What If?

"But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation."

Psalm 13:5

"What if?" That seems to be the question of the hour in my life as of late. As many of you know my husband, Brandon, is currently playing Minor League Baseball in the Milwaukee Brewers Organization. I do not have the time (or even an adequate enough understanding of it all) to explain what exactly this looks like for him and for our marriage and our future. What I can tell you with great  confidence, though, is that my daily vocabulary and thought life is not lacking in "What ifs?" In fact, there are a few conversations that Brandon and I have at least every other day where I'm sure I sound just like a broken record (not that I've ever heard anything played from a record ... but you get the idea). 

Here's a little glimpse of what my side of the conversation usually sounds like ... and I can only wish I was  being dramatic.

"What if _________?" 

"Right, I understand. But then what if _________?"

"Yeah, that's true. But what if _________?"

"Yes, I know I need to trust the Lord..... But what about ________?"

"Are you getting frustrated with me? No? You have a crazy amount of patience? Great. Because What if _?"

Until finally Brandon says something abounding with love and gentleness like, "Babe, have you spend much time with the Lord today?"

And sometimes my answer is no. But what's even scarier is that sometimes my answer is yes! And I'm still going crazy in my self-absorbed, untrusting "what if" little world! Naturally I start thinking, "What if I am the only person that is this crazy?" (It's fine if you're shaking your head at me - I'm shaking my head as I type!) So over the past week the Lord has showed me that I'm not the only girl that does this. In fact there are a lot of girls, and I can't help but to assume a few boys, that do this. 

The most memorable "What If" conversation I had was with a sweet girl named Gracen who I got to sit down and talk about life with recently. Through our time together she shared a "What If" scenario with me she had been struggling with and in that moment God made it very clear to me that I have got to let Him teach me personally how to stop this kind of worrying in my own life so that I may encourage other believers who struggle with it, too. 

Did you catch that italicized word? Worrying. It makes me cringe. I like to pride (I know I know. This is also an issue I'm working struggling through) myself in the fact that I do the least amount of worrying in my family.  So maybe you're like me and you don't worry. Oh no, never! We trust the Lord always! We just also like to come up with ridiculously crazy "what if" scenarios in our head that haven't happened and probably never will happen. But rest assured, we're not worrying. We're trusting and what if-ing.

In the quietness of the room I am writing in I can almost hear God say, "You must only trust." 

How my heart longs to be able to trust. I hope and pray that my trust issues brought on by earthly relationships will stop bleeding over into my personal relationship with Jesus. Psalm 13:5 says, "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation." If I did more than just tweet this verse and truly lived it out, there would be no room for "What ifs" in my heart. If I did what the old hymn says and turned my eyes upon Jesus and looked fully in His wonderful face, then I would need not worry about anything else.

Because though there are a lot of issues involved with worrying, I personally believe the root of this issue is that I lose sight of what Jesus did. My Pastor Ronnie Floyd reminded us this week that on the cross Jesus drank the cup of the wrath of God. (John 18:11). Praise His Name forever, right? He saved me from the very worst "What if" scenario I could ever imagine. What if I was separated from the presence of God for eternity? I physically shutter at the thought of that. Praise the Lord that that "what if" is not even possible for me because I have given my life to Jesus, my Lord and Savior. 

So if Jesus can save me from the self-destructiveness of my sins, I suppose I can take my "what ifs" to foot of the cross and lay them down each and every day. Then each and every day I can get up, recite Psalm 13:5, and spend the day praising the One who paid my debt and trust that as long as He is Savior and Lord of my life I have no need to "what if" any anxious thought. 

Praying for those who read this,

Jackie

Which Plan Are You On?

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and 

not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Planning. It's one of my favorite things to do. The saying "failing to plan is planning to fail" has become a staple in my one line quips I spout off whenever I feel the need to sound witty. But it sure does make sense in a lot of situations, right?! Take the grocery store for example. When you go to Harps with out a plan of attack, (grocery list) what do you come out with? Pop-tarts? Double Stuffed Oreoes? A huge box of multi-colored Goldfish? No? That last one is just me? Hmmmm. Well you get the point. It usually doesn't end well nutritiously OR financially. 

