He's Coming for a Pure Bride

Every little (and not so little) girl dreams of her wedding day.  She plans the colors, the attendants, the food, every detail that she can think of.  To a young girl, her wedding is essentially the beginning of "real" life.  Up to the wedding however, a girl keeps herself pure.  Her desire is to present a pure bride to the bridegroom.  Excellent, right?

Until I was married I realized that I had the wrong focus the whole time.  While keeping myself pure in mind and pure in body for my future husband was all good, my focus should not have been to give my husband a pure bride, but to give God a pure bride.

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16

Married ladies and single girls alike.  It's not too late to be that pure bride of Christ!  If you don't feel that you are the purest bride (for we want the best for our King!), turn away from sin and come to His saving forgiveness.

Single girls, refocus your attention to remaining pure from your future husband, to your current heavenly father.  Your future husband will be thankful to receive not only a bride pure of body, but one that is pure in Christ.

When you become that pure bride of Jesus, this is the beginning of true life in Christ.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Revelation 19:7-9 

Who's ready for the wedding?!?!

~Bethany~

Till Death Do Us Part

It's a new year.  And, it's official.  On December 23, 2011my best friend Mr. Daniel Schrock took my hand in marriage, making me the happiest girl in the world, and.....Mrs. Schrock! :)  The whole wedding, ceremony, reception, moments leading up to it, and every moment since has been completely wonderful.  Publicly I'd like to thank my wonderful parents and family as well as Daniel's parents and family for helping with everything.  There were also numerous friends who helped make everything go so smoothly!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!


Now I don't have the professional pictures back yet and I will share them once I receive them.  I'm going to share some sneak peaks though of pictures taken with Abigail's camera. 

 We loaded all the wedding supplies into a trailer and hauled them all away to the church.  You can see my dress hanging in there. :)

 The kitchen.  Yes we spent some time in there.  :) 

 The tables were beautiful!  Each table had a ribbon down the middle with center pieces of real pine boughs, holly berries, pine cones, one big candle in the middle, and three little candles scattered in the greenery.  Abigail did a TON of work on these!

 The girls spent a bunch of time on the head table and it looked fabulous!

 

When the lady who did my hair put on the veil she started crying.  Hmmmm....

 

 Waiting.....waiting.....waiting....watching veggie tales because the nursery had nothing better in it......

 Me waiting.  Can't you see frustration and anxiousness written all over my face?  I was totally ready to walk down the isle NOW.

 Me and my adorable junior bridesmaid, aka my sister Elizabeth.

 L-R bridesmaids - Rebekah, Elizabeth, Rachel

 Family photo before the wedding!!!

 My wonderful parents.

 My parents put together my bouquet and this was probably less than an hour before the ceremony started. :D

 My superfantabulous husband!

 Isn't he handsome?

Well, I'll share more when I get them.  Until then, may God bless you in this new year!

True Love

I'm sure you're all ready for a nice mushy gooshy wedding update at about this point, right?  I mean it has been how long since I've posted anything here. 

But yes, we are now only 17 days away from the 'Big Day' and I can hardly wait!  It has been super busy here, finding dresses, shoes, decorations, food for 300, and so much more!  Yet we are getting so close and I'm so thankful for a wonderful family has has been amazing through this whole experience. :)  Mom is getting the food, Abigail is overseeing the decoration, I am looking over the little details of the wedding (scripture, vows, bulletins, attendants for everything, music, etc) and it has been fun! 

I was priviledged to visit Daniel over Thanksgiving in North Carolina.  Let's just say....it was beautiful there.   I left Michigan when it was 28*F, dead and brown.  I arrived in NC where it was 75*F, sunny, and green.  Well....at least MI has season....:)  Anyway, it was a wonderful time and we were thankful for the few days that we had together. 

Getting to the real point of this post however. I have had several showers in the past month and at the first one all the ladies were asked to write down a piece of advice for the bride and groom to keep.  Later that afternoon I was going through them all and found them all very precious and something I will probably keep forever.  However, there was one that especially stuck out.

This note was from a sweet middle aged friend of the family.  She and her husband have two children in their young teens. She wrote:

"Have coca dates together and take time to snuggle with each other.  Take time for a silent I love you to share between you ~ three quick hand squeezes, I LOVE YOU. 

The woman's husband is dying of cancer.

When I saw this I knew THAT was the love that I want.  I think it's a love that comes from God, and a love that grows from patience, an unselfish love.  It also reminded me that time is short and we should make it sweet. 

So I encourage each one of you, if you have someone in your life to love (and it doesn't have to be a spouse, fiance, boyfriend, etc), to love them to the fullest today.  You never know how much time you have with them.  Life is short, so love with an unselfish and everlasting love. 

In Christ,

~Bethany~

P.S.  Please keep that family in your prayers!

Pictures and National Convention!!!

A few weeks ago, Daniel and I got our engagement pictures taken by my friend, Rebecca.  I think she did a fantastic job.  It was freezing that morning, below 32*.

Daniel went back to base in NC and will see him again over Thanksgiving.

That's the wedding news for now. :)

Other than that, I'm at the FFA National Convention!!!!  I am actually sitting in a social media workshop right now learning about the importance of advocating agriculture through social media.  Interesting how a blog, facebook, twitter, or youtube can make such an impact on an uneducated individual!

