waiting on the Lord

 It can be the hardest, and possibly the most rewarding time of your life. You can pray with excitement and anticipation and see God working while you wait. But when your answer (either a clear yes, or no) doesn't come after weeks, months or even years of prayer and waiting it can also be a time of great disappointment.

 Sometimes it's so hard for me to separate the eternal from the material. At times I pray for something, and feel so strongly that God is leading me in a direction, and when the answer is wait, I feel like God is absent. Has God changed His mind, or is He calling me to something greater, calling me to a place where I learn to trust Him more by waiting on Him. I know that He is constant, and never changing, I however, change my mind daily, and allow my emotions to lead me, instead of the Holy Spirit. So how do I overcome this mental/spiritual road block and find joy in the midst of trial? It comes down to a choice. We must CHOOSE joy. We need to make a conscious choice to make our joy in the Lord the top priority no matter what our trial or circumstance may be. All of this is MUCH easier said than done. The more we trust the Lord, the more inclined we will be to choose joy.

 He knows the plans that He has for me, and they are better for me then I may ever know. I may never know here on earth the reasons why God chooses to do the things He does, but I am not called to understand, I am called to trust. I can choose joy when I trust the Lord because I know that God is faithful and He loves me (Jeremiah 29:11). This is just another reason why I can all smile at the future. When disappointment sets in, set your eyes on the Lord once again, and choose joy!

September 24, 2012

  The Lord laid another thought on my heart about waiting on Him. What if He is asking me not to do ANYTHING else but wait on Him. Don't actively look, just wait. Then the question ran through my head, "Shouldn't I be proactive and diligent in seeking and searching?" I think the answer many times is, yes, we do need to seek and search, but we don't always need to move ahead. Right now, for me the Lord is asking me to wait on Him, don't move ahead, just wait, pray, and wait some more.

home hunters

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

We are SO excited to be home hunting! God has given us such joy where we are renting right now, and we feel so blessed to be here, but we are ready to buy! We have been looking for a house for the past few months with no avail. We have been very open to the house God has for us.

A few days ago we saw a listing that seemed great, so we decided to take a look, and we were pleasantly surprised. The house was nothing short of perfection in my eyes. Every little thing about it...I LOVE this house. It is a bank owned property, and it is a very low list price. We would be able to purchase it at a price much higher than the list price, and still be getting a great deal. Now the only thing we have to do is out bit everyone else...here we go!

Then the emotional part begins. What if someone else gets "our" house!! The Lord has been reminding me that my hopes and dreams for our family, are great, but He is greater. He holds my future in His hands, and isn't THAT the best place for them? I know that disappointment will come if this isn't suppose to be our house, but God doesn't make mistakes. I trust Him that He has a perfect house for us, and we might move next month or next year, this is a journey of trust.

We want to offer our best, and what we know we can afford. We think that we are putting our best foot forward with our offer. We don't want to end up feeling financially stretched. Wouldn't you rather own your home than have your home own you? Been there, done that and no thanks! So, we'll see over the next few weeks what God has in store for us!!

Before I finish this post, I wanted to share 2 ways so far in the "home buying process", that God has been faithful. First, we didn't think that this house could be financed, but after a few many calls and e-mails, we found out that it could be financed!! Secondly, when we went to get pre qualified the women told us that we didn't qualify because of a short sale on our credit from over 3 years ago. Josh called me, and I could hear the disappointment in his voice as he told me the news. We continued to talk about other options, and as we talked he got a call back from the woman saying that we did qualify, we just needed to fill out extra paper work. God is good, all the time. House or no house. I was content here before we found this house, and I will be content if we don't get this house. All glory and praise be to God, because He is the reason I can smile at the future!



Friday, September 7, 2012

We made an offer! We are excited, but being very realistic, we think that there's about a .5% chance that we'll get it. We are praising God that we have even made it this far in the process...now to see if we our bid beats everyone else. Our Realtor said though, that sometimes the bank takes the top 3 offers and asks them to make a counter offer. That seems like such a game to me...but I guess we're in it now, so let the game begin!



Monday September 10, 2012

Our offer has been in since Friday, and we are in a waiting pattern now. We should hear back from the bank by Wednesday. We are hoping that we are at least in the top 3 offers. No news today so far, we'll see if there's anything from the bank tomorrow.


Tuesday September 11, 2012

We heard from the bank that our offer was one of the top 3. They told us to put in our highest and best offer by 5pm. Now, our final offer is in. We should find out whose offer is accepted in the next few days. We know that all of this is in the Lord's hands, (and isn't that the best place for it??) We have seen God's hand at work through this whole process. All glory be to God for all that He has done in our lives during the past week. He is teaching us to trust Him no matter what. Praising God tonight that all of the offers are in, and the decision is in the hands of the bank, and ultimately our Lord :)


Thursday September 13, 2012

We heard back from the bank today, and they chose a different offer. My first thought was, well, ok then. I've been waiting for the wave of disappointment emotions to pour over me, but they just haven't come. God is so good to us, and His plan is always best. As much as my heart loved and wanted the house, so much more my heart wants what God wants for me. I praise His name for working in us in so many ways through this process. I trust Him, though I may not understand, I still trust. He is good, and His ways are perfect. Let the home hunting continue & I have so many reasons to smile at the future!

forgiven & giving forgiveness

  Is being at the right place at the right time merely a coincidence? I don't think so. I have had many of these moments in my life; a moment where you know that there is no where else in the world that you are suppose to be. My husband had one of these moments the other night.

    A little bit of background: A few years ago my husband Josh and I were dirt poor, we already had one little one, and one more on the way. Josh was working for himself, and we were riding the highs and (mostly) lows of self employment. Finally Josh got a few big jobs from someone (we'll call him Joe) fully expecting to get paid for the work. The money never came. After many invoices, phone calls, and letters, a judge finally  ordered that Josh was to be paid off over the next few years. Joe at long last began to send us money, but when about half of the debt had been paid off, out of the blue Joe's checks stopped coming. God however had already been working in our hearts and we had already decided that we were going to pardon Joe's debt (see Mathew 18: 21-35). We were trying to decide how to let him know that his debt was now cancelled, a letter, a phone call, what would be the best way to do it??

         God gave us an opportunity to do this in a way that we didn't think was possible. We hadn't seen Joe in a few years until the other night. Josh had to run to the store to grab some batteries for our garage door opener. It was a totally random trip to the store (and we found out later that the batteries weren't even dead...the garage door opener just didn't work a few times...hmmmm). Josh pulls into the parking lot and as he looks for a spot he sees Joe and Joe sees him. Joe starts rushing quickly to put his things into his truck so that he could get out of there. Unbeknownst to Joe, Josh was excited to see him, so he rushed over to him and immediately asked him, "Hey, ya know that money that you owe me?" Joe slowly replied, "Ya..." "Don't worry about paying it back" Josh said quickly so that Joe would understand that he wasn't upset. "Are you serious?" Joe said with a bit of apprehension. "Yup, I sure am" Josh said back to him so thankful for this God sent encounter.

     Josh went on to ask him how he was doing, and Joe expressed to him that he really wasn't doing well, and that he was barely getting by financially. Because Josh (only through Christ) had cancelled the debt, he was able to reach out to Joe in such a way that there were no longer any walls between the two of them. We can only forgive others debt because Christ has completely forgiven our debt.  We are praising God for such an unbelievable answer to prayer and, Lord willing, Joe saw Christ in Josh that night! We wrote Joe's name on our "Pray without Ceasing" wall in our home, and we will continue to pray for his salvation!