What about school? What if our teachers and professors never planned? What if they walked in to class every single day and said, "I don't really have any plans for the day. I don't really have any plans for the semester. What do y'all want to do?" It would be chaos, right?! You would have certain students who would  just get up and leave. Some students would do some fist pumps, take a  picture with the professor, and proclaim to social media what an awesome professor they have. Then you have students like me who would sit quietly to the side and act like nothing was wrong, but on the inside they were having a panic attack and praying for structure and stability. The last example of students might also be thinking something along the line of ... "I paid HOW MUCH for a class where the teacher has no plans to teach us anything?!?!" At which time the inside panic attack would turn to rage.

You get the picture. Plans are usually a good thing.

Now before I go any farther, I don't want to lose those of you thinking, but all that planning leaves no room for spontaneity and the Holy Spirit. I hear you and I understand your concern. I have thought that a time or two myself. But what I'm learning is that it is well and good to have a plan as long as you are OK with God saying, "Ok, time for a change in course. Time for a new plan."

In Jeremiah 29:11 the Lord tells us that He has plans for us. Really great plans for us! But let's not take the verse out of context. Looking at the whole chapter and not just one verse will tell us that the Lord is telling the Israelites what exactly He means when He says He has plans to give them hope and a future. He is bringing them out of captivity! Verse 14 promises God will be found by the Israelites and he will bring them back from captivity! Praise God! 

Now let's look in the New Testament and see where Jesus confirms this promise of God giving hope and a future. John 10:10b says "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Amen, Jesus! He gives us life and wants us to live it to the full! So that verse means we get to own every single color shirt Piko makes, right?!? Ehhh.... not so much. And I'm glad! Because when Jesus said He was going to give us life to the FULL He means SO MUCH MORE than having a lot of material things or earthly status. He means that in Him we are free!

 The beginning of verse 10 provides a much scarier truth. It states, "The thief (Satan) comes ONLY to steal and kill and destroy." What exactly is Satan wanting to steal, kill, and destroy? The plans that God has for us. Wait, what?! But Jesus said.. and God said... but then Satan said... I'm confused. So let's try to work through this. 

The Lord Jesus wants us to live life to the fullest which means living in the freedom of the grace and mercy He has poured out on us through His death and resurrection on the cross. Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour there is nothing Satan can do to remove us from the secure love of the Lord (Romans 8:38-39). So take heart in that, Believer! As long as you have Jesus you have the opportunity to live life to the fullest. Unfortunately, Satan's won't change his job description once we become a believer.

Though Satan can not steal, kill, and destroy our salvation. You better believe he intends to steal, kill, and destroy our joy... our love... our sense of peace provided by the Holy Spirit... our desire to tell others about Jesus. How does he do this? By fueling our pride... our lust... whispering lies to us that contradict the Word of God... by encouraging us to create gray areas in our lives... by telling us we can interpret Scripture however fits our lifestyle best.

Philippians 4:8-9 commands us to think about good, noble, right, true, and pure things so that we may put in to practice what we have learned about living in freedom and out of captivity. Satan hates that. He knows that if he can just get us to listen to song whose lyrics contradict what the Bible says we wont be thinking about the things in verses 8-9 and we won't be living in freedom. Think about it. You hear a song and it gets stuck in your head. You know it's not good. You know it talks about sex in way that is not God-honoring. You know that it promotes pride and lust and sin. But it has a good beat? FORGET ABOUT THE BEAT, PEOPLE! If you are justifying sin, you are exactly where Satan wants you. 

I'm learning (slowly but surely) how to take every thought captive. I'm praying that the Lord will teach me to recognize when my something gets in my mind that is not from Him so that I may quickly pray it out of there. How can I be used by the Lord if all day I am thinking about things that don't honor Him? It can't happen. 

The Lord has plans for you to be out of captivity and to be totally free. Oh! How the Lord has plans for you and for me. Let's get on board with His plans, eh? Let's pray that He teaches us how to fight Satan's attempts to steal, kill, and destroy. Let's kneel humbly before the throne, shed a few tears, and invite Him to consume our minds today.

Praying for y'all,

Jackie J Moore

Tough Question

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven

 given to men by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12

"If you died tonight would you go to heaven?" 

That's what the text message I received one night about two years ago from Brandon Moore. At this point in life we were simply friends with no intentions of ever flirting with each other, much less falling in love. Brandon and some of his friends would come to the house I lived at unannounced around supper time once or twice a week. (Good timing, huh?) Of course I was never the one cooking unless we wanted dessert - I left that up to my sweet roommates - but I slowly started to build a pretty cool friendship with Brandon. 

