Diving in

I had a whole list of reasons why I never wanted to start a blog.  But, I just threw them all out the window.  I'm just diving into the deep end, even though I don't really swim!  That's called faith.

So why am I starting a blog? Why now?
For starters, I have tremendously awesome friends and family living all over the place.  This is just one more way to connect with all of you!  I miss you. You know who you are.

You can expect to see posts on here about our adventures, recipes, crafty things, and what in the world an OTA is.

Also, I've been noticing a trend in all of my conversations lately: Life is hard. And being an adult is hard.  Newsflash of the day, right?
 I am a young adult.  More recently I've noticed a definite shift among my peers into this world called adulthood.  And I think we're all in a bit of shock about it.  A few years out of college now and we're getting a clearer picture of life and the "real world" and the general consensus I think is, "Wow, this is really really hard."  How do I be married?  (Or how do I be single?) How do I work at this job every week? No more semester breaks! How do I pay for this? How do I make solid friendships in this world? How do we know when we're ready to buy a car, a house, start that business, go back to school? Or the big one recently, not for me but for many of my friends...kids?! What do we do when all of these things are happening out of the order we had planned on? How do we balance all of that and more?  Could we possibly have any more decisions to make?

For many of you reading this, my friends, really what we want and need to know is...how do we follow God through all of this? How do we live in his joy, grace, and peace? How do we make our lives a testament to Him? How do we stay strong in a culture that seems to be increasingly hostile to the gospel?

Inspiration for the name of my blog came from my favorite bible verse:
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I'm hoping that this blog serves to encourage someone!  We're in it together, striving to be joyful always in this world because of our hope in Christ.  Let's be real with each other.  Let's talk about the hard stuff.