Redefining blessings <3

Hello and happy Thursday!

We have officially had our first full year in our new home.

We pinched ourselves several times this holiday season looking back over where we were a year ago and how everything fell into place.

Sure we worked like war horses all through the fall to get our house ready to sell and purging and setting up home inspections and bank arrangements. But it all went super smoothly right down to our other house selling quickly and both closings within a few days of each other.

Now before you think how you wish stuff worked like that for you, perhaps you didn’t know us back when we moved into our last home.

Back when we moved right after Christmas and our other house didn’t sell. Not even an offer.

For three years.

Back when we went through several realtors and two sets of renters and I started subbing after years of being a stay-home mom.

Back when we wiped out our savings and shoveled two driveways the first winter without a renter and it snowed a ton every other week.

Back when I began to think that maybe we would always have two houses and we wondered if we had made the biggest mistake ever.

And I can tell you having been through two very different moves that while the second was a piece of cake and we tout it as a blessing as we thank God for answered prayers, the first was no less a blessing.

We can trace much spiritual growth to those years.

We drew closer as a family and learned about what really mattered most of all.

We found out that our provision and security were in something greater than a bank.

We learned that He can be trusted and that He is Sovereign and that His timing is always, always perfect in all ways.

God showed up in amazing ways, some we couldn’t see during the harder days mind you. But looking back, His fingerprints are all over those years.

Oh I am thankful for the easy times, make no mistake. And we can definitely raise the roof with the best of them when God does a suddenly.

But He is no less faithful, no less kind, no less loving and caring and near in the darkest and hardest of times.

Whatever your season, my friends, I pray you know His Presence in real and powerful ways through each and every step.

I pray you, like us, are finding love and support within