A month in The Atkin's Home...

Just a few pics from December...

New stray puppy that we found has now made friends with Cujo our "Big Boy"

Baking with our Niece Azrael

I told her that puppy was going "night night" and she decided he needed to cuddle....Don't tell her mom I let her lay on the dog bed long enough to grab the camera.

Jon's new toy. Him and Daniel dueling it out.

Our new little dog who is still looking for his "forever" home.

What Christmas Means In Our Home...

Presents, Baking, Family, Food, Lights, Music.....

These are all wonderful things, however, Christmas is so so much more than this.

The whole reason can be found in The Gospel of Luke. It was about 300 years after the New Testament when God sent an angel, named Gabriel, to tell Mary that she would be bearing the son of God who would save all man kind. What an incredible miracle that a baby, whom was born to a virgin, and from a ghetto town, would be The Son of God, Emmanuel, and King of All Creation. The King of The Universe loves us so much that he would humble himself to come walk with the same kind of footsteps that any common man would have. He did this to show a sacrifice that would save us from our sins and from eternal damnation.

Tonight I made myself a big steamy glass of hot chocolate and sat down to read the Christmas story that is found in the book of Luke. My savior is amazing! He is the head of our household and the leader of our lives. It is in Him that we are able to love each other in the regard that we do. An everlasting and non judgemental love is what we seek, and we seek it daily to be more like our king.

A child like faith and wonder is what Christmas is about. To have the faith that believes that God still is capable of preforming miracles today, such as he did all those years ago in a stable in Bethlehem where that little baby lay asleep in a manger.

It is the belief in the Son of Christ that will save us. It is our prayer for you that you would find that this Christmas season.

May your Christmas be more about Him and less about the transient things of this world.

Merry Christmas!

Love, Jon and Lauren

Snowman we made in Prescott, AZ

The Love Dare

Any married couple looking to strengthen their relationship needs to get this book. It is a 40 day challenge where you read about an issue in marriage, complete a daily challenge, and then journal about it.

We have been doing it for 16 days now and it is great! It gives us that devotional time together every night and really does set the tone for the day as you meditate on what was read. We do everything but the journaling part, I guess neither of us were super excited about that part of it for some reason.

Anyways, pick it up on amazon for $7 and give it a try.

Examples of some of the topics...

Love is kind

Love is unconditional

Love Intercedes

Love is Responsible

Love's Motivation



Giving Thanks To The One Who Gave It All

      I wanted to take a minute and reflect upon all that I am truly grateful for. First and foremost I am thankful for my God who gave everything on the cross to pay for my sins. Without Him my life does not have purpose or hope. I am thankful for my huge family, my friends, our life group, our church, our youth group, our jobs, our house, our health, our relationship as husband and wife, and finally some cool weather! 

       We are in the middle of a three week series in our youth group that is focusing on the events surrounding Christ's birth. It is amazing some of the unexpected things that occurred to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus Christ. In Luke 1:5-25 the story of Zachariah and Elisabeth is told. This story depicts two older people whom are past childbearing years but who have not been able to have children. Gabriel comes to Zachariah and tells him that he will have a son whom will be filled with the Holy Spirit and will lead people to Christ. How crazy to think that our God still works in unexpected ways today. I know he works that way in our lives.

Thanks be all to Him for everything, and may we remember that this Christmas season and keep Christ the center of it all. For in Him we find the ability to love unconditionally.



     Thanksgiving this year was spent at our house with Jon's family and with my Dad, his wife, and my brothers. It was a learning experience for me as I did most of the cooking. It was a great day spent with so many loved ones, although I missed my mom and my sister who could not join us.



Finances are Spiritual...

Today we ended our three week class on finances. It was interesting to think about how our finances are part of our spiritual walk. As followers of Christ, He has given us stewardship of all of our possessions in life. With "His" money he asks us to use it in certain ways. God gives us the ability to work and provides the job that allows us to work and in return asks for us to faithfully give back to him a tithe. He asks for the specific amount of 10%. He gave so much and yet sometimes it is hard for me to part with that 10% of something that is not really ours to begin with. The Bible talks about not storing up our treasures on Earth, I believe it's in Matthew somewhere. It is so humbling to look at life on Earth as a fleeting experience and to adjust what I do here in order to store up my treasures in my heavenly life to come. What an amazing God we serve! I never thought that my faith would be strong enough to have this amount of comfort in KNOWING that He will come again and I will eternally be in "Love's Arms". I serve a God of love and mercy and It is in Him that I will store up my treasures.

Quest for organic vegetables and oganic faith...

I love gardening. I love digging in the dirt. I love caring for something and watching it grow from a tiny seed. I even love pulling weeds. It is also amazing how spiritual gardening can be. How much of a growth experience that sewing a seed can become. When I look into my own life I see that everything that is great has started as a small seed. God waters our seeds and we continue to grow, in relationships, and in self. Such small things can teach such big lessons...

Newlyweds...

Settling in to marriage has been the most rewarding bonding experience, not just for Jon and I, but for our relationship with God as well. Of all of the things that we have in this world, marriage is said to be the closest relationship that we have on this earth. For God to bless us with something like this, has been so incredible, and we have truly begun to grow as "ONE" in Him.

Ephesians 5:31          

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

We took the plunge!

God has blessed us to the max, both with each other and the family that we now share. We couldn't have asked for a better wedding day. It was a once in a lifetime event shared with so so so many wonderful family and friends. A thanks to our parents and to all of our mentors for helping us get to this point.

We would both like to thank Aaron and Emily Pennington for their support, encouragement, and open ears. You guys prepared us for something that has been beyond what we ever thought we could share together. We thank you both for your mentorship and for showing us what love can be when we put our relationship in God's hands.

Ocho Rios Jamaica (Honeymoon) Taking the plunge

Kayaking and snorkeling in Jamaica

Husband and Wife!

4 days and ticking...

The wedding is right around the corner and we are both so excited to get married and to share the day with family and friends. After our wedding we will leave the next morning for Sandal's Resort in Jamaica where we will spend 6 days for our honeymoon. I am so excited to be Jon's wife, and I can't wait for our life together spent in the same house finally!

See you all soon!

God Bless!

Youth Ministry

Jon and I are in our sixth week of youth ministry with Central Christian Church. We had wanted to find a way to serve as a couple and the opportunity for youth ministry was mentioned to us by our marriage mentors. Jon does amazing with the junior high and senior high boys and the girls are starting to open up more to me. It has been a huge growth and learning experience for both of us and has been a wonderful way to serve our Lord through teaching. Tomorrow I start my new job in the school district full time. I will have mostly pre-school and kindergarten kidos and I am so excited.

God continues to bless and work in our lives. His Grace Is Enough!

Mormon Lake From Our Oregon Trip Last Month

The Mr.

The Mr. is intelligent, funny, caring, endearing, loving, and just simply a huge influence that speakes into my life. He holds me up, teaches me to walk with God, loves me unconditionaly, and opens my eyes and my heart to be an open minded (try everything once) sort of person. My other half teaches my heart to love in ways that I never saw love before. To see the world through his eyes helps me to dream as high as the sky and to believe in a higher purpose for this earthly life. I can't wait to be his Mrs.

Feels like Summer...

Oh how the heat has begun!

Summer is around the corner, if not here already, and we are eagerly awaiting September and the wedding day :)

God has been handing us some pretty big blessings in the way of job opportunities and new friendships. We continue to seek him in our relationship and are ever so grateful for what he is doing in our lives.

The house process is taking longer than I had expected but hopefully soon we will have the keys. Life seems to be speeding by with more and more opportunities and adventures in the making.

Not much to post this time but will be back with some pics of our East Coast trip next month.

FLORIDA!

We are in Florida now. Jon has given two of his three speeches at the Microsoft Conference which have all gone well. I have been enjoying the pool, scenery, and the lake that is right by our hotel. We flew in Saturday evening so that we could spend Sunday together before the conference began. We spent all day Sunday at Universal Studios and Island of Adventure. Both were amazing as we had the "Fast Access Passes" and didn't have to wait more than five minutes in all but one line (The Harry Potter Ride is TOO popular to take fast access passes). Both of us being big talkers, we have met some really interesting people. Two days left here and then we will head home to finish the house buying process. More Florida Stories To Come...

Spring Time

Spring is here and we are enjoying the nice weather! Last weekend we went hiking up in the Superstitions and enjoyed the beautiful 85 degree weather and the "green" season in the desert. Today we are headed out to AZ City Fest in Tempe. This is an event with Christian artist and speakers that is free for the public and meant to draw people in and teach them about Christ. Next weekend we are heading to Orlando for five days where Jon will speak at the Microsoft conference and I will soak up some sun and who knows....maybe shop a little :).

We put an offer on a house in East Mesa and we are waiting to hear back from the bank...will keep you posted.

We are definitely busy with house shopping, wedding planning, and trips. We plan to maybe make a trip back east this summer and hopefully I'll get to meet Jon's side of the family.

We are counting our blessings and praising God for the opportunities that we've had and are continuing to be blessed with.

We are always up for visitors down south...plenty of sunshine to share!

BE BLESSED!

WEDDING WEBSITE

VISIT OUR WEDDING WEBSITE FOR ALL OF THE DETAILS INVOLVING "THE BIG DAY" !

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/LaurenReznicek&JonAtkins

Wow it's March Already!

Time has been flying by since December it seems. We have both been busy with work as well as wedding planning, house hunting, and preparing for a trip to Florida the last week of this month. Jon was invited to speak at a Microsoft confrence in Orlando the 27th-29th of March. He is super excited and feels that this is another step up in his career. He is also currently waiting to hear about a promotion at work. Needless to say I will be taggin along to Orlando and taking advantage of the free hotel for a week :) hehe.

 Save the dates should be in the mail soon!