Life is good.

God is amazing.

Actually God is incredibly amazing!

There’s times when trying to discern his will drives me absolutely crazy.

Worse then that, tho, is the times we get it wrong…

We think we are taking the right steps but it blows up in our faces, that is frustrating! When everything you thought you knew and were striving for doesn’t work out, it leaves you doubting everything you know and it also leaves you with no idea what to do next.

However, when we get it right or when we simply see his plan fall into place, it is an incredible experience. It is an indescribable feeling when we finally get to see his plan and realize that it is far better then the one we had.

Yea, God is truly amazing and he cares so incredibly much for us.

Often his plans are bigger then ours and would actually be impossible for us to reach on our own. I think that is why he reaches down, picks up our plans and crushes them to pieces, with a look of unwavering love he says: “No, this isn’t good enough. I want you to dream bigger then yourself, I want so much more for you then you have planned because with my help you can accomplish so much more!”

New Beginnings

When we tried to sell our house and it didn’t sell, I was ticked. Anger isn’t an emotion that I am that familiar with but that night I was mad!

And Checkers was the one who got to hear it…

If God gave us choices then why don’t we ever get to choose? You’d think it’s a simple choice: either we sell the house or not, and right now it makes so much sense to sell it, so why did God not let it sell?! Why didn’t he let us choose?! Every time we mess up in the tiniest way we pay for it three times over!! WHY?! Why is he so set on us being so stinking perfect?!!!

As we discussed it we came to a very solid conclusion.

Everything happening in our life right now is to prepare us for our future. I don’t know what God’s plans are for us but I do believe we have a slight idea of the general direction he’s taking us and I believe every hard situation that we face now is to prepare us for that. So we can fight it and get there unprepared or we can allow him to mold us to fit perfectly into his flawless plan.

A couple months past the ‘failed house sale’ 🙂 we are starting to see more reasons why God didn’t let it sell.

After empty promises and poor communication at work, Checkers was about ready to throw a ‘Kenzie-style fit’. 🙂

This along with our house dilemma was starting to feel like life was against us, but when handled constructively we learned that both are actually open doors from God.

We took a step that we would probably, otherwise, never have considered taking and started a side business of landscaping.

We started out hesitantly not really expecting it to go anywhere, but God blessed it tremendously and it sailed right off the ground, and is keeping us busy 2-3 nights a week. We are hoping to get a couple snow removal contracts for this winter and then Checkers has a God-sized goal set of being able to jump into this full time by spring.

Foster Care

Another new beginning…

We both have a heart for children, and for me, when I was teaching school I discovered that I love the challenge of earning the respect of a child with behavioral issues.

We often talked about working with children, and what exactly that would look like for us as a family. During these conversations we often came back to the foster thing, but that always scared me (and still does) because how do you love a child as your own for 12-24 months and then just let them go?!

Last winter we laid aside those fears and started researching foster care. Half a year later we took the plunge and filled out the starting form and submitted it to Bethanna.

They told us the process of getting approved takes about 3-6 months and we are currently about a month into this process which includes four training sessions, five 2 hour in-home meetings and enough paper work to make me think we might have bought another house.

We are so excited to take this step but at the same time it feels scary, uncertain and like we are losing a bit of the control we have over our life.

Worship

What’s God up to in my personal life?

He’s been teaching me the power behind worshipping.

I always knew that having a time for prayer and bible reading every day is very important in order to stay in tune with God, but he is teaching me that there is more ways to connect with him.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

Did you ever wonder what these weapons are that this verse talks about?

I did.

I know that prayer is a pretty powerful weapon.

I also know that knowing your Bible is a powerful weapon.

I think tho, that if those two are all we are using we are going into battle without enough ammunition.

That’s dumb.

We would never go to war with only half as many bullets as we know we need, so why do we try to fight spiritual battles with only some of the weapons that we need?

I was praying about my latest ‘I don’t know how to handle this issue’ with Kenzie and God’s answer was:

Spend some time every morning worshiping with her. 

Ok yea, Kenzie loves worship, she has ever since DTS. You know, we did the DTS for us and our sweet little 20 month old Kenzie was just along for the ride (at least thats what we thought), but I honestly think God used those 5 months to leave an impact on her even if she wasn’t even two yet.

Like worship…

During DTS many people commented on her worshipping, and worship she did…  Too young yet to care about what anyone thinks she put her whole heart into it. She went all out. 🙂

The substituting base leader told us: You know, everybody thinks its cute, and it is, but to God its so much more then that: She might be young but she is pleasing to God. He enjoys her and delights in her worshipping.

Since DTS people have commented on it: “She is a true worshipper.”

I believe that the way she learned to worship before she was even two will play a part in who she is and who she becomes, I believe it plays a part in her calling and in her destiny.

Not realizing the power in doing it, I kind of forgot about starting a daily worship time.

God persisted, however, so I finally started doing it halfheartedly, you know about once a week or so, just however it fit into my schedule.

Oh and my Kenzie problem that I didn’t know how to handle didn’t disappear and I was still praying about it.

God why am I praying but getting no results?!

God said: ” I gave you the solution a long time ago and you are refusing to do as I asked.”

Oh.

So, I put my heart into this worship thing and we now worship every single morning. There is exceptions, I don’t stress myself out to get it done. On days when I’m away most of the day it probably won’t get done, but if the only thing standing in the way is a mountain of tasks, then I know I need to lay everything aside and spend 15-20 minutes worshipping with my kiddos.

Camping

We spent this last weekend camping with Checkers family.

So many memories and so much fun. 🙂

There was a total of 24 people. (I think) 🙂  Yes, we did get a noise complaint. :-p

We had so much fun tho.

We came home happy, exhausted and filthy.

I hate camping. (shhhh don’t tell them)  🙂

Even so it is always so much fun.

We got home Sunday afternoon around 3:00 and I was dreading Monday because I know how my children act after a full, fun and exhausting weekend like this.

They become the grumpiest kids I ever met.

Monday morning I decided to get a head start before they were even up. Once they were up we did our daily worship, had breakfast and proceeded to do a huge laundry and clean up and put away all our camping gear.

Monday night I was exhausted but suddenly realized: I had a really good day! My kids must not have been that grumpy after all.

However, looking back over my day I realized: They were just as grumpy as they always are after vacation.

I was different.

We had worshipped.

I had entered the day with my weapons sharpened and ready.

I recognized with a certainty that worship is a powerful weapon.

I also recognized that God is the most reliable, caring and compassionate friend I have ever had.

He is faithful.