Our Courtship and Engagement Story

I have been thinking about posting about this subject for a while, but just haven't really sat down and taken the time to post about it. We have been busy for about the last couple weeks, and if you have been reading my blog, you know why, and part of that why (Jonathan) is the reason that I am posting about this.
Now, we can get down to business:
I have been reading through my Bible this year, and yes, I have gotten behind (I ended up in Proverbs for about a month). I have been catching up in Genesis, and first of all, the story of how Abraham and Sarah wanted a child really stood out to me, but that is not the main story that I want to pull out. Let's look over in Geneses 24, I am not going to post all the verses on this post, but here we are at the time in Isaac's life, when he needed a wife. Abraham did not want Isaac marrying just anyone, but he wanted someone of their own country (let me put a little side note in here...we as Christians need to have this mentality...that we should want someone from our "country" Heaven, meaning a saved person, someone with the same beliefs, etc.). So, he called his most trusted servant, and made him promise to go into the land of his people and bring Isaac his chosen bride. What a huge responsibility this servant had! Can you imagine? Being given such a heavy load to carry?
Well, as we read on, we see that the servant was worried that this lady would not follow him, an unknown man, a servant no less, into a strange country. (verse 5)
Anyway, to make a long story short, the servant heads off into the land, and this is the best part! He is riding his camel into the town at the evening time, just the right moment, just the time the Lord wanted him there. He headed straight to the well. Can you feel the anticipation? I'm sure he was a tad bit worried or concerned, but I can imagine him remembering the prayers that his master's God answered in the past, so he decided to ask the Lord for direction:
Genesis 24:12-14 "And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham.
Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water:
And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master."
What a specific prayer! Do you know what happened? The prayer was answered in every detail!

"And it came to pass, before he was done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born of Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder."
I just love how the Bible gives us every detail. It goes on in the next verse about how beautiful she was not only on the outside, but on the inside, for she was pure. Of course, most everyone knows how the story ends. The servant asks for a drink of water. She not only gives him a drink, but waters his camels also without being asked of him (that shows her willingness to serve!). In verse 21, which I didn't really notice this as I was reading, but it just stood out to me, he kind of stood back a minute...it sounds like to me that he was in awe of the fact of what the Lord had done, and was the Lord really doing this for him. This is my main point...which I know that some of you were probably wondering when I was going to get to it, right?
We all know how the story ends, but I want to talk about prayer for a minute.

The Bible says a lot about prayer:
"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Matt. 21:22
"Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and suplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know unto God." Phil. 4:6
"...the effectual fervant prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:15
"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers..." I Pet. 3:12
"Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Matt. 18:19
I could go on and on...Why are we so afraid to ask our heavenly Father for things? For our needs? For our desires? For our simple wants? I think sometimes that we are more likely to pray about an urgent situation than to pray about little things that we think don't mean anything to God. Have you ever thought about how silly that really is? Luke 11 talks about that, how that here we are, earthly people, we know how to give things to our children, but why do we question our heavenly Father? Will He not give us the same and even better? Will He not provide for not only our needs but our wants and desires? (Psalms 37:4)
Before I close, I'll give a little testimony of how I know that the Lord will indeed answer!

Most everyone of you have seen the pictures of Jonathan and I, and have read the announcement of our courtship and everything. I don't believe that I have gone into great detail about how the Lord brought it about.

A few years ago, I met Courtney (from Courtney's Contemplations) at a Sword Conference. To be honest, I don't remember the year, but that is how I came to know blogging was through her! I think we went to Wendy's or something like that for some fellowship, and I happened to notice Jonathan (he is Courtney's cousin, yes I thought he was handsome..haha...), but I didn't really think about him after that. I just went about my own life, and our families would meet at the Sword for a couple years. We never talked or anything. While I was at West Coast, my family attended Courtney's wedding, and my sister, Rebekah happened to mention Jonathan's family sitting near them. The thought passed through my mind then about Jonathan, but I just kind of passed it off and didn't think about it again. I again just went about my normal life.

Last year, the Lord just began to impress on my heart to pray for him and about him. I still had not spoken to him. I knew a few things about him from Courtney's blog and seeing him at the Sword, but I didn't know why the Lord had placed him on my heart, but I still prayed. I prayed for several months, sometimes I felt like the Lord was going to answer my prayer, and other times, I just felt like giving up, but something told me to keep praying for him. On December 2, I had been praying for several months like I said, but I wanted Jonathan to be the one that I would court only if he was the Lord's will (that's what I had been praying for the whole time...that this would only come to pass if it was the Lord's will). That night, I asked the Lord to give me this as a Christmas present if this was His will. Do you know what happened?

