they won't call me miss leftwich..

.. instead, they will call me Mrs. Coddou.

Yes. It's true. The love of my life completely shocked me and blew me away this past Saturday night when he asked me to be his wife. The verse that stuck with me was a verse from Revelation that Patrick had framed, and we prayed over our engagement and marriage that night. It's found in Revelation 19:

"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." {vs. 7-8}

I am so blessed to have this reminder. This is what earthly love, engagement, marriage, life together is all about. It is a beautiful, intimate relationship that mirrors the relationship Christ has with the church. What a celebration that will be.. when we rejoice, exult, and glory in Him alone for Christ has come back for the church!

Also, the part where the Bride has made herself ready, and then the description goes on to say she is clothed with fine linen {representative of righteousness}, bright and pure. The Bride or the church has been sanctified in this process and is ready for the redemption of their eternal body. Romans 8 talks about the believers groaning like the pangs of childbirth for what is to come. We long for that future hope, the reunion with our bridegroom... Can't you feel the angst in the vocabulary used? I just can't help, but get excited about this new stage of life. I know the Lord has called us to this process of sanctification, and this is one more sweet way that the Lord uses something that He has created to point us to the Gospel... continuing to wrestle together in this life with the sin, struggle, and reality of grace in my life until one day my sweet fiance or husband will be able to present me to my Savior, my King..

All of this to say.. praying for a heart that sees the beautiful eternal significance of this time in my life.. and excited to be called Mrs. Coddou by all the teenagers I see daily this coming fall:)