2 Thessalonians 2:16

I have been thinking about starting a blog for what seems like two years now. So why has it taken me this long to get something going? Well, what's a blog without a title? I knew I wanted it to be something that encompasses my life. Titles such as The Wagner Way and I Could not Ask for More came to my mind, but they never sounded right. I didn't think about it 24/7, but it has seriously been in the back of my mind for two years.

It finally occurred to me that the verse I've had on my personal email for the longest time is such an inspiration to me.

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word."

This verse brings me so much hope. The Lord, Our Savior, gives us everlasting encouragement! And gives us the strength needed to be fervent servants for Him everyday. I then thought about what this means to me in my everyday life, and how Jason and I needed to be encouraging to each other. Our first two years of marriage have been full of encouragement, two big examples of this are how he encouraged me to find a new job that made me happy and I encouraged him to get his Masters. I also thought about our future family and how we are going to have to give encouragement to our children, from their first roll over to their first job. Not only that but they will be encouragers to us as they push us to be better parents. Our lives are full of everlasting encouragement, not to mention everything we get from our family and friends.

I know we won't see the encouragement as evident everday, but hopefully having this blog will be a reminder. It may especially remind me to be the encourager the Lord has called me to be by his grace.

Aside from that, why am I starting this blog? I have no little one, and therefore there will be no stories about their first roll, crawl, word, or the funny and cute thing they did. At least not yet. I don't have a job that would make for fun story, unless you want to hear about the excel problem I tackled. Really I just want a place I can write down my thoughts and tell a story. If your're interested in reading about them, then great! I know Jason and I have big things to look forward to in the future, this will just help serve as documentation of our journey.

“Anything done for another is done for oneself.” - Blessed Pope John Paul II