Although Brandon and I often ended up at church together because of mutual friend groups, we never really had a ton of spiritual conversations. So when I randomly received this text, I was thrown pretty quickly into a high state of confusion. Not because of the question itself, but because of the source of the question. I immediately responded with, "Yes, I would" and assumed this would be the end of the conversation. As confident as I was with my answer, my confusion as to where the question originated from continued to rise. 

Initially my mind start racing with with different possibilities as to what spurred the question. I immediately started retracing the past couple of weeks and months in my mind to see if maybe I had been doing a poor job of letting Christ show through in my life. Much like you, I fall short of the glory of God daily, so I think every single sin I had done in the past two months came to mind. After about 1 minute of this line of thinking I had convinced myself Brandon asked me this because I had done something to make him think otherwise. This was an absolutely mortifying thought. I was close to tears when he replied, "Why?"

In a second my mind completely switched gears and I assumed that Brandon wasn't a Christian. If he was a Christian he would know why I answered the way I did, so why else would he keep prodding. So I immediately switched to evangelism mode. I explained that when I was 6 years old I realized that I needed a Savior to get to heaven so I gave my life to Jesus and since then have been learning more what it means to love the Lord and live for Him. I was fully prepared to suggest we talk in person or suggest he talk to one of our pastors more about a relationship with Christ, so his response completely caught me off guard. 

"Ok good. I just wanted to make sure." That's what he said..... Like what?! He had just put me on that emotional roller coaster to make sure that I was going to heaven?! After I got over the shock of his unexpected answer, I was overcome with a mixture of thankfulness and disbelief. No friend, that I could remember, had ever asked me if I was going to heaven - definitely no guy friend had ever asked that. So I thought, "I want to marry a guy like that. I want to marry a guy that cares about where I stand with God and is not afraid to ask hard questions." Little did I know my statement would turn in to "Like, I want to marry that guy."

That conversation has been on my mind for the past month for three reasons.

1. Girls, wait for a guy that cares about your relationship with the Lord. Please don't feel pressured by social norms to settle for a 'good guy' because it's 'about time to figure out who you're going to marry.' Be content with the season of life you are in right now. Take advantage of all the free time you have to seek God's heart and serve Him with all of yours. 

2. I care deeply about where you stand with the Lord. I so desperately want to see everyone that I know and love in heaven.  I want to know if you have called on Jesus name - the only name that can save you. I want to know if there was a time that you gave your life to Christ and ever since then your life has never looked the same. I want to know if you died tonight, would you go to heaven.

3. I think God wants to use some of the people reading this to ask this tough question. What friend has God been placing on your heart lately? How have you been responding to this? Have you been praying for an opportunity to ask a hard, awkward question that has eternal weight and significance? 

Acts 4:12 makes it clear. Salvation is found no where else under heaven. Do you know that in your heart? 

Oh how I pray that you do. 

Jackie J

Seek Justice. Love Mercy.

"Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out

 in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher)." 

John 20:15

Each week of my stay in beautiful San Francisco the Lord has given me a different phrase or theme for the week. At first, I thought it was such a coincidence that every time I was still and not thinking about anything the same phrase would come to mind. Finally I realized this was no coincidence, but God speaking to me. So this past week the phrase "Seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God" would play in my mind when I was riding the MUNI or walking down Ellis street or sitting around waiting for Brandon to get done playing so we can talk. (Side note: I miss him just a little... 

or a lot.)

So as this kept playing over and over in my mind I started to think deeper about the meaning. First and foremost each one describes Jesus, right?! So then I thought well does each one describe me? I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on the last one, "walk humbly with your God," because of various reasons, but let's just say it's not exactly my number 1... or 2 best asset out of the three. 

Seek justice. I'm learning what that means daily and I hope to continue to learn more in my final two weeks here. Seek means to go in search of something and justice means the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action. So God is telling me to go in search of finding a right action. I like the sound of that, eh? That sounds really noble and impressive. I mean who even uses the word "ideal" in the correct context?! So that's part of what I'm doing here at BJM. I'm researching some of the brothels in San Francisco (that of course are not named brothels) and helping provide the ladies on full-time staff with the evidence that they need when they go to hearings to prevent more from opening or getting different a business permit. 

As you would assume, we believe a lot of these women inside of these brothels in San Francisco have been trafficked here. Not a lot of things get me more angry than thinking of these women being lied to, hurt, abused, feeling hopeless, and MANY other things (but I am trying to be sensitive to the age of my readers). So it only takes about 1 minute of thinking about this stuff to make the act of seeking justice a piece of cake. 

