TWO DOWN, A LIFETIME TO GO

After two years of marriage Stephanie and I are still falling in love with each other every day. 2010 had its fill of difficult situations but we made it through each one with God's help. We are learning more about each other all the time. We're still getting to know each other which makes things tough at times, but once we have worked through an issue we get that much closer to each other.

Is it difficult? Not all the time.
Is it easy? Not all the time.
Is it like any other relationship we have (parents, siblings, friends, etc.)? Not all the time.

Steph is my best friend and I'm hers. Best friends are unique because they care about each other and get on each other's nerves all at once sometimes. It goes far beyond tolerating each other. It means that we know each other well enough to be certain that we are madly in love with each other regardless of what we're fussing about at the moment. The trick is to remind each other of that truth. Sometimes it's a lot easier than other times. But that's life, right?

I'm praying that this year reveals a lot more of that true love, respect, and trust that is making us better for each other all the time. When we're better for each other, it's a lot easier to be better to each other. When we're better to each other, it's a whole lot easier for us to get through the tough times. That makes it perfectly simple for us to live out the words of this song:



Happy anniversary, Baby! I love you now!!!

Peace, Love, and Great Marriage

GREATEST MARRIAGE ADVICE EVER

When Steph and I got married, my dad gave us the greatest marriage advice ever:

"Be good to each other."

Dad was always known for making things easy to understand.

If we're being good to each other, we have no time or room to be un-good to each other. Now, don't you wish you had thought of that?!

What's the greatest marriage advice you've heard?

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

PROVERBS: WEEK 1

As I've been reading and studying Proverbs this week, I've noticed a distinctly unmissable message: Wisdom is the key! So far, Solomon, the person attributed with the majority of the authorship of Proverbs, has hammered on the topic of wisdom for eight chapters straight, with no sign of letting up any time soon.

Besides his admonition for the reader - to whom he speaks as a father to his son - to gain wisdom, he specifies some key areas in which to gain this wisdom. In chapter 2, he encourages wisdom pertaining to the importance of avoiding "the immoral woman." He returns to the topic in chapter 5, and again in chapter 7. If someone spends the majority of three chapters (out of eight) coming back to the same topic, I would think that that author is resolved to get his point across. Maybe he has personal experience and is trying his best to warn anyone who will listen to not follow his example. We are talking about Solomon, the wise king with 700 wives and 300 girlfriends. He probably knows a thing or two about this subject!

Solomon also speaks adamantly against the love (or worship) of money. He makes quick mention of it in Prov. 3:9-10, along with a few other places, but then spends all of chapter 6 expounding on the subject. I might add that the end of chapter 6 is a segue back into the immoral woman issue.

It seems to me that Solomon really wants us to spend time working on our hearts - weeding out the junk that blinds us from the wonders God has in store for those who live holy lives. This is huge! We have a great opportunity to example the way of life to which we've been called. It starts with seeking wisdom, getting our hearts in check, promoting fidelity in our marriages, and stewarding our finances in a way that pleases God.

There's more to the story. We'll dig deeper into it as the days and weeks go by. Your thoughts?

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

AND I QUOTE...

"My partner married me because she or he thought the pleasing things I was doing during our courtship would continue for the rest of our lives. Am I holding up my end of this bargain?"

- Willard F. Harley, Jr.

from His Needs Her Needs

 

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

IT HAD TO BE YOU

I love you, Baby! Just thought you should know that. :-)

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

ONE DOWN, A LIFETIME TO GO

Happy New Year, everybody!

Today, I am doing something I have never done before. I'm celebrating my first wedding anniversary with my beautiful, radiant bride, Stephanie! This is how we looked a year ago (ain't we cute?!):



And this is us a year later, more in love than on our wedding day!


2009 was a great year! We learned so much about each other. We allowed ourselves to become completely vulnerable with each other. We loved each other through our faults...and by "we", I mean Steph, and by "our faults", I mean my faults! I kid, I kid. I am so grateful that she still puts up with me trying to learn how to be a husband and dad. And the best part, we are just getting started!

We have no idea what the future will bring, but we do know that, with God's help, we will keep loving, respecting, honoring, and serving each other just like we promised in our vows. I think this song says it best (If you can't understand the lyrics, you can check them out here).



