The Lord will go before you!

I love that I get to share things in this way! God has really blessed us, and I am very proud of how far we've come! Things are not always perfect, but we have learned that the best way to handle things is by letting God be in charge. To "be still and know that I am God" is the hardest, yet most rewarding aspect of life. We are waiting on so many things to happen right now and get so impatient some days, but we have learned through experience that His timing is best! God is constantly doing things that we cannot see, and just like children trust their parents to take care of them, we are trusting Him to work on our behalf.

I will close with a Bible verse that I feel describes what we are believing for right now, that God is going before us to fight for us! Deuteronomy 31:6 (NLT) says "So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you."

He wants to say YES!

Well, I am trying to get better about posting regularly and absolutely loving seeing all the views on my page! Thanks so much for reading! :)

So, it has been on my heart to just tell you, whoever you may be, that God loves you and sent His Son to die for you, 2,000 years ago! We are His children, and He loves us! It is so important to remember that, as His children we have favor. He wants to say YES to us! Psalms 84:11 in the New Living Translation says: "For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right." To me this says that He will never say no to us if we are doing the right thing. 
We have been going through the adoption process and every time I question if we are making the right choice, I ask God for something to hold onto, a confirmation. And every time, when I ask Him to hold me up and give me faith, He does something amazing! Sometimes it's small, but it is always exactly what I need to get me through the week... Just be aware that He loves us and His timing may be different than ours, but He has our future in mind. I know that my parents always had my best interest at heart when they made me wait for things, or took things away when I got in trouble... I did not realize it until I was about 24, but I see it now. They also made sure we were always taken care of, fed, clothed, and happy. Just as our human parents love us and want what is best for us, our Heavenly Father will not ever leave us wanting because He loves us so much that He sacrificed His Son for our eternal well-being! :)

New Journeys

So, many of you may have figured it out already, but we are going to have a child.... not by birth yet, but our first child will be adopted. We have been going through the process to adopt a child through the foster care system, taking classes, filling out paperwork, completing our homestudy, filling out more paperwork, and praying, praying, praying!We realized, yet again, that God has a huge plan that we have no idea how amazing it will be! After lots of prayer and discussion, God changing hearts, and praying some more, there is no doubt that this is where our life is supposed to go right now. We may have a child already chosen, we may not, just waiting on God for that right now...

It is so vital to listen to His voice, and so many times we try to tell Him what His plan for our life is. (He laughs...) Jeremiah 29:11-14 in the New Living Translation says, "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” " So many times we read the first verse of this passage and leave it at that, and because we have read it so many times, it becomes meaningless. But He wants us to seek Him wholeheartedly and to remember that He will do amazing things in our lives. Instead of telling Him what we think His plan should be, we must seek Him and let Him guide us to His so-much-better-than-our plan! So, here we are, relinquishing the rights to our own journey guide to the ultimate Guide and relishing every moment!!!

Delighting in the Lord!! :)

Well, we have some super exciting things going on in our life right now, and some that are not so exciting... but we are learning more about trusting God and letting His plan play out instead of trying to tell Him what that plan consists of... It is not time to share just what these things are yet, because we are waiting on His final word and wisdom, but I can tell you that you will be stoked when we tell you!! (We are not pregnant yet, and we are not moving yet, before anyone gets their hopes up, sorry)... I just wanted to share a quick note about how God works... I read in a book that God will use you when you are in motion, He can't do anything with a parked car. So, following your heart and the passions He has given you will ultimately put you on the path He has for you, where He can use you for all He created you for. With that being said, for months, we have been praying for certain things to happen, and just sitting around waiting... But we finally prayed about it in a way that led us to start acting on what He was saying, instead of just telling Him what we felt He was saying... And now, He is moving us towards some amazing things!

Psalm 37:4-5 in the New Living Translation says: "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you." Instead of asking for what you think you want, give it to God, because sometimes we misinterpret the desires He has placed in our hearts. Don't pass up the blessings that God has for you simply because you are set on something you THINK He wants for your life. My husband, for instance, is my opposite. I had been praying for years for someone who held all the qualities my husband does, but looking for someone just like me. Not the way that works, by the way.... So, when I finally told God I was ready for my husband, whoever He had for me, and started praying and looking for the same things, I found this man who was handsome, adoring, and Godly. So, your heart and your head need to be lined up with God's plan and will for your life... Sometimes, all it takes is a perspective adjustment. :)

Make Life Better!

