Faith!

I love that I am able to say “Tori and I.” I also love when people say “Daniel and Tori” or “Tori and Daniel.” I love it because one day, a day coming sooner now than ever, we will be joined; a family of two. Independent of others but dependent on each other, and more importantly, on God. From the very inception of our relationship we vowed to keep Him first. From finances to purity, we have decided to put our wants and desires aside to follow His will for our lives. It is our belief that because of this commitment and our strong desire to do what is right He has blessed us beyond anything we could have asked.

One of the greatest gifts that God can give, is the gift of confirmation. Psalms 20:4 says “May He grant your hearts desires and make all your plans succeed.” This is a verse that impacted Tori's and my relationship. Around three months after we started dating, we were already making plans for our future. Something that is really pressed hard in youth groups is NO DATING in high school. Fighting with this fact while knowing that I wanted to keep God first and then us talking about our future....it was starting to all get confusing for her. Then, I got a call one evening while I was in Orlando and Tori was in Ocala doing her chronological bible study in the church parking lot. She was so excited and happy to share the verse she had read, Psalms 20:4. From that moment on, we knew that God knew our hearts desires and supported us and so we continue to keep Him first in everything that we do.

There is one week in particular that I will always remember when God really seemed to be blessing us for our commitments to Him. Within seven days, Tori found out that she was accepted to UCF, that her housing would be free for the Summer, and that I had a job interview for a Summer internship, which later proved successful. The day I received the call for the internship was the day after I had paid my tithe for the last two months, which I had set aside. That Wednesday I had the job, and found out that it was dramatically more than what I was currently making.

My biggest prayer for us is that now and forever we continue to keep Him first in our lives. So if any of you (our friends, family members, or even complete strangers) would like to include us and our days to come in your prayers, Tori and I would very much appreciate it.