This week I'm going to be with fellow state officers all week, meeting tons of new people (there were 55,000 FFA members who attended last year), and competing in Marketing.  It should be a fantastic week!

~Bethany~

And He Shall Give You the Desire of Your Heart

Have any of you noticed the verse I have on the picture of my blog? 

Delight thyself also in the LORD, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.   Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:4-5)

I told my friend Jenna at the beginning of the new year (2011) that this was going to be my theme verse for the year.  How much that was true, I didn't even know.

In April, I met through a friend and began communicating with an amazing young man named Daniel Schrock.  Daniel is in the Marine Corps and was then stationed in Afghanistan serving our country.  I didn't know a thing about this young man but when one of the first questions he asked me was if I could share my testimony with him, I knew that God had sent me something pretty special. 

Daniel and I began talking on the phone and skype every day unless he was out on a mission.  We asked each other every question that you can think of.  "What do you think a church's standards should be on alcohol?"(honestly, this was the first thing we ever talked about on the phone, yes welcome to the life of Bethany :D)  "How many children do you want someday?"  "What does commitment mean to you?"  "Opinion on debt?"  Etc.  You get the picture. :)  We talked about favorite foods, hobbies, everything. 

On August 25, Daniel came back to his home in Ohio for a 3 week post-deployment leave.  Over the previous 3 weeks he had been traveling from Afghanistan to North Carolina (where he is stationed).  The next morning he came to Michigan to meet me in person.  Within an hour of him arriving, we were on the tractor moving the baler from the hay field and cutting down branches that had fallen in a storm.  I knew, this was a man I could work with for the rest of my life. 

Only a few days into his leave, he was asked to partake in recruiters assistance in his hometown in Ohio.  So once the paperwork was all done, he was given another whole month to be on leave!  You can only imagine how excited we were!!!!!  Over his weeks at home, we realized that even though we'd never met in person, we had already met in heart and were completely comfortable with each other and.....loved each other.

On September 25, 2011 Daniel Schrock asked me to become his wife.  I gladly told him YES!  We are looking forward to starting a life together soon, as in December 23, 2011.  :)  Daniel will be going back to North Carolina in just two weeks and I will be going to visit him over Thanksgiving.  Then he will be coming back for the wedding.  We covet your prayers, being apart will be difficult! 


My greatest desire and goal was first, that I could serve God to my highest potential and second, to be a good and virtuous wife and mother.  I'll be working on the virtuous part but God has given me the opportunity to serve as a wife.  May I be the best that I can be. 


So to summarize this for your brain to wrap it's fingers around (do brains have fingers?), I am engaged to Daniel Levi Schrock and we will be married on December 23, 2011.  May God receive the glory for the work that He has done in us!

In Christ,
~Bethany~

Bethany & Daniel

From the Doors of the Orphanage: About Me

Hey everyone, my sister Rachel has started up a blog. It's somewhat still under construction, but go ahead and check it out! :)


From the Doors of the Orphanage: About Me: Hi everybody my name is Rachel Schreur. I am 15 years old and I live on a farm. I have 5 other siblings, their names are Bethany 18.Abigail1...

~Bethany~

9/11 - A day That Shall Live on in Infamy

It was ten years ago today. I was only seven years old but I still remember exactly where I was when I received the news of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center and plane that went down in Pennsylvania. I was homeschooled and my three younger sisters and I were sitting at the table learning Spanish. We were learning colors and the color Verde was on the agenda. Suddenly the phone rang and my mom answered the phone. Just by the look on her face I knew something terrible had happened. She sat down and told us exactly what had happened. It was a hard thing to process for my 7 year old brain but I slowly took it all in. Then we turned on the radio and listened to the surprise, panic, and disbelief that was heard all across the nation. Though I understood this was pretty deep stuff we were talking about, I wasn't too worried about it. My small world wasn't affected, and every day life went on. That afternoon I went to a friend's house with a bunch of girls my age and it seemed like we were all on the same page. We prayed for the victim’s families, but we played and had fun the rest of the day.

What really had happened didn't sink in with me until the evening of the September 11. Because my family didn't have television, we went to a friends house to watch footage of the attack. I sat there, awed by what had happened. An anger rose in me. Who could do such a thing? Then I saw raw film of individuals jumping from high stories of the World Trade Center, choosing that route of death rather than being burned alive. My parents told me to look away, but I couldn't. No, not possible. How could I? 

 

It was bedtime that night when my anger turned quickly to fear. I now knew that the victims had not had a choice and they had been killed. It was possible to happen to me too. How could I sleep knowing that at any moment a plane could come crashing into my house? Of course logic was not coming quickly to my young mind, so I was terrified. I fell asleep crying that night, and for several nights after that I had trouble falling asleep.

I now look back at that day which deeply affected my life. It was one of those days that many individuals, because of their fear and pain, want to forget. But how can we forget those who died? How can we forget those who continue to fight for our country? How can we forget the deep sacrifices that have been made for us?

Don't give up America. Don't put the bad times behind you. Don't try to block out what has happened. Stand up for what is right. Support the fight for freedom. Let us come together as a nation and grow stronger. Yes, it has been ten long years, but let us NEVER forget.

~Bethany~