Love mercy. This one is a little tougher. Mercy means to not give punishment for an act that is wrong or sinful. I am suppose to love mercy. It's almost comical to think about my feelings towards mercy. Of course if the mercy is going to work in my favor I am all about showing mercy some love! But it becomes a little tricky when we are talking about other people. It almost sounds like a complete contradiction to seeking justice, but that's what is so cool about God. He can tell you to do two things that sound opposite because He is able to do that. 

There is a lady in the bible named Mary Magdalene of whom Jesus cast out seven demons. Most of what is recorded about her is her life after conversion, but let's stop and imagine what a woman with seven demons living inside of her might have been like. She was probably a bit unpleasant to be around, promiscuous, and quite selfish among other things. Picture yourself running into a modern day Mary Magdalene pre-conversion. I'm going to assume your first thought is not going to be, " I should love her because I love mercy." Unfortunately, this is most people's last thought - including my own. My first thoughts when I see someone like this, for example that seems to be "willingly" (and I use that very lightly) prostituting themselves generally are pretty judging.

But not Jesus. No, Jesus has mercy on his mind. He looked deeper than the surface and saw a troubled, hurting, broken individual that needing loving mercy. He saw a woman worthy  of being the first person He spoke to upon His resurrection. Did  you catch that?! Mary Magdalene was the first person that Jesus spoke to after He raised from the dead according to John 20:10-18. How simply wonderful is that!?!? My Savior chose not someone of high popularity, but instead a broken woman that had been healed my His mercy and His love. I literally get tears every time I picture that scene playing out in real life.

So what does this mean for you and me? It means maybe we should get off our high horse and stop judging people so quickly. Maybe we should recognize there is spiritual warfare going on that we can't see. Maybe it means we should ask God to show us how to simultaneously seek justice AND love mercy.

Why must we do both at the same time? Because we are to love mercy and because justice matters.

Love y'all so

Jackie J

Homeless

". . . All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among 

you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth."

Colossians 1:6

This is YWAM San Francisco located on Ellis Street in the Tenderloin. This is where I am working because BJM is a part of the YWAM here. This building is about three or four blocks from a three story Forever 21 and a Macy's. This street is filled people that don't have a roof over their heads and often have to sleep on the street.  This neighborhood has a huge chunk of my heart. This is exactly where I want to be spending my last summer of college. 

Tuesday morning in between meetings I had about an hour of free time so I decided to go to a coffee shop a block away to read and pray. While I was waiting for the light to change so I could cross the street a man in his 40s or 50s started talking to me. I'm not sure if I make you fully grasp how odd this was because living in the South no one ever meets a stranger - especially if they have on Razorback apparel. Sure, people who are living on the street might talk when you pass by asking for something or may make a comment they don't expect a response to, but people very rarely actually pursue a conversation with each other on the street.

So this man (whom appeared to be someone that had a home based on his clothing and lack of items generally carried by homeless) looked at me and said, "You're on the wrong street young lady. You need to head that way." At that point he pointed in the direction I was headed. I smiled and said that is the way I was going and he nodded in approval. I'm sure he assumed I was out shopping and had wandered into the Tenderloin by mistake because he then said, "What are you doing over here anyway?" Since I knew the light was about to change and was really eager to read chapter 8 of John and was still a little in shock someone from SF was talking to a stranger, I just pointed back at the YWAM building and said I worked there and we help the homeless men and women in this neighborhood.

He looked at me for a moment, puzzled, and said, "You have kindness in your face. Do they have guys that work there, too? To protect you?" Praise Jesus that the man was able to see Christ in my face because by this time the light had already turned and I had missed my chance to get started on John 8. Honestly I was a little ready for the conversation to be over, however, I did appreciate the genuine concern he seemed to have for my safety. Although, I must say I am still curious as to what he was doing in the Tenderloin if he had such a negative view of it. After I explained that there are many guys  that work at YWAM he said something that really ruffled my feathers. He said,

"You know they deserve to be here, don't you. They do. They deserve it."

I forced a smile and mumbled something about it being challenging work at times and then the Lord changed the light because He knows me better than I know myself. He knew that in that moment I wanted to say something along the lines of ... "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!" However, the Lord protected me and got me to the coffee shop without me embarrassing myself or Him. 