I love you now, Roo-Baby!

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

I'M KEEPING MY MAN-CARD

This one is for the men, namely husbands. I'm going to ask one question at the end of this post that is intended to make you guys take a good hard look at yourselves and get real.

Now, I'm going to share something that a lot of guys wouldn't dare exposing. But then again, I'm not a lot of guys. Anyway, I wanted to show Steph how much I love her, so I did something I thought I would never do. I mean, I thought I could possibly talk my way out of it, or avoid it for a long time, but it was inevitable.

Tonight, for the first time in my life, I sat through the entirety of "Dirty Dancing."

You can say what you want about me, but I just made my wife extremely happy and that matters more to me than your opinion of me!

And I still have my Man-Card!!

So, here's my big question to all of the men who actually took the time to sit through this post:

What have you done lately (or will you do...or should you do) for your wife that might otherwise get your Man-Card revoked?

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate

I Love My Wife!

I want to take this moment to make it abundantly clear that I have the sweetest wife on the planet! Last night I had a lot of trouble sleeping, which is super important since my alarm goes off at 5:00 AM. Stephanie knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep by just laying there, so she stayed up with me and we talked about all kinds of stuff - our goals for ourselves, family aspirations, frustrations. We talked about our desire to live healthy lives and cut out the junk. We talked about our financial situation and how we hope to improve it. We talked about the different things that cause us fear. She encouraged me in my new work endeavors and my exsisting work with Acappella. She encouraged me as a parent. She encouraged me as a friend. Most importantly, we prayed about all of it... together. I can't think of a better best friend to have! I love you, Baby!!

Husbands, if you're not praying with your wives on a regular basis, now is a perfect time to start. Wives, if you're not encouraging your husbands on a regular basis, now is a perfect time to start. What has happened in the past is exactly that - in the past. It's time to leave it there and move forward toward the goal that God has set before us.

I'd almost be willing to bet that my wife can "out-sweet" any other wife on any given day. Any takers?

Peace, Love, and Chocolate

I'm A Lucky Man (all in english... really!)

This time it's all in english. It has to be.. I got it directly from the Jason Mraz website!
"Lucky" Official Video With Colbie Caillat


Peace, Love, and Chocolate

Meet The Brannons

Hey Kids! I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to my new bride, Stephanie. She and I married on New Year's Day and I'd never seen her more beautiful! Absolutely radiant!!

Okay, enough gushing. It's been two weeks now, and things are good, but we are learning a lot about ourselves, each other, and marriage that we never imagined. Some people say marriage is easy. Some say it's super-difficult. Some view marriage as an obstacle or a burden. Some view it as a great challenge. I think it's all of the above (minus the obstacle / burden part, of course).

It's easy to be around the person you're in love with. It's super-difficult to change from being a selfish single person to a selfless married couple (it doesn't happen overnight). The challenge is learning to be completely selfless and fully devoted to your God and your spouse. It has been said that it takes couples about 9 or 10 years to learn complete selflessness. Well, I'm a guy, and I'm from Texas which makes me want to do things faster and better (thank you, testosterone), so I'm shooting for less than 5 years! We'll see how that works out for me.

Peace, Love, and Chocolate

In My Head

Since I have had so much going through my head over the past several weeks (and longer), I decided to lump them all together in an end-of-the-year-beginning-of-the-new-year-pre-wedding blog. So, here's what's in my head:

1. I'm getting married tomorrow!
2. I don't have everything done that I wanted to get done, but I have enough done to get by.
3. I really need to be packing right now instead of blogging.
4. I wonder if my bag will be big enough for the honeymoon, or if I should pack the bigger one.
5. I hit a deer.
6. I hope I can find some cuff links before the wedding.
7. I'm really ready to get this over with.
8. I mean it was last week, and I barely even felt it, but that deer jacked up Spot pretty good. The deer feels nothing now, though.
9. Do I have enough underwear?
10. Spot is my truck's name. He needs a new headlight.
11. Happy New Year!
12. What the crap?!?!?! I'm getting married tomorrow!!!!! (It's okay. Just breathe. Don't hyperventilate. Just breathe.)

Peace, Love, and Chocolate

10.29.08

1.1.09 - 12:00 PM - Nashville, TN

Peace, Love, and Chocolate