Where is my treasure hidden in my home?

In my home where is my heart? Where is my treasure?

"For where your treasure is there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:21

I had to ask myself last night these questions after listening to a convicting sermon on the Centrality of the Home. Where have I hidden my treasures? Under my search for joy, peace, comfort... between the opinions of others, the expectations of the world... behind good behavior and a perfect home? Is that where my treasure is hidden... why my heart is tightly found wrapped around?

I realize that storing my treasures under, between and behind all these things only sets me up for failure. I am doomed to a life of frustration and emptiness.

So where is my heart? Where is my heart in disciplining my children? Keeping my home? Responding with respect to my husband?... for my own personal gain? So I can lay my head snuggly on my pillow at night free from guilt and shame? To impress? or is it to ultimately glorify God and give Him praise and honor that He deserves? To display Christ? To give a glimpse of the invisible God? Tor raise children to love the Lord with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength and to walk in all His ways?

My treasure should be buried deep with in the eternal glory and supremacy of Christ! Hidden in Him... in the gospel of Christ... no where else! Hidden anywhere else and the goal of righteousness is lost... Christ is not honored and glorified as He so deserves... eternal souls are lost... homes are destroyed little by little over years of daily destruction... unity of marriage is desinigrated... hearts are all ultimately left in a constant state of dispair and discontenment as the kingdom of God is lost in our minds and hearts.

The value of our treasure being in heaven is everlasting and incorruptable!!

Oh God, please bring my heart and mind into the constant subjection to Jesus Christ... hiding my treasure daily, daily in the cross of Christ! Father guide me into your holy and righteous will... shine Your light upon my path today in my home. I pray that my treasure is hidden in Christ and that I will exhaust myself for it's eternal, everlasting and incorruptable value. Oh, in the moments when perspective is hard to see, where everything seems upon my head and I can feel the weight of sin on me may I remember where my treasure is hidden... not in temporal fleeting things and opinion but in the eternal... in heaven, with Christ.

JOYfully in Him,

30 Days of Encouragement

Oh the calling of being a helpmeet! Oh how enduring and selfless it is and completely against my very nature... and not to mention culture. The curse that fell upon us when Eve sinned in rebellion agains't God has been nipping at my heels, not actually... honestly the curse has been upon my head sinking it's teeth in deep. Listen to what the word says in Genesis...

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." (2:18)

God created us to be our husband's helper, a perfect fit for that special man in our lives. It is amazing for me to think about the reality of that... that I was created, made, formed me in the womb for him... divinely designed me to perfectly fit the man he created and formed in the womb. Amazing!! Since we, no before we were born or conceived we were designed exactly for eachother... perfectly formed in every way even though it doesn't feel like it some times :0).

Now listen to what God said to the woman after the fall...

"I will surely mulitiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." (3:16, emphasis added)

The word desire is the same word used in Genesis 4:7 of the same desire of sin to master over cain. Wow!

“As a result of the fall, man no longer rules easily; he must fight from his headship. Sin has corrupted both the willing submission of the wife and the loving headship of the husband. The woman’s desire is to control her husband (to usurp his divinely appointed headship), and he must master her, if he can. So the rule of love founded in paradise is replaced by struggle, tyranny and domination.” (Susan T. Foh, cited in Boice)

So in light of Eve's sin that cursed us all and daily crouches at our door... I am going to begin on February 1st the Husband Encouragement Challenge... in a way to rule over it. In this challenge I want you to join me... join me in ruling over this curse of ours! Let me know if you would like to walk closely with the Father and His Son as I seek to encourage and simply love my husband. I will post details later.

JOYfully in Him,

Putting on our Spiritual Clothes

Mondays come with out saying a difficult day following the weekend. My list of activities and places to go today is long, I really need to pray over it and ask the Lord to reveal to me His priorities for me to engage in this day, this day that He has made and ordained.

Today... before we step into our service to the King let us reflect on Colossians 3...

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on things that are on earth. 1-2

Put to death therfore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, imputiry, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatory. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from youyr mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image if its creator. 5-11

After we have examined our hearts, found what is earthly in us and put them away let us then ...

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion , kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

And...

let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

And...

be thankful. 12-15

You wouldn't go out with out "putting on" your physical clothes, let us not go out with out "putting on" our spiritual clothes today being fully dressed we will be more fully equiped to handle this days battles.

JOYfully in Him,

Making my Home a Haven: Inviting and Giving

So this morning I found myself more reluctant than usual to get up. I ignored my alarm 3 times and then even after getting up out of my bed I just found another place to lay my head. After I finally got on my feet and got busy trying to catch up for the time I had lost I was very discouraged but the Lord had words to encourage me from our family Meditation time. He said...

