A Little Bit About Us

     Hi everyone! I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my family. I also wanted to use this post to let you know why and how we use essential oils in our home.

      First, and foremost, my name is Bethany and I am a born again believer. The Lord saved me at the age of 14, and He has faithfully brought me on a long road of sanctification to where I am now. He will continue to be faithful, as it states in Philippians 1:6, to complete the good work within me that He began. My husband's name is Matthew (Matt), and he became a believer in October of his senior year of high school. God called him out of his sins and into new life through a Judgement House at a youth group he was attending at the time. Eventually, we ended up at the same college together (The Baptist College of Florida) where I was completing my senior semester with 21 hours, and he was a sophomore transfer from a college in Kansas where he was playing football. God's sovereign hand was in it all because Matt applied and was accepted just a few weeks before school began that semester, and, as He ordained it, he ended up attending the church where I was a member at in Dothan, AL. We officially met in a bookstore one Sunday after church where I would always go to do my homework.

     I think we were smitten from the start. We met 2 days after my 21st birthday, we were courting 5 weeks later, engaged within 30 days, and married 3 and a half months after that. God sure had His hand in it all. Matt asked for my dad's blessing to pursue me for marriage, and it was a beautiful thing! We also saved our first kiss (between he and I) for our wedding day. Little did we know I would also become pregnant with our first child on that very night. God grew and stretched us so entirely much within that first nine months of marriage. As for me, with a growing body and a sinful job I was not a very happy newlywed, but the Lord changed my heart in that situation. God gave us a way out of my supposed "Children's minister" position at a church, and my husband quit college to provide for our family whenever we found out we were expecting.

     We then moved to the Atlanta area of Georgia, and God blessed that move incredibly. He grew our marriage so much in that short time while living there. My husband worked installing cabinets for a Christian man who knew my relatives. And, we were able to have a safe, inexpensive, and very informative home birth with our little girl, and we were so very happy for the gift of a sweet blessing! Before we were married we discussed our stance on children and birth control. We both felt that it was sinful and just selfish of us to not allow God to give us children at His will. As it states in Psalm 127:3, "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward." We cling to that truth today, and we are still trusting in Him to open and close my womb as He sees fit. Since we are now expecting our second girl 2 years and a few months into our marriage. ;)

     Just before our little one was born I started looking into essential oils. We have always been what I would consider "healthy" and "natural". We eat about an 80/20 Whole Food lifestyle. Matt actually lost 15 pounds when we got married, and I well, I had a baby, but I bounced back to original weight about 10 months after I had our girl. Anyways, we were eating healthy and using Seventh Generation prod cuts for most of our cleaning, but I was stuck on Clorox for our toilet bowl and scrubbing bubbles for our shower. I wanted to stop using toxic products as we were going to have a fragile little baby in the home. I also wanted to stop using Emergen-C when I was feeling sick, and I did not want to have to take supplements like Melatonin every night to help me sleep better. I did not want us to pop Tylenol when we hurt our backs or had a headache. Then, I saw Christy (my enroller through Young Living), and her posts on essential oils on Facebook. I thought, hey, that's just what I need to help treat our ailments and to purify our home.

     I signed up with her in November 2014, a month before our girl arrived, and I pulled out my Thieves as soon as the kit came. I got to nesting really well and starting cleaning everything with a spray bottle with water, Thieves, and Lemon essential oils. I was loving the smell, and I thought  it was great to know my baby could crawl around my home and not break out if she touched the place I just cleaned. We also diffused it quite often in our living room after she was born to keep the germs away from all of the visitors bringing us food and meeting our baby. I was so thankful for this new way of life, and I was starting to get excited about sharing it with others. I was ready to do the business side of Young Living.

      Now, for about a year I have had a 10 ladies sign up under to take advantage of these wonderful essential oils. It truly was a lifestyle change for us, but you don't have to be all whole foods or even interested in organic products to find great uses for essential oils in your lives and homes. Everyone knows Ibuprofen kills your liver, yet everyone still takes it. Well, there's an oil for that! M-Grain for migraines, Deep Relief Roll-On for back pains, Stress Away for the anxiety you experience. The best part about essential oils, to me, is that God created all of these herbs, fruits, flowers, etc for our benefits, and now because of Young Living we have the best, purest essential oils to incorporate into our daily lives. Really, essential oils have been a blessing from the Lord in our lives and I am SO glad Christy was sharing them with me. I am always glad to share natural remedies, essential oil advice, and say a prayer for you regardless of if you are my customer or not. I so appreciate my customers, and I would love to have more business partners, but I am trusting in the Lord to grow my business in His time. For now, I am grateful that my commission can help pay for most of the essential oil products my family uses and cleans with.

     Thieves Household Cleaner is still one of my favorite products, and Breathe Again is really helping us with our allergies and stuffy noses. Gentle Baby and Lavender are what we diffuse almost every night to have a deeper and more restful sleep. Now, that doesn't mean our little girl never wakes up in the night, but 8 times out of 10 she sleeps through the night so much better because I diffused an oil in her room. We also use Thieves Essential Oil to help us get over Colds or a Flu much faster than if we used nothing or a product off the shelves. The better things you put into your body, the better results you get. You can pay for natural things now, or you can pay for the doctor bills later. Essential Oils obviously don't guarantee that you will not get Alzheimer or Cancer, but they help you to live a healthier life in the here and now. If you ever feel like you want to check it all out or sign up for a kit here are the links for those things... Young Living and Starter Kits

   Thanks for reading about our lives, and I pray the Lord was glorified through our testimonies. Above all, may we care for our bodies well for they are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and may we love one another regardless of our choices for our families. Christ conquers all, He loves all people and we must share His truth with the world.