As I started praying for the Lord to help me calm down not be bitter towards him, I nearly started crying as the Lord led me to pray for that man. As I prayed I realized how broken and calloused he was because of how Satan has used society to shape our beliefs. In his mind, these people wouldn't be here if they didn't deserve to be. These people wouldn't be homeless if they would work hard and just get their act together. One of this man's biggest problems was he didn't realize that these people ARE people. When we lump people into a category we lose the ability to see the individual. 

Some of these individual's brains are so fried from the drug abuse that it would take nothing short of a miracle for God to change them. Some of these individual's might not think they have another option because most everywhere else they have gone have rejected them. Some of these people actually hate the way they are living, but feel hopeless because they need a birth certificate to be able to apply for certain things but don't even know or remember where they were born. Each individual is different and has a different story. My job, as a follower of Christ, is to let each individual I meet see the love of Christ in me. The love of Christ is the Gospel. The Gospel is so powerful. The bible says if I have this kind of love God will work. (1 Corinthians 13:1-6).

Because how similar are you to acting like a person on the street? Seriously. Think about it. What turns you off from loving these people? That they are needy? That they bother you when you are busy and have important places to be? That they are an inconvenience to the plans you want to get accomplished? That they ask for something and when they don't receive it they curse you? That if you do give them something they may or may not say thank you and then not use it in the way you hoped they would? That you feel they take advantage of you? 

We do this to God. We do everything I just said over and over and over and over. What if God took the same approach that we did? What if God thought I was too needy? What if God thought I was a bother and He had more important things to do then listen to me? What if God thought I was an inconvenience to the plans He wants to accomplish? What if God got upset when I cursed him because He didn't answer how I wanted Him too refused to help me? What if God decided he was tired of blessing me just so that I could throw it all away on things that won't matter in eternity? What if God decided he was tired of me taking advantage of Him? 

What if God lumped people together and didn't care about individuals? 

The bible says once we have repented of our sins and given our life to Jesus we are no longer our own. We are suppose to love like Jesus. Everyone. Love everyone like Jesus does. I am praying as you read this God is moving in your heart so that you may stop lumping groups of people together and start loving each of them individually just as Jesus does.

Jackie J

One More Salvation

"We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and 

know that this really is the Savior of the world."

John 4:42

Question: Why did Jesus come from Heaven to earth? 

 Answer: To fulfill God's plan of salvation

I assume that some of you reading this knew the answer to that question and are probably wondering where I'm going with this, but let's stop and think through this together. I am often reminded from reading the Bible that God has plans for me. He is going to use my whole life, everything in it. Everything has a purpose and he made me and the people in my life for a specific reason. Now if we believe God has things He wants to accomplish through us, we had better believe He had things He wanted to accomplish through His Son in his time on earth. 

If you aren't familiar with Jesus's ministry on earth, I'll try to give you a quick summary. Luke 3:23 tells us that Jesus started his ministry when he was about 30 years old. From that point until He was arrested and crucified and raised from the dead, He went around to different towns performing miracles and telling people about His Father. He would go to temples and talk to religious leaders to teach them the meaning of God's word. As you can imagine, Jesus knew he was pretty limited on time and the Lord had everything mapped out so that He could fulfill His plan. This is why I love the story in the beginning of John 4 and have been reading and re-reading it in preparation for my internship in San Francisco with a non-profit organization called Because Justice Matters.

Jesus is travelling between towns and ends up stopping at a well that was located in Samaria around noon and while he was there a woman came to get water. Now we can say, "Oh! What a coincidence this woman came to the well the same time Jesus did!" or we can (correctly) say, "Oh! Jesus knew this woman would be getting water at this well at this specific time." Jesus then proceeds to have a conversation with this woman and we find out that she has had 5 different husbands and was living with a man that was not her husband. The reason she is at the well alone is because she waits to come draw water during the hot part of the day in ordered to avoid being judged by the other women who draw their water much earlier. He offers her living water and explains how He is the only one that can truly fulfill her and satisfy her. (John 4: 1-26)

The first point I want to make is that Jesus meets her where she is. He goes to her town and has a conversation with her in order to get to know her and explain who He is. (So He is explaining the Gospel. He is the Gospel. He is explaining who He is, the Gospel. Just think about how cool that is for a minute.) He is patient with her and hears and answers her questions. This why I am so excited to intern with Because Justice Matters the rest of this summer. They meet girls where they are at and love them like Jesus does. I can not wait to start working on Monday!!