Go to the ant, O sluggard (me);
consider her ways, and be wise.

How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
Proverbs 6:6,9

He knew exactly what I needed to hear this morning and I praise Him for speaking truth directly to my heart this morning and for speaking so personally to me His wayward sheep.

So after we meditated on His words... we went to the ant and we observed her ways so that we could become wise... and while we were observing her I was reminded of her in Proverbs 31 and her in Titus 2, again. Keeping my eyes and heart focused seems a great struggle these days. I am very grateful to Monica for challenging me to actively make my home a haven and today we are encouraged to make it inviting and giving so after I finish catching up I plan for our day to look something like this...

*Family Meditation and Dedication time
*Breakfast
*No school on Fridays
*Lunch (tell silly stories)
*Reading Time for Littles (Fun Poems)- missed
*Family Project (Thanksgiving activity)
*Rest-Bible Study and Prayer with Superman
*Bake something neighbor
*Spend some time planning an evening of fun with the neighborhood kids.
*After Rest and Bible Story/Snack time take time to Straighten up all rooms
*2 Loads of Laundry: washed, folded and put away!
*Dinner with neigborhood friends followed by some games and maybe a short devotional. Postponed until Monday night to give parents more warning and so they will be home to come :0)
*Lights out Reading time :0)

I plan on also planning a night to invite over some friends and make a gift from someone special. Today is my grandfather's birthday so I will be making a special call to encourage him today :0).

Side note: We only have so much time before we leave our home hear in Tx to make a new one in La. The next 6-7 week are going to be a rush of a lot of packing, visiting and emotions. There are so many people here that I am crying over leaving and I realize that some of them I will probably never see again in this life and even some I will not see in the next life either which breaks my heart beyond just tears. It is so hard to leave when you feel things are not finished but you know that they are as far as God using you in certain peoples lives. All I can do at this point is get on my knees and give them to the Father.

I pray your day is blessing on you, your family and those who surround you.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Update...

We had an awesome day! My home felt so clean and wholesome because of my constant motivation to stay busy serving my home, my family, my God. We made our table turkeys and they turned out cuter than I thought they would! I made Tiger Butter for our neighbor and since we didn't have the neighborhood kids over we invited over some good friends for dessert and coffee. We are excited. We are now about to eat some Homemade Pizza :0)

JOYfully in Him,

Making our Homes a Haven: Fun!

I never saw a Puple Cow;

I never Hope to See One;

But I can Tell, Anyhow,

I'd rather See than Be One.

The Puple Cow, Gelett Burgess

Today our focus in making our homes a haven is FUN. One of the biggest ways to spead fun through out our homes is to simply have a JOY-ful attitude in everything but also going out of our way to make time for little activities that are FUN. Sometimes, it requires a mess so get over it! I say this to myself because I weigh almost all activities by their level of mess, the less mess the more likely we are to engage in them but today I say "Get over it!". Have fun.

Today my list looks like this...

*Family Meditation and Dedication time

*Breakfast

*School from 9:00-12:00 (be devoted)

*Lunch (tell silly stories)

*Reading Time for Littles (Fun Poems)

*Family Project (Thanksgiving activity)

*Rest-Bible Study and Prayer with Superman

*Spend some fun alone time with Superman

*After Rest and Bible Story/Snack time take time to Straighten up all rooms

*2 Loads of Laundry: washed, folded and put away!

*Dinner by Candlelight

*Game Night!!

*Lights out Reading time :0)

Somewhere we will make a trip to Borders bookstore to let Superman spend his gift card from his birthday and possibly make a surprise stop at the nearest park. Today when handling any situations I am going to carry this verse with me...

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22

And think upon this quote...

Joy is not the absence of suffering. It is the presence of God.

Robert Schuller

May JOY fill the air in our homes as we inhale and exhale His presence.

JOYfully in Him,

Making our Homes a Haven: Cared for

Today as I strive to stay focused and work diligently in making my home a haven I will be reflecting on Jesus words remembered my Peter in Luke 22:61 “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And when His words drift through my mind I will pass them to my heart and think of my sin and how many times I have denied Christ with it today. And like Peter weep bitterly for my unbelief. I pray that the Spirit will gently guide me with His words and encourage and focus my eyes to walk obediently and more faithfully today in my high and holy calling.

