I post this every year, usually after Christmas, but well, life happens, right? For those of you we missed on our Christmas card list, forgive me, but this is really the most important part anyway--our family testimony of the Lord in our lives in 2014. Praying anyone who reads this will find JOY in 2015. Enjoy being God's child and enjoy the loved ones around you this year, and don't forget to use every avenue and opportunity possible to tell others how being God's child changes everything about your life. Happy New Year!
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Monday, December 1st, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
From January to June, we saw God walk us through the biggest
transition I have yet to experience in my life, moving East coast to West
coast, away from all that I’ve known for 34 years into nothing I’ve ever
experienced before, and my testimony is that our family has seen God, we have
experienced His presence, and I have known He sees us right where we are.
From January to June, He led us through selling the home
where my babies were born, to living with my parents, to landing our family of
four here in southern California.
I saw His hand in every step, every tiny detail that just worked itself
out. Eighteen days to sell a home in a neighborhood full of foreclosures in a
still-recovering economy at a price where we still made money. That was God. I saw Him in the relationships of those we left behind, and
I continue to see God working in the relationships we have formed here in
California. I saw the Lord support our entire family emotionally, giving us
strength to endure with joyous hearts and grateful attitudes.
I saw the Lord even in the tenuous circumstances around
finding our home, and He found us the perfect home! Spacious, open, beautiful backyard on a golf green, right
next to the highway, ten minutes from the kids’ schools. That was God because homes like this in
California are hard to come by. We
literally had three to choose from when we started looking, and this one the
Lord just dropped in our laps, literally.
And then we landed in California, and I haven’t seen Him stop
working since. The Lord brought
friendships through friends from Savannah’s school. Their kindness to a complete stranger over the summer still
overwhelms me when I think about it. I continue to be blessed by their open
hearts.
It took a few months to find the church we call home now,
but in the three months of visiting churches, the Lord was faithful to provide
encouraging sermons almost every Sunday from different pastors and through
different experiences—that was a gift from God, water in the desert. When we heard the practically
applicable heart of Pastor Ambrose at Pacific Coast Church in San Clemente, we
knew we’d found a home, somewhere where we could find refreshment in honest,
Biblical preaching, somewhere we can praise God with others for all He is doing
in our lives.
Our neighbors are amazing! From the first day we arrived, the kids in the neighborhood
befriended my children, and each of those kids has become dear to me. I see God
in providing this unexpected blessing.
We prayed for it, but couldn’t have planned for it when choosing our
home. We also have a neighbor who
adores our dog Samson and has been so kind to open her home and heart when we
need someone to care for him. What
a blessing! An unexpected,
unplanned blessing from the Lord!
We are truly in a season where God is pouring down manna
from heaven in every format. We are humbled, grateful, and overwhelmed by the
responsibility to share His blessings, as good stewards should. We are looking and open to the opportunities
the Lord places in our paths, but we also find ourselves in a season of
stillness.
There is stillness in our activity, stillness in our
friendships (to some degree, although I am grateful that stillness is beginning
to ripple with new faces), stillness in our extracurriculars, stillness in our
church involvement. We are simply
being called to be still for a season.
To enjoy the Lord and tell everyone who will listen how He has been so
faithful. To enjoy our
children. To see them grow. To
grow with them. This stillness is a gift I did not expect, and although there
are days when my entire being grows antsy to “do” something, the Lord is quick
to remind me I am “doing” exactly what He’s called me do by just being exactly where I am today, in this
moment in time, being a mother, really learning to be a godly mother, and being
a wife, really pressing into what that needs to look like for my marriage and
for my children.
Blessings!
Gifts! Unmerited favor!
This is our testimony.
There are no illnesses to report for the entire year, no major set
backs, no complaints. Weston is
excelling at his two-day home school co-op for Kindergarten at Heart Christian
Academy. Savannah is doing well at Grace Classical Academy, a school of
excellence of which I am so grateful to be a part. Joey loves his work, and we are enjoying the perks of his
travel not being cross-country any longer. I am in love with California—its
beauty is palpable; it sinks into my soul. The ocean is my second home here. I never knew how much it
ministered to me until I could be on it every day if I chose. It’s true you never miss what you’ve
never had.
Savannah memorized Psalm 19:1-11 at school, and I feel like
it is the perfect summation and testimony to who God is in our lives right now,
a testimony to all that He is Righteous and His ways are right. I pray that in
reading those verses you too will be humbled by the greatness of our God, drawn
to the desire to do things His way--exactly His way--because our family has
found there is no better way.
And so with grateful, joyous, overflowing hearts, we are
living life in California, building new relationships, strengthening the ties
that bind our family of four, and actively looking to see where God shows up
next because I promise you, I think He has shown up every day for over a year
now in my life, and I can’t stop looking for the next glimpse of His goodness,
the next revelation of His glory.
Sigh. So many
verses! The entire chapter of
Psalm 16 speaks testimony for our family, but I will leave you with verses
9-11:
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body
also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the realm of the
dead, nor will You let your faithful one
see decay. You make known to me the path
of life; You will fill me with JOY in Your presence, with eternal
pleasures at Your right hand.
May your family know the incomparable joy of experiencing the
presence of God in your lives this Christmas season, for isn’t that what
Christmas is all about? Celebrating
Immanuel, GOD with us, His very own presence born here on earth to be
experienced by man? True joy!
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