The next point I want to make is the disciples reaction in verse 27, "Just then His disciples arrived, and they were amazed that He was talking with a woman." Jesus is just disrupting all kinds of social norms and unwritten rules!! During this time period the common Jewish teaching was that talking too much to women was a waste of time. So what does Jesus do? He takes time out of His crazy schedule of performing miracles and talking to the most important people of the time to have a conversation with one woman. A woman that is not even related to him. Jesus is showing His disciples, us, and this woman that she is important. Jesus is specifically concerned with her and her salvation. Just one. He stopped to share the Gospel with one person. This is another thing I love about Because Justice Matters. They believe each woman is unique and worth hearing the Gospel so that they may be saved.

The last thing I want to point out is is in verse 42, "And they told the woman, 'We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.'" You see this woman was so pumped about this guy who had just given her living water, she forgot all about her drinking water, as well as her shame, and ran into town to tell everyone she could find about Jesus. How I wish I had that passion for Jesus daily! At first, verse 39 says many believed because of what the woman said. But then later they believed because of what He said! Jesus used this one salvation to be able to tell the rest of the town about the Gospel. 

One of the things I am going to start praying for my time in San Francisco while working with Because Justice Matters is that people will see Jesus in me and that the Lord will use that to reveal Himself to them. If even just one woman experiences salvation when I am in San Francisco I will rejoice forever, because I know what one more salvation means. It means one more person will be spending eternity in heaven.

Jackie J 

Engaged!!! :)

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 

This is what the ancients were commended for."

Hebrews 11:1-2

I am engaged to Brandon Moore!!! YAY!!!!!!

First off, I would like to point out the two types of people that will be reading this blog. The first group of people are lumped together because they knew me before my Junior year of college. The second group of people are lumped together because they came into my life sometime between Junior year and today. The first group is thinking "I knew Jackie Jenkins would get married." The second group is thinking "I knew Jackie Jenkins would get married to Brandon Moore." So there is really no need for "I told you so" texts any longer. ;)

Now that we've got that out of the way, allow me to tell you what I'm experiencing right now. I have decided to call it having a "Red Sea" moment. After Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea to escape the Egyptians who were pursuing them to take them back into captivity, Exodus 14:31 says, "And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant." Can't you just picture them stopping and looking back and the Red Sea and thinking, "Like what just happened?! How good is our God?!"

That's what I am doing right now -- looking back on everything that has happened in my life in the past six days and thinking, "Like what just happened?! How good is my God?!" So many prayer requests have been answered in the past week that I am just overwhelmed with how faithful the Lord has been to me. Brandon is currently a professional baseball player and my fiance! I just don't think my heart could be any fuller than it is right now!

We have been praying for Brandon to get drafted where ever the Lord wants to use him to tell people about Jesus and his love and Brandon got drafted to the Milwaukee Brewers! We are SOOOOOOOOOO excited about that! What a great organization to be a part of!? We can not wait to see what God has planned as Brandon continues to work hard and improve and hopefully move up in the organization!

We have also been praying about  God's plan for our relationship. About a week after we started our relationship I asked Brandon, "So when are we going to get married?" I don't remember his response, but I'm sure it had something to do with prayer. So that's what we have done. We both knew we had really strong feelings for each other, but we also knew that God's plan for each of our lives was way more important than our plans for ourselves. So we kept praying, and praying, and praying.

Now, a year and a month later we are engaged!! I don't know if I can say enough how important Jesus being the center of our relationship is. If Jesus were not in this relationship, there is a good chance we wouldn't be engaged right now. But by the grace of God, Brandon asked me to marry  him at the airport this morning before he left to start his pro baseball career in Helena, Montana. 

The original ring he picked out is not here yet because it had to be special ordered since I have abnormally small fingers and wear a size 4. So, this early this morning Brandon drove to Wal Mart and bought a cute little ring to propose with so I would have something to wear until the real one got here. (Like how adorable/precious/sweet/cute/thoughtful/wonderful/etc. is that?!?!?!) Unfortunately Wal-Mart didn't have any size 4's on hand either so that ring is now in the process of  getting sized as well!! So my current status is two engagement rings and a bare ring finger. . . and I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER!!!

I love Brandon Moore so stinkin' much. But I love my precious Savior so much more. Looking back on the past six days all I have to say is Praise God and Go Brewers!

Jackie J......(for now ;] )