Today’s challenge in making our homes a haven is taking care of some little projects beyond tidying and cleaning up. I could think of a thousand of these but right now I want to focus on these specific projects:

Making a Praise and Thanksgiving Jar
Make our Thankful Tree for Thanksgiving (have boys help)
Make a picture cd to get developed
Organize Craft box
Make motivational chart for boys
Organize 3 Cabinets (bathroom, medicine & entertainment center)

These will fit in and between our day:

*Family Meditation and Dedication time
*Breakfast
*School from 9:00-12:00 (be devoted)
*Lunch
*Reading Time for Littles
*Family Project (Thanksgiving activity)
*Rest-Bible Study and Prayer with Superman
*Work on Craft box
*After Rest and Bible Story/Snack time take time to Straighten up all rooms
*2 Loads of Laundry: washed, folded and put away!
*Bath for church
**Something that I can not forget to do today: send a birthday card to my grandfather (my adopted father)

Tonight for dinner we will be eating Pizza, not the homemade kind. Our church provides it every Wednesday evening from CiCi's. Last night we were blessed by a friend who prepared dinner for us, pork roast. It was amazing.

JOYfully in Him,

By Your Side

You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverence. Psalm 32:7 NIV

JOYfully in Him,

Our week in pictures

Last Friday we, as a family enjoyed a local highschool football game. The littles of course loved it. It had been 2 years since our last appearance as a family to a football game. I enjoyed the thrills of watching the game and my children.

Here is a little peek into our week along with some quotes that encourage and express the struggles of my heart right now:

Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment;....but trust in GOD, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity.

Dwight L. Moody

If I cannot hear "The sound of rain' long before the rain falls, and then go out to some hilltop of the Spirit, as near to my God as I can and have faith to wait there with my face between my knees, though six times or sixty times I am told "There is nothing', till at last there arises a little cloud out of the sea, then I know nothing of Calvary love. (Read 1 Kings 18:41-45)

Amy Carmichael

"Stand still" - keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, "Go forward."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon





Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

Psalm 37:5-7a

Stay Awake

Therefore stay awake-for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning- lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.

Mark 13:35-37

I read this last night while trying to stay awake. Oh God keep the words of Jesus at the front of my mind and steady in my heart today as I serve Him. That I might stand guard and awake awaiting His return. Father, keep my eyes open and help me: Stay awake.

JOYfully in Him,

He is NEAR...

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he

increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the LORD shall

renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like

eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

While we were away on traveling vacation the Lord continually encouraged my husband and I with these verses, it was amazing. He brought these verses into our view as if to say to us... I am HERE with you and I will give you strength. And let me say, we needed it. We were not able to get much sleep or many moments of solitude to just be in His presence to renew our strength like at home. At home you can retreat to your own room and be quiet with Him but during our stay away from home it was difficult to find that time. Butterfly struggled with sleep each evening only allowing a few hours each night and sicknesses plauged us as well as just late nights with family and new friends. When God does this and He does this a lot with me, shows me a verse and then brings it continually to my attention I try to meditate on it and understand what He is trying to show me. Sometimes I don't figure it out, I realize a deep sin in my life that He is convicting me of, sometimes He is just encouraging me in our relationship or guiding me, sometimes He is giving me wisdom for a certain situation or He is just letting me know that He is near and that He is all I need.

I wanted to encourage you today with the reality that God is near and to just encourage you to open your ears and eyes to Him in your day and realize His presence. Be in His word. I believe that God is truly with us, let Him encourage you, lead you, guide you and instruct you in His ways as you walk this sometimes difficult, lonely, overwhelming, stressful path of life and just know that He has not left you here to endure it on your own and with your own strength.

JOYfully in Him,

Spiritual Strength

Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favour that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace.

Martin Luther

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according tothe riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled with all fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

JOYfully in Him,

Things Revealed

It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Galatians 2:20

Our trip to Galveston Texas has left me in a dark room of self examination.

Oh God, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51: 10-12

He used this experience to bring me into a brokeness that I have never trully called my own.

The sacrafices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17

God has revealed to me some things within my heart that I have truly been ignoring and through this experience has brought them to the surface not allowing me to stomach them anymore.

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10

I can not serve both sin and God, both self and Christ and I have been trying to live between them in my serving. I have only one master that I am a slave to and that is Christ and His righteousness.

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:17

I long only to serve God and His righteousness, to live by the Spirit, to crucify the flesh, live for Christ, have an undivided heart, labor constanly in love, live consistently in devotion to the love of Him who died for me giving me daily breath and strengthening me to glorify and please only Him and no one else in this world.

