Living God's Will for Your Life

I left ended the Coming Home series by describing how a parent can develop a plan of action for transitioning from the workplace into the home. I didn't continue on with describing the execution of the plan because I hadn't reached the point yet of fully executing our own plans. Now that we've made the transition into our home its timely to now put pen to paper to describe my experience with following God's Will for our family.

How does a Christian decipher God's Will for their life? What school to attend, what person to marry, what college to attend, what City, State, or Country to live in? There is a complete and thorough message on this subject by John MacArthur that I highly recommend on the subject of knowing God's Will.  

For the Christian, God is clear on His will for our lives and as you seek to know the Lord in His Word He will make it plain to your heart what He desires of you. As you follow Him, He will give you peace that surpasses all understanding. I recall a time in my life where my thoughts were full of questions regarding my life's decisions. Had I gotten it right? Was I doing what God desired of me? It wasn't until I searched the scriptures that God began to reshape my life and burden my heart for the things that He desired of me. One of those burdens was clearly for my children; to be home with them and to educate them myself. This reconfiguring of my life required a plan which I documented in the Coming Home series.

While development of the plan was words on paper, execution of that plan was a different story. Leaving a growing career behind, selling a home that I thought I'd live in forever to live with my in-laws for an undefined period, giving birth to a third child, embarking on homeschooling my children, and building a second home, all in the matter of 18 months was no small feat. If I had to put encapsulate the execution of our plans into a four letter word, I'd use t-e-s-t.

I didn't realize it at the time that we were developing our plans, but God was sending me into the most challenging test of my life and let me just say that I hadn't studied for this test. I walked into the classroom without a pencil and hadn't spent a moment preparing for it.

I believed that since I had come to this place of knowing God's Will for my life, God would hand His Will over to me on a platter, all ready to live out happily. Instead, I found myself tripping over and getting one answer after another wrong.

One of the first steps on our plan was selling our home. Entering into the home selling process I thought the house would sit on the market for a few months and we'd have a buyer within a short period of time. Well, it wasn't until eleven months after listing our home on the market that we had a buyer and was able to sell our home. In those eleven months I struggled with God's Will. If we were doing what God desired of us, why didn't things happen quicker? While our house sat on the market we searched for a rental home for our family to live in that met our needs, but in the end we found it most cost effective to stay with our in-laws. To have to give up having a personal space was difficult for me. During this period of having to give up personal space, I struggled with God's Will. As we embarked on the journey of building our second home, the land process lingered on for an extended period of time with what seemed like endless paperwork and a 9-month building process turned into an 18-month long journey to the final completion of our home. During those 18 months I struggled with this test that God was giving me.

What's beautiful about this whole journey of living God's Will is God knows what He's doing. In our puny little brains, we try to figure out what's happening and in the midst of our attempts of figuring out what's happening, we allow our emotions to become entangled and if we're not careful in our journey to living God's will our pride can get the best of us.

As we execute the plans that God has for us as part of His Will we need to,

1) Remain in God's Word.

2) When we don't understand what's happening, we need to examine our responses to the bumps and humps in life. If there is any part of our heart or mind that is being disobedient to God, we need to confess it and ask the Lord's forgiveness.

3) As we seek the Lord, we need to trust His plan which is always good.

While in the journey of executing this plan, I was given the opportunity to take a Bible Study on the book on James. This one study transformed how I was viewing God's Will in my life. In life we will be tested and God's Word promises that He will not put more on us than we can bear and as we're tested God will give us a way of escape. I believe that this study on James was my way of escape to the Lord. During my days in the study of James and in the studies that followed on God's grace, God came to my rescue in the midst of my trial and He taught me. Just like a loving Father teaches his child. He never left me and God will never leave you as you strive to do His Will. He came to me in the midst of my test and guided me along and granted me peace and grace.

I was also encouraged during this journey of executing our plans by the lives of other obedient servants. In addition to the heroes of faith in the Bible, I read stories of women like Katie Davis and Joni Eareckson Tada. These women have been through and continue till this day to experience extremely difficult hardships in life as they live out God's Will, as they execute the plan God has for them. Their stories inspired and reminded me of God's faithfulness in the midst of difficulty and uncertainty. In each of their lives, they are victorious in their own rite.

