thrive outside of the gospel. So we are hoping and trying to enter into this knowing that we stand on nothing else other than Christ. We are so weak but we have a great God, who works way beyond what we can understand.
I can only imagine how this makes way more sense to Steve now than it does to us.
Thank you for praying. We are so thrilled to get married.
Ian found his nose today and had a good time scratching it, as he continues to discover his face with his left hand. The botox seems to be helping his arms because they are more relaxed than before. I saw the inside of his left elbow for the first time since he’s been to Childrens.
His therapists are now trying to get him to kick a ball with his left leg. He definitely moves his foot, but he hasn’t gotten to a full leg movement yet. He’ll get there.
Last night when David started praying for Ian, Ian squeezed my hand really hard. He’s also been reaching for our hands more when we rest them on his chest or near his side. He’s definitely aware of us.
“No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
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Ian and I have been talking about how we can change the blog to better serve our readers and those faithfully praying for us. Over the past five years, the blog has morphed significantly – initially set up as a way to update our friends and family on the constant changes to Ian’s immediate health right after the accident, we now don’t have many medical updates or big progress posts. We’ve entered into a new style of life, one that without a miracle, will become and has become the new normal. With that, we feel that the messaging of our blog has changed and will continue to change, hopefully without losing sight of the gospel or the reason that most of you visit the blog – to simply pray for ian. 
Ian found his nose today and had a good time scratching it, as he continues to discover his face with his left hand. The botox seems to be helping his arms because they are more relaxed than before. I saw the inside of his left elbow for the first time since he’s been to Childrens. 