"The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" Hebrews 13:6

JOYfully in Him,

The Quieter Disciplines of the Christian Life

I have been convicted through a bible study I am doing with the youth girls at our church. I told them that even though the title of the book we are going through is A Young Woman after God's Heart it doesn't mean that I am exempt from the Holy Spirit's piercing sword, that I would be in this study along side them as their "leader". Last week we looked at Martha and Mary and how Mary had a heart that was devoted, set apart for God and it is assumed that she might enjoy the quieter disciplines of the Christian life and then this week was A Heart that Love's God's Word where we went into these quiet disciplines. I admit that I am not in a place in my life where I have a disciplined Christian life as to having a devoted time each day to be hidden away from the distractions of the world to be with God, sad but true. I have always been one to understand the importance of being alone with God every day but lately I have found sleep to be more entertaining or been fooled into this idea. My heart's desire is to find a place to retreat to each morning just to be in His presence, in His word and in prayer. I know what I must do and it is as simple as just doing it throwing out all of the excuses that I find under my pillow each morning! This morning I opened and closed my eyes to the sound of my alarm 4 times... yes 4 times I reset my alarm from 5:15 to 7:00!! Disgraceful. My biggest sacrafice at this time is the pleasure of sleep and the pain of sleep you see because I do not like to go to bed early (anything earlier than 10:30) and getting up any earlier than 8:00 right now. I use to be so disciplined that I got up each morning between 4:30 and 5:00 for my quiet time with the Lord, where did my discipline go I wonder. I am working on getting it back and am saying with Joshua each day... Choose this day whom you will serve... in my case God or sleep?

Have a wonderful day and reflect on these verses:

Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. (Genesis 19:27)

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice, in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. (Psalm 5:3)

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mark 1:35)

JOYfully in Him,

Stop... and...

"Be still and know that I am God."

Psalm 46:10

JOYfully in Him,

A Servants Heart

And Mary said,

"Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."

Luke 1:38

JOYfully in Him,

His Faithfulness

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful
for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2:11-13

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

"The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therfore I will hope in him."

Lamentations 3:22-23

We have those days that we sit on our bed late at night reflecting on the many steps of disobedience and stumblings of our faithlessness. Last night was one of those for me. This morning I am deeply comforted by the awesome God we serve, for that even when His stupid sheep (ME) wanders away, stumbles and falls over her own feet He remains steadfast in His love and GREAT is His FAITHFULNESS. My heart rejoices in His goodness this morning as I ask for forgiveness and begin a new day:

"...choose this day whom you will serve..."

"The LORD my God I will serve, and his voice I will obey."

(Joshua 24:15 and 24- written as I "heard" it this morning)

Roman 5 Thoughts

If you are justified by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord then you are standing in grace and have the joy of rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5 1-2) We, servants of Christ, are currently standing in grace, have peace with God whichs allows us to rejoice, to triumph, in hope, a happy certainty, of the glory of God! I realize that I just repeated myself but for me it is such an amazing profound thought that needs to be repeated to my stubborn heart and maybe yours as well... :0). Let it sink in heart, absorb the reality of your standing in grace and let it overflow into a life of worship and complete devotion and dedication to the commision of the Lord. Don't just stand their paralyzed as if afraid to move! Go... boast in the glory of God, let your faith become courageous and bold through your everyday life and in every thought and word that flows from your mouth.

"Alas, how few believers have the courage of faith! When some saint here or there does begin to believe the facts and walk in shouting liberty, we say (perhaps secretly), 'He must be an especially holy, consecrated man.' No, he is just a poor sinner like you, who is believing in the abundance of grace." (Newell)

Proverbs 16:3-7

Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established.

The LORD has made everything for its pupose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble.

Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an
abomination to the LORD;
be assured, he will not go
unpunished.

By steadfast love and faithfulness
iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.

When a man's ways please the LORD,
he makes even his enemies to be at
peace with him.

Be obedient

Romans 1:1-5 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake.

Every other Sunday we are hosting a small group at our house directly following church, where we come together for fellowship over a good meal and then dwell in the word together in good discussion lead by my husband. This last Sunday was our reunion from a winter break, we came together ready to dive into His word through the words of Paul in Romans. We walked slowly through the first chapter soaking up so many awesome truths, some that seemed unreachable for our limited minds, some that were encouraging and others that were difficult to hear, grasp and swallow that convicted our hearts in our walk with Him and that prayerfully will coninue with us through out the days, weeks and months to come constantly revealing to our stubborn hearts and ways more of His direction for our lives, things of grace, righteousness, faith and obedience.