My prayer for you is that as you execute God's Will for your life, you will be drawn closer to know your Maker in an intimate way and experience His peace and love as He molds and shapes you into who He wants you to be.

Snowy Pines

To celebrate our first big snow in our home, we embarked on a family adventure the day after 8 or so inches of snow fell. The kids all piled onto the back of the 4-wheeler and bundled up so they wouldn't get cold, and their Dad meandered through the woods on the hunting trails so that we could see the snow that had fallen in our woods. As the snow came down amidst the pine trees in our woods, the scene was breathtaking. To be surrounded among pine trees is like having skyscraper-sized, thin giants guarding you. They stand so tall and on windy days, though their trunks stand still, their tops sway back and forth reminding us of their existence. On part of our property there is a pond that has been created by our neighborly beavers. We found it all frozen over. It was so peaceful there. If I had a park bench down there and a fire going I could have sat there for hours. Since I had neither, I snapped a few pictures that I could take back up to the house and gaze at later from the warmth of my home.

 

The Home of Our Neighborly Beavers

 

 

 

 

Snowy Pines

 

Snow Day

 

According to Plan - Giving Thanks

On Monday, February 9th, we spent our first night in our home.

As time has passed since we've sold our first home, embarked into homeschooling as we're in our 2nd year, and welcomed our son into our family, we've reached home.

Our home of second chances.

In the week prior to our first night activity moved rapidly on our property as God blessed us with dry weather. The Excavator was able to complete the drain field and installation of the septic system as this was the last and final work needed in order for us to receive our occupancy permit. 

It feels a bit surreal to be in our home, together again, in our own place. I didn't expect to feel a sense of awkwardness in the first few days of living in the house. After having to share a space for an extended period of time, I'm realizing that there will be an adjustment period. I know that in time having our own place again will feel normal.  It is a welcoming sort of awkwardness that warms my heart to put my girls to bed in their own bedrooms again, to be able to decorate and adorn our counters with our personal pictures, and to feel the peace and comfort that a personal space brings.

I've been brimming over with praise and thankfulness as I've reflected daily over God's provision in this journey. While my emotions have known deep valleys and high peaks throughout his process, God has been the One who has remained steady, faithful, and my strength.

In the highs, the lows, the easy times, and the hard.

We ought to give Thanks.

An Unexpected Blessing in a High Schooler Package

As we approach the peak of the hill of education and peer out into the horizon of mathematics, reading, science, grammar, and history, my heart is full as I think about how far the girl's learning has expanded this school year. They've continued to embrace the change this year in their curriculum and have leaped and made bounds, allowing their Mom to stretch them a bit each day beyond the typical classroom requirements for their grades. This half way point in our school year comes with great expectancy of what the Lord will do in our homeschool.

Just a few weeks ago, we welcomed a new student into our homeschool. A close relative of ours was in need of a homeschool environment to aide in their child's education and we've taken him in with open arms. He is quickly becoming acclimated and I'm quickly learning the requirements of educating a high schooler. While taking in a student other than my own children was not in my plans for the school year, I'm in awe of how the Lord is working everything out for good and for His glory. As I've prayed for wisdom on how to encourage my new student to learn and work to his fullest potential, the Lord is granting the guidance and direction that is needed. The girls love the company that an additional student brings and seem to thrive with the added competition in the school room.

To live a life abandoned and carefree to God's call whenever, and however He guides us is frightening and exciting all at the same time. It requires a trust and a hope in future events that we cannot see, a dependence upon a God that is all powerful and capable of the impossible. My continued prayer for my students is that they have an environment where they can be who God created them to be and be groomed to live their own lives with this same type of expectancy. My own recollection of high school was full of the pressures of fitting in. I hope to give my new high schooler the freedom to fit the mold that God has for him. To learn at a pace that is steady, yet challenging and grow into an understanding of what lies beyond high school based on the interests and skills that God so intricately designed into him when He created him.

What unexpectant blessing is headed to your doorstep?

Rejoice!

This is the day that the Lord has made. We should rejoice and be glad in it. Every day that we live and breath is because of God's grace toward us. Our praise to God shouldn't be based on our feelings or as a result of Our Heavenly Father just doing things for us. Instead, we rejoice just.... because.

Rejoice in the goodness of the Lord today, just because...

He is good.
He is kind.
He is faithful.
His love never ends.
He is for us.
&
 Nothing can separate us from Him.

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