A little backstory...

2 Cor 1:3-4


<sup>3　Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4　who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

I found this verse years ago, I think during my missionary days, and immediately thought ‘this is my life’s verse’.

Life is messy! I’m usually a mess until Adonai’s precious peace has restored my equilibrium. I am a new stay at home mom, homeschooling my 2 awesome youngins. I love my hubby and my kiddos and am learning to love the constant chaos that is being a stay at home mom. I am learning a lot about it being enough. I grew up with parents who told me I could do and be anything I wanted and so I tried. But, it would seem that while I can do many things, the gifts and my design was made first for me to be a wife and then a mother. And even though the world will have you going in 29 different directions: being a mommy is not only enough, it is a lot and it is WORTHY! What could be better than spending your talents investing in the next generation and allowing them to affect their peers in a wonderful way and pointing them towards our Heavenly Father, not by preaching but by a lifestyle that spells peace and contentment.

After 7 years of walking through hell’s chaotic fires and reign with my husband we have found firm ground. In this world of instant romance, and soul mates, I won’t lie and tell you that my man is my soul mate, the man of my dreams. But after much time in the Refiner’s fire I heard myself tell him tonight that he is becoming the man of my dreams. Some people want to know why I stayed and the quick answer is: because God said so. But you would have to understand that first I armed myself with the Word of God and was firmly planted in my walk and that He led me to keep up the good fight.

The world would label my husband a crack addict. I think like many of us he just lived in Romans 7 for far too long! It was a long, hard journey to redemption. I always told my husband that it wasn’t the drugs for me; it was the lies and the lifestyle that went with it. Like many men from a broken home, without consistent or quality male leadership he was seeking acceptance in all the wrong places.

In the Bible the number 7 is often used to signify completion or perfection. Well last October marked 7 years for us. For Christmas my husband bought me a beautiful ring, I wear it as a Memorial to the freedom that God has given us. (And yesterday was our 8th anniversary :)

We are in a very sweet place right now in our life! Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But, with the recession and my husband’s former habits, we found it hard to get by back home. So I find myself in a totally new season of life in a totally new town, halfway across the country from my family. We left home to join the oil boom in ND, to make some money and get out of debt, but also to get away from family and friends who meant well but whose opinions and actions were driving a wedge where we were trying to become one. It was time for us to toss off all the chains that bind us and run free and find freedom in the oneness that God gave us when we said: ‘I do’. Being on our own has been very good for us and we are learning to have fun with each other again. He is also being built up as the provider and protector and relishing the respect that is rightfully his as head of household. It is sweet to see him embrace his role as our covering.

I have always been shy and quiet until I am comfortable around you…but back when I worked at a home with teenaged girls I found that I love to teach. So it is my desire to simply lead and teach the things that God has so graciously taught me.

I believe that God is Sovereign and Mighty and Powerful! He is everywhere and yet He is never too busy to hear my frustrations; He designed my life and ordered my days at the foundations of the earth, therefore He is intimately acquainted and involved in my daily struggles and triumphs; He is the perfect Dad, knows how to love me perfectly, when I need discipline and when I need a hug; Jesus is the only way to heaven; but I believe that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are way more than a ticket to heaven, the redeemed life is so much better than flailing aimlessly in the world.

Psalm 119:11 is a verse I learned long before I knew my precious Saviour personally! My grandma used to walk around saying it regularly, and of course, she quoted it from KJV: "I will hide Thy Word in my heart, Lord, that I might not sin against Thee". Not a bad verse to already have memorized when years later God would invite me into His fold. I am far from perfect and know that in no way have I not sinned against Him. But I have strived to hide His Word in my heart. I have read and studied scripture and meditated on passages for days, weeks, months…By the Grace of God alone!

It has been quite a walk since God invaded my life in such a powerful way 14 years ago. He showed himself in this heathen’s life undeniably. There was no turning back, there was no way to deny Him, and He knocked me around and got ahold of me and forever altered the course of my life. It wasn’t long after meeting God and reading my way through a women’s devotional Bible that it became clear that I needed to pack up and leave the small little town I called home. I could not follow God’s new call on my life and hang out in the clubs with all my old buds....and so my life's greatest journey began the 1st time I left home...I tell people I have salt water in my veins and gypsy feet, I'm not sure I'll rest until God calls me home :)</sup>