On December 3, the very next morning, Mama and we girls were at the church decorating it for Christmas. Daddy was in his office, and around 10:22AM, Jonathan called daddy to ask permission to court me! Daddy was crying on the phone when Jonathan was talking to him...I don't think he knew that at the time...he gave his consent. Daddy called Mama into his office to speak to her about it, and then, she went into the classroom where I was working. She had this really serious look on her face and said that Daddy needed to speak to me in the office. I thought "oh no, what have I done?", but as soon as I walked in, Daddy said, "Jonathan just called." As soon as he said that, I started crying. I could hardly believe what the Lord had done! To think that the Lord had answered a specific prayer like that...I felt so unworthy! The Lord is truly good!

I can truly say that the Lord can and will answer a specific prayer if we but ask Him too...look at salvation, the Lord answers that prayer. If the Lord answers our prayer about salvation, why would He not answer our "little" prayers? Our little wants and desires if it is according to His perfect will for our life? Is anything too hard for God?

Graphic found here

Yes, I know all of ya'll are ready for pics!! What a wonderful weekend I have had! Over the past 6 months, Jonathan has grown so special to me...so very very special. As we have grown so close together, we have learned so much about each other, talked about our likes and dislikes, where we stood on certain things in our courtship, and it is so amazing to see how the Lord has brought us together, even our like mindedness in how we feel about certain things...one thing that we had talked about were those 3 very special words...I love you!...We had been talking about where our courtship was leading us for the last couple weeks...marriage of course...we went into this courtship with the view of marriage in our near future, and we both had prayed about our relationship before we started our courtship, seeking the Lord's guidance...(on my part, I was praying that if Jonathan was the one the Lord wanted me to spend the rest of my life with that he would go to Daddy, calling him, to ask if he could start a courtship with me, but I only wanted it if it was the Lord's will and not mine...then I left it in His hands!)...It is so amazing what can happen when you let the Lord guide you! On December 3, 2009, as most of you know, the morning after I left it in the Lord's hand, Jonathan called Daddy to ask to court me. Over the following months, we have gone through the awkwardness of our first email, phone call, and meeting (yes, we are both shy!), but as we grew closer, our emails have gotten longer and more special, our phone calls sweeter, and our meetings more precious with each time together! Now to get back to those 3 special words...over the past 6 months, our relationship has grown from "I like you" to "I really really like you"...doing little special things to show each other how much we "liked" each other, but we had talked about saving those 3 words for our engagement...I have to say that it was getting harder and harder on both sides to hold those words in, but on June 19, around 10:45AM, we met Jonathan and his family halfway on Pilot Mountain. I knew in my heart that this was going to be a special time because it seemed like a long time since we had been together, but I never knew that it was going to be this special (I had a little feeling that Jonathan may propose, but I didn't want to get my hopes up too much)! Our families started climbing (well, not really climbing rather walking up hill) Pilot Mountain, and it was rather busy. I noticed Jonathan was acting a little nervous when we were at the overlook...not really saying too much...I won't really talking that much either...as we walked up...we took a few pictures...all the family looked around a few minutes, then they started all walking back down, and I started to follow after them. Jonathan was standing back, and as I started to follow, Jonathan said, "Let's wait right here a minute and talk. It's kind of hard to talk with every one standing around." I think that he said something about they won't be going far...so, we walked back to look over the side, and talk a little, waiting for some random people walk off, as soon as those people left, Jonathan looked at me, and said, "Jennifer, I really like you a whole bunch, and those three words are getting harder and harder to hold back..." at this time, I kind of held my breath...ok...looking into Jonathan's eyes takes my breath away...the next thing I knew, Jonathan was taking a little black box out of his pocket and kneeling down on one knee, looking up at me (which never happens, I'm usually looking up at him)...he told me he loved me, and then said, "Jennifer, will you marry me?" The first things I did was cover my face...and say, "I'm not going to cry!"...then, I said, "YES!"...just not so loud...and of course, I told Jonathan for the first time, "I love you, Jonathan!"

Of course, after Jonathan proposed and I accepted, after we said "I love you" for the first time, our families came up, and we had to reenact everything for pictures...so here we go...

A picture takend right before the proposal...notice I'm standing on top of the rock... :-)

I almost think that this was taken after because we look so very happy...we were so very happy before, but afterwards, we were even happier if that is possible!

Good thing I didn't fall down this rock...I really like this one!

Looking over the edge...hmm...I wonder what Jonathan was thinking...hmm...

I wonder what is down that mountain that is so interesting...I think I commented on the haziness of the day...it was at this time that Jonathan was waiting on everyone to leave...

I have no idea what I was saying or doing...remember this was in the reenactment...not the real thing!...haha...but I was that excited!!!!

Will you marry me??? hmmm...no hesitation on my side!!! YESSS!!!!!!!!!!

Guess where the ring was from? Kay's...you know what? That is where I always wanted my engagement ring to come from...I never said anything about it, but isn't it amazing how the Lord knows our little wants!

Me, My Ring, and My Jonathan...my Sweetheart!<3

I love this one...and yes, I love it because Jonathan is in it!!!

Headed down...this time I did almost fall...a couple of times....

Headed into "Mayberry" riding beside my man!

My Sweetheart calling his sisters to tell them the wonderful news!!!