My husband shared something that he fournd to be deeply encouraging in his faith through his own personal study of the tex and one that has now found its way into my heart and that I can not seem to leave. The obedience of faith... what does this mean? Profoundly a lot more than you think.


Whatever we do should be done out of obedience of faith which means that our lives our every decision is not based on our own personal desires but rather on the basis of our faith, and it is done for His names sake... nothing more! When we are making a decision today think... "Is this in obedience of faith?" Something that is amazing about this text is the power of grace that enables us to have this obedience. The relationship is profound this morning to me. Don't rely on your own power today, it will run dry and proove to be superficial and weak, but relyon THE power, the power of GRACE and your faith will be strengthened and victorious as you live in obedience of it. So when you bake bread today... do it in faith. When you vacuum... do it in faith. When you do the laundry, clean the bathroom, play with your children, discipline and train them, speak to your husband... do it all in faith. Examine yourself as you walk through this day, for His names sake, don't just simply walk, for your names sake.

Be encouraged... what you are doing every day though it may seem mundane, pointless and unimportant at times it is profoundly not, what you are doing is walking daily in His grace, His power, that He has given specifically to you for your specific calling, He has enabled you to do what you do each day and I believe we have a wonderful way to bring Him honor through our calling. May each step we take today be in obedience of the faith.... which is only possible because of the GRACE He has supplied us with...

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Trust in the Lord: Create in me a Clean Heart devotional

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and he shall make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5

Relax! The Lord is worthy of your trust... He always keeps His promies. When you hear this verse do you feel comforted and secure? I know it is hard sometimes to trust the unseen with certainty, but think about this: how many times has the Lord failed in keeping His promises? The road you are traveling may appear to be heading into a dead end to your limited eyesight but I tell you to stand firm in your faith and hold tight to His promises for He will make your path straight, now to you it may not and probably will not appear so straight. Their may even be a few sharp turns and even some u-turns but I am certain that in the eyes of the Lord they are straight for you see He has a plan for the path that you are traveling and it is good, he says so. Trust Him with all of your heart no matter how difficult or against your natural instinct and advice of others, though it is well intended and He the maker of time will make your path straight.

This verse is very close to my heart and my husbands. 5 years ago we were living a normal life. Expresso was a computer tech or nerd (it has a professional name but I can't think of it) at a local paper mill where we lived, I was a stay at home wife, homeschooling mother and we were Sunday church goers. I was growing continually and quickly in my faith while Expresso was lingering behind stille grapeling with some unsorted things in his mind. Life was good. I prayed nightly for the Lord to open the eyes of my husband's heart and to bring him to repentence. 2 years went by and things only seemed to get worse. Life wasn't as good as it once was but I held on to hope and continued to pray. It wasn't long before God anwsered my prayer, not exactly how I had imagined it but it was perfect. There was a lot of pain and healing that was experienced in those days but I held on with all I had to the Lord and trusted in Him. A few months later my husband was called into the ministry, I still remember the shock of hearing him tell me what he felt he was being called to do. We began discussing things with our preacher/friend and the decision was made after much prayer and thought. My husband only had a heart to serve the Lord, He had given him a new heart. Oh, praise God!! A new heart, one that no longer desired the pleasures of this world but that yearned to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We began making plans, ha! We... they were all soon detoured. We had decided to leave a life of comfort and security from the world and dive into the unknown comfort and security of the Lord. We were headed to Dallas Texas and seminary school! Crazy... that is what family thought of us and some of our friends, but we were completely okay with that because God put Proverbs 3:5-6 in our hearts and it was not leaving our side. Many things happened like out of the clear blue the school Expresso was going to attend shutting down only weeks before we were to leave, our house not selling and the money that it would cost to attend another school was to much for us. Dead end! Or so it seemed to our feeble eyes, we held on and stood firm knowing that God hadn't brought us this far to forsake us now. Amazingly it all fell directly and perfectly into place just like jagged puzzle pieces. The school that shut down ended up giving us plus a few cents almost exactly the amount we needed to attend the other school and our house sold right in time. Here is a quote that I love that pretty much sums up our every expereince with God:

I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.

Hudson Taylor

Nothing is impossible with God. No matter what is going on in your life whether it is something great or something very small know that God is with you and that if you trust in Him, He will make straight your path. I believe that will all of my heart, that doesn't mean that it will be easy. He doesn't say anything about the terrain of the straight path just that it will be straight! God is GOOD... believe it, believe Him and trust in His word for your life.

This post is to go along with my personal journey through the Create in me a Clean Heart Devotional that can be found at Dandelion Seeds, be encouraged!