“When you face two options and each seems to please God, consider the one that displays God’s glory, power and strength. This makes room for God to reveal Himself to you and show Himself through you. God wants us to see the wondrous things He will accomplish in us. Don’t be fearful about the hard road He may ask you to take. Be encouraged and excited about seeing His divine, supernatural activity in and through you. God’s voice commands the option that will display His power. He desires to show Himself strong in you and will encourage you to do things that require trust and faith.”
(Ms. Shirer)
The past two years of our lives have seemed packed full of these types of decisions...
Should we move in with the Peeks?... I don't know Lord, it'll make me uncomfortable and cause me to think about others way more than I'm used to.
Should we have another child?.. I don't know Lord, our finances are not excessive, we already have all our kiddos in one room... (BTW, are these just things that the world cares about or are they the things that you care about?) I find myself, even now, sometimes doubting my ability to be a good mom the the three treasures that we already have... Can I really do FOUR?
Should we uproot our family and move half way across the country to help with a church and give our kids a life a in a slower paced town with a different kind of folk? I don't know Lord, it sounds JUST PLAIN CRAZY if you ask me. :)
We wisely, but maybe sheepishly in the moment said YES to all of the above...
Why?
Because... In each circumstance we "considered the one that would display God’s glory, power and strength." I genuinely think that no matter what decision we had made with any of these situations the Lord would have been pleased... and He would have continued to pursue us and use us for His kingdom either way. But as scary as those decisions seemed in the moment they also left us adventurously expectant of what God HIMSELF was going to do with little old us. You see, we are probably the most plain-jane family that you will ever meet. WE live in a simple home, ride motorcycles on the track we built in the empty lot next to our house on the weekends, eat a lot of spaghetti and french bread. OUr vacations are comprised of tent camping with friends and LONG road trips to Texas...
The world might look at us and think, "simple."
But with the Lord in our hearts, He looks at us and wants us to know that he thinks, "extravagant."
We have a new adventure at our finger tips right now.
Should we homeschool this year or send Siah to school? I don't know Lord... I'm gonna have a newborn and Joey is working a lot these days... Is it plausible?
I am starting to discover that either answer would be pleasing to the Lord. For some the adventure would be in trusting God to send their treasure to school. FOr others their trust in GOd would grow in saying "yes" to homeschool. For us, we're going to jump out in faith through homeschooling.
Over the past few years each time that we have chosen the path that would require our family to rely more on the Lord and less on ourselves we have been blessed beyond anything that we could have imagined. Joey and I went on a date a few nights ago (A precious new friend from church offered to hang out with our kids so that Joey and I could go out! What a treat! Thanks Dani!). On our date we were talking about how things were going, living out here. Then Joey pointed out how blessed he has been to see how joyful I've been since we got here. He shared with me how he's noticed a contentment in me, patience in me, tenderness in me. And let me tell you, that that is 100% Jesus at work in my life!!! Because with all that is going on in my life...
The three small children that ask me a zillion questions all at once, all day long...
The baby growing in my belly that moves around like a crazy man and tempts me to feel grouchy and irritated...
The stretch marks, the tightness in my skin, my body molding itself into a shape that makes me feel more like an excessively large watermelon that wins first place at the country fair, as opposed to the sexy, red rose that I would like it to be...
The unfamiliarity of our town and getting around...
The house that seems to have a constant stream of, let's just call them, "special needs," the ants in my kitchen, the dirt that blows in through our front door that isn't sealed properly that they have supposedly "fixed" three times, the very unpleasant stench that lurks around the outside of house at night.
But I am finding that all those so called "trials" are just being eclipsed by God's glory. His extravagant love for me and his desire to captivate me daily with that glory has changed my insides completely.
So here we go again... Leaving Comfort For Courage...
I took these pictures of our treasures running together in tall cattails behind our house yesterday. I love them because they are such a visual to me of what it looks like to be adventurously expectant of what God has for our lives. I don't want to miss out on seeing God's glory because I'm afraid.
I've mentioned this before, but I want to bring it up again. My kiddos are so used to having so many boundaries when they go outside. We used to live on a blind corner where cars would race around so fast that our kids had VERY defined boundaries as to where they could ride their bikes and play in our front yard. And now that we are out here, we are surrounded by giant fields that I can imagine seem endless to our children.
They have not yet ventured all the way across the field behind our house.
But each day... They get a little more adventurous...
When they are together, they venture out a little further... when they realize that they are standing in the field alone, they quickly run back towards the house where they feel safe...
With Jesus in our hearts, we can make it ALL the way across the field...
We might stumble and fall along the way....
But it's worth it....
"God wants us to see the wondrous things He will accomplish in us. Don’t be fearful about the hard road He may ask you to take. Be encouraged and excited about seeing His divine, supernatural activity in and through you."
We are adventurously expectant...
I can't wait to let you know how it goes. :)
