The Paper Posts

A traditional gift celebrating a fiftieth wedding anniversary is gold, which is why a fiftieth is a called a golden year or golden anniversary. Similarly, the first year of marriage's gift is paper, thus "The Paper Posts" will be very marriage (and God) focused over the next year! 

When I'm feeling frustrated with a particular part of my life that I can't control, such as rental-house-hunting, for example, I like to rearrange my furniture. To date, I have rearranged the bedroom six times since moving into the apartment last August. I haven't messed with the living area though, until last night. Heedless of how Josh may feel about it, I practically turned the apartment on its head and then let him just come home to it. He wasn't a fan.

But instead of nay-saying or asking it to be put back, we worked together to come up with a layout we both liked. And I know that Josh would have probably preferred the apartment the way it was, but he understood that I needed this relatively small change in scenery. Throughout all of it, he was actively asking my opinion on the recliner or the desk, making sure that we achieved everything I had set out to do. That was more touching to me than anything else.

He could have been angry with me for rearranging without his permission. I could have taken it personally that he didn't like what I had spent an hour and half arranging carefully. Jesus reminds us in today's Gospel that whoever is angry with his brother will be liable for judgment.(MT 5:20-26). That we have to make the effort to reconcile with those around us before trying to make peace with God. There are times for righteous anger, but furniture is not one of them. It isn't something that belongs between spouses or between children and their God. As a married couple, a literal reflection of God's love, I feel this overwhelming need to make our fights count. To choose them carefully, with intent, so that the disagreement will better us as a couple, rather than cause us to lash out and stay angry, separating both of us from God.

Tota tua.

Our Wedding Day

We've now been married all of two days. And right now, curled in our honeymoon suite, I am overwhelmed by the love and support we have been shown. I keep crying over the simplest things. Which is so unlike me; as my friends put it, "I've never seen you cry!" On Saturday night, I thought it was because I was tired. Yesterday. I thought it was because I was still overwhelmed. But today, I realized that it's because I am just that perfectly, incandescently happy.

I'm sure we will be sharing stories about our wedding for months to come, but my favorite will be about my in-laws. Only one thing went wrong on Saturday, our hotel realized they were double-booked and couldn't accommodate us while we were at the reception. I shrugged it off, we would find a place to sleep for the night. I wasn't worried and I had no reason to be. My sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and his fiancé were on it, with a little help from my dad, we had a room within the hour. 

I was raised in an amazing, giving family. A family that I know is a rarity, not everyone has aunts and uncles who attend middle school basketball games for you or brings your flowers at grade school dance recitals. But somehow, God gave me another family that is equally incredible and that dropped everything so that Josh and I had a beautiful place to spend our mini-honeymoon at. 

I didn't particularly want to change my name. I like the name and I love being a Verhoff. But as the engagement led into our wedding, and as the wedding led into the reception, I felt more at peace with the name change. I couldn't be happier to be a Wood and belong to such wonderful families. As Megan put it, "I fell asleep covered in glitter and beer," (we had a great reception), "and woke up with a wonderful sister-in-law." And so did I. Two actually. And two amazing brothers, and parents who will always be there for my husband and I. 

Tota tua. 

LeAnn Wood (!!) 

Love Letters

For those who have yet to get married in the Catholic Church, consider this your warning, pre-cana classes are no joke. And if you're taking them online, it can be a bit of struggle to convince your fiance to sit down and do them with you on such a nice Monday evening.

This is round two of the pre-cana worksheets for Josh and I, all joking aside, these are some heavy things. My poor Baptist-raised fiance is being asked what the sacraments are, what symbols represent them, and what grace the sacraments give us. And so we sit there and work our way through this dense material, a lot of which is unfamiliar territory for him.

But the most valuable part of these lessons is not the actual material we are learning, although it is valuable information. It's the teamwork, the discussion, and it is the love letters. At the end of each worksheet, we're supposed to write one another a love letter, and Josh sighs and mutters about how he's not the best at writing things down. But he does it anyways, leaving me this tangible piece of his love, showing me that he will provide the love I need, even if it isn't in the way he would like to provide it.

We all love a little bit differently, and the value of understanding that we each love a little differently helps us to better understand how God loves us all, all the time. All of those different love languages, all of those different gestures, they are all rooted in the original Love, the all-consuming Love.What grace does the sacrament of marriage give us? An opportunity to better understand God's Love.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7

Tota Tua,

LeAnn

Lenten Accountability

As we've begun our third week of Lent, about a third of the way through this season. I thought this might be a good time to check in and see how our Lenten journey has been progressing. Oftentimes, we start Lent with good intentions a list of things we are going to do better, similar to New Year's Resolutions. But as the days where on, we realize that giving up red meat or Netflix or going to happy hours was harder than we had originally planned, and we're slipping.

But that means we're doing something right! Fasting is not supposed to be easy. It is not supposed to be something we casually do throughout these weeks, but something that we strive to do, something that we focus on, and truly bring God closer to us as we try to give up these things that build a wall between God and God's Love. So check yourself:

• Are you making excuses to consciously break your fast? Such as, it's her birthday or but Fuller House was just released!
• Are you breaking your fast without realizing it? Reaching for the ice cream or starting a gossipy conversation
• Are you "cashing in" your Sundays early? 
• Are you promising yourself, you'll do better tomorrow, only to not?

Lent is not intended to be easy, but it does not have to this big, grand gesture. God does not always work in the thunder and the lightening, oftentimes, God is the whispering wind. Just like when God tried to help Naaman, there was no big song or dance to it, Naaman was just told to go wash seven times in the Jordan. God was not asking for Naaman to do a lot, just to trust that God would help him (2 KGS 5:1-15). 

If you're taking onto too much, let a bit go, and keep some of the smaller pieces. Each little bit can help bring you and God closer together in time for the Easter to season to begin. All God wants is to become closer with you, and all you need to do this is to trust and allow God to guide you. So continue your fasting, you praying, and your alms-giving, but remember that God isn't looking for the grand gesture, God's looking for an act of trust. 

Tota tua, 

LeAnn