It has been way too long since I have sat down to write here. 2016 has proven to be a year of open doors in many ways. I was feeling like it was going to be a year of big things and of change. However some of the changes I was not expecting, but then again most change is unexpected. The statements that say things like "the greater the struggle, the greater the reward", "when opposition is strongest, you are closest to your victory" definitely were put into play in January and February. God didn't waste any time making changes in our lives. To be completely honest even though I would have never expected what happened to happen, I still knew in my spirit at the time, that because it was "out of nowhere" opposition that it was meant to take us to a new season.
I am a VERY firm believer that God will ruffle your feathers and challenge your comfort in order to push you out of the place you have been. He has to in order to get your attention to start thinking outside of where you have been, otherwise if your always comfortable and get too content you stay in the same place and can miss your purpose. So that He did. We were hurt by some people who we had thought highly of for many years and slightly dumbfounded at what was unfolding before us. But in the middle of it all we started to feel a nudging to a new place to worship. Everyone and everything that we heard and would see all kept pointing to the same place. So on February 28th, Travis' birthday we had our last worship service in a place we knew as home for 16 years and it was the start of our new season of trusting and listening to God for direction. The first Sunday in March we said hello to our new place of Worship. While it is very different in a lot of ways for us and challenged our thinking about some things, it has made us, well me for sure question God if in fact this is where we are suppose to be. Every time He always finds a way to say yes it is. He has given us little glimpse of what our purpose is there and what will come. I find that the enemy has tried very hard (and at times almost won) with convincing me that I am not in the right place. That its not enough for me, that there still is somewhere else out there that will meet all these things in my mind that I need out of church. But then God steps in and shows me that if I stay put it all is coming soon. To hold on, if I can hold on it will happen, it will be what I need. So that is was I am doing, trusting His timing. After all He is the one who created me, I think He knows what I need and how long I can wait to get it.
Jump ahead to May and we got to mark off the only major thing on our Vision Board. I like to look back on things in my life and really see how God brought things together and made things happen. So as I look back at the day we looked at our house, yes I said HOUSE, it always amazes me. That day I went to my best friends parents house to have a play date, but not just any ordinary play date. This was the first time in 9 years I had been over there to visit. My best friend who rarely even comes down this way just happened to actually come and so we got to talking and by the end of the night (9pm Saturday night) his momma had shown me our house. By 12am she had put our offer in and by 3:05pm Sunday they had accepted!! So if you cant already see what I'm saying, God can move immediately. He is a suddenly God sometimes and within a 24 hour period we had looked at, offered on, and had it accepted! I know its not a huge deal to most but to know how random and RARE that whole day was I know it had to happen just like it did. He had that planned out before I even thought about going over there. Matter of fact one night after we had closed on our house and I was driving back after picking up the boys from their grandmothers, I decided to take the long way which I NEVER take because it literally is out of my way now. But I did, and the long way takes my by the road I lived down when we were separated in 2011. As I passed by that road I know God spoke to me and said "Even then while you were here I was planning out there". "There " being my now home. I can confidently say it was God speaking because I am that person who will question until I've talked myself out of it and this time I couldn't. It wouldn't leave. Even at my darkest like my arm says He still loved me. He still was planning out my future that was greater than I could have ever imagined at that time. When I was thinking there was no future with my husband He was setting up our home we would lay our children's heads down. He never ceases to amaze me.
When I write here, I always have these amazing revelations. I like to think I write to help others but at this very moment I think I write to help myself. When I talk about how good God is in these moments it takes me to a place where I cant help but praise Him. Because I will never deserve what He has given me. But yet He still gives. Even when He has taken things/people from me He still deserves all my praise. Even when things don't go my way, when things happen that I feel aren't fair, He is God and deserves my praise. On my worst day and on my best day He is God. In my valleys and on my mountain tops. In my struggle and in my victory, when I'm feeling unappreciated and unwanted He is still worthy of my praise. I will never cease to praise Him. Its not about what He can do but Who He Is!!! As long as you never forget that you will survive this world.
Wow! See I don't plan my posts, I just sit down and start writing whatever comes to mind. So back to my house its great! I love it! Its got the littlest things I've always wanted like the "craftsman" style trim around the doors and windows. Its got planks on the wall in the dining room, which I was going to have Travis help me do a planked wall. Its got a fireplace in the dinning/kitchen and I was able to put up my custom mantle that is stained to match our farmhouse table. Its perfect, who knew someone could be so excited over a mantle? Our laundry room is so big and not a closet another thing I really wanted. Our living room so roomy now that my amazing man knocked out a wall, raised the floor and relaid flooring down. He impressed me so incredibly much during our little renovation. He is great at everything he does, The only thing I've ever seen him do that wasn't so great is dancing hahahahahaha. Our living room has cedar planks in it that are painted grey like the rest of the living room and so I now have multiple planked walls!!! YAY!! I wanted a rustic beach house and that is what it is becoming one day at a time! I love my teals and corals. Its perfect! Its unique. We wanted unique, we didn't want cookie cutter. My mans gotta 25x25 workshop in the back yard that we call the "barn". Our yard is just enough! Fenced for Buddy and the kids, plenty of space to entertain and just enough that he doesn't hate mowing it. For those of you who don't know us well we are not yard people. I absolutely love it! We are on a dead end, culdasac road, we have only 15 neighbors I think. Its great! I am so so so grateful and amazed at Gods grace and favor He has shown us.
When I stopped comparing our life to others is when I think God let me have what He had for us all along. When I started telling Him out loud daily "God I trust Your timing, Your plan" that's when things began to change. Oh!! The best part is when God has something for you, its yours. No one else can take it! Point being our house had been on the market since at least January, I first looked at it in January online. But because of the wall (that we took down ) dividing the living room in the pictures I just kept skipping over it. I would ride by it even back then and look. I never asked to go see it though because of that one wall! So it was on the market, taken off the market for a few weeks and then put back on the market over those 5 months. The night we decided to look at it finally they had already counter offered with another person so we had to go in quick and with our best. Then like I said hours later they accepted. Now you will never be able to tell me that this house wasn't predestined to be ours. For however long it may be, 5 years, forever who knows. All I know is this was ours from day one and no one can take what God has for you.
So lets go over this one more time before I go to bed! GOD IS GOD. HE IS STILL GOD IN THE GOOD AND IN THE BAD. WHAT HE HAS FOR YOU NO ONE CAN TAKE AWAY. IF HE IS FOR YOU THEN WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU? GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD!!!
Goodnite ya'll :) Good talk! hahaha