So, this will be short, because I am supposed to be writing a paper and taking a test, but it has just been on my heart to share some things.
The first thing being that our attitude changes everything. Our church did a baptism on Father's Day for the whole congregation. The understanding is usually that baptism is for new believers or never-baptized believers. Our pastor shared that God told him we all needed to come to the waters of baptism, so he made it happen. It was amazing! My husband and I were baptized together, but we seriously prayed about and discussed it for a few days before. We went to the water with the anticipation for change, in our bodies, our attitudes, and especially our spirits. We prayed that our old selves and mindsets would be left in the water, and we would come up more like Christ. I'm going to be honest: the Devil doesn't much appreciate these types of declarations. This led to an attack that afternoon on our marriage, and a very discouraging meeting for him at work the next morning. We have noticed, though, that even though things are coming against us, we are allowing God to inhabit our thoughts instead of letting these situations bring us down. It's not always easy, but life is BETTER when He is in control of our thought life.
The next thing I would like to share is that I am so excited to be married to a man who allows our home to run in this way. He is great about keeping me in check when I start saying things I shouldn't, but he is also very adamant about telling me to keep him in check. Because we're opposites, this works out fantastically, because we see everything different, and there is always one of us that is able to maintain perspective. I am very excited about what this means for our marriage, and our future together. We are giving things to God instead of trying to control them ourselves, getting pregnant for example. We are taking this month to gain perspective on what God has for us, and remembering to enjoy our marriage before we have children to change the dynamic.
So, I say all that to encourage those of you who need more. Let Him be in charge of your thought life, it takes alot of self-control to consciously give Him control, but life is so much better when you're positive about it. We are reading the book Who Switched Off My Brain? by Dr. Caroline Leaf and it is an excellent tool in learning how our thought processes affect every aspect of our life, down to our physical health. I recommend this to anyone, optimist, pessimist, or in between. :)
So much for being short... hehe

His Blood Was Shed With Purpose

Hey everyone! Excited to be back and communicating again! :) 

I’m going to start by saying that I haven’t really shared this story a whole lot because it is a very hard subject for me, and I try to avoid specific personal details. But, I really feel this is something I should share.

My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for a year now, and every month it gets more emotional and depressing. You hear about other women or teenage girls having babies, or mothers who kill or hurt their children, and it breaks you every time. I always try to hold off on the tears because I keep telling myself that God’s timing will be perfect, but the tears always come. I always feel so disappointed with myself for letting the sadness get the best of me. I know that I am being selfish when I cry at others’ baby announcements, and I think I beat myself up about that, making my sadness even worse. Really what I should be doing, is thanking God for giving me this strong desire to be a mother. He gives us the desires of our hearts, according to His purpose. I know that our desire for a child is something He placed inside of us.

I have been praying for many months for God to answer our prayers and allow me to bear a child. Then we were sent to a fertility specialist who told me that I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). This is caused by an insulin resistance, which causes my ovaries to not function the way they are supposed to. This also means that I am no longer allowed to eat sugar, bread, most fruits, fruit juices, pastas, rice, etc., and I also have to work out or exercise at least 30 minutes to an hour every day. I accepted this as God’s answer to my prayer, because I figured that if He just wanted to let me have place to start, I would be on the path to being healthy and getting pregnant. This is not ok.

To allow the devil to convince you that having to suffer with an illness or any other burden for the rest of your life is not what God wants. The doctor has told me that this is a problem I will have to monitor the rest of my life, or risk developing diabetes. I will not accept that. Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood so we do not have to accept the world’s report. I am claiming healing and fertility, and I want you to know that settling for a partial answer is not His will for your life. I posted previously about God’s desire to give us abundant life, and I know that we need to claim it! He doesn’t just offer it, we have to receive it! By just allowing our contentedness to take us from place to place, comfort zone to comfort zone, we are implying that Jesus' blood was shed for no reason. We have to allow His blood to be our purpose. We are not meant to live day to day meaninglessly. By allowing His Word to shine through us, and allowing our stories to speak exclusively of His love for us; we let His blood have meaning.We are His highly favored children, and He does not want to see us in pain. He just wants us to come to Him and allow Him to do His part. We cannot conquer without our King.

Back in the saddle...

Hey! It's been a long time since I've shared my heart... Since we moved, I've been busy, and had lots of ups and downs. But it has been on my heart lately to start writing again. I'm excited because I'm about to start working on my book, and this seems to help me stream my thoughts better. :) This is just a post to let you know I'm back and God has some great words coming for you! Thanks for reading!