Cake Testing and Other Insights

It was almost better than Christmas... When in your life is it ever really okay to have three different cakes before you and be able to eat them too? Cake testing for your wedding!

Cale and I went to our caterer (our friend Rachel Altman) to try three different types: Italian Creme, Butter Cream, and Vanilla. Creative, I know. But I firmly believe wedding cakes are supposed to be white or cream colored, well at least mine is. After a fewnights of sleeping over it, I've decided I'll take the Italian Creme Cake WITHOUT THE PECANS. (I also firmly believe my wedding cake should not be crunchy.)

So honestly, I have no insights about picking out a cake. It was just a fun experience to share with my handsome man.

However, Cale and I are starting the book When Sinners Say "I Do" by Dave Harvey which has provided me with some different insights. I shared with my grandfather a quote from the book,

"...A great marriage - a God glorifying, soul inspiring, life enduring union - springs from the conviction that we are sinners." p. 15

Poppa's response: "Do you need a book to tell you that? Yes that's true, but in the midst of working through that stuff, it's a blast!"
He proceeded to share with me a memory of him and my grandmother as newlyweds. He and a friend caught a huge bag of bullfrogs and helped my Nana cook their legs. Just as he was biting into one of the bullfrog's legs at their little table, he heard my young Nana scream. From the back door, an amputated frog was crawling into their tiny apartment. Though she was livid at the time, this experienced provided them with laughter for years and years .

Poppa often thinks that his advice is always best; better than any book a person could read or sermon a pastor could give. Sometimes it might be, sometimes it isn't.

I do believe we need a book to show us our sinfulness: We need the Bible to reveal to us our sinfulness, to convict us of our sin, to call us to repentance and show us the way to freedom.

"So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. " Romans 7:12-14

If it weren't for the Bible, we would not understand our sin and would not have the hope given by Jesus Christ. But Poppa is right in a lot of ways. Experiences allow us to see firsthand our sinfulness in real, tangible ways. They also allow us to practice grace, forgiveness, and love. Though Cale and I are sinners, we have the freedom to enjoy life fully, laugh together, cry together, and walk through this adventure together because of God's grace. I'm glad we have people in our lives who teach us, and preach Truth to us. I'm thankful for people who write books who teach us about how to live Godly lives. But I'm also thankful to just have a blast with Cale, facing the blessings and struggles of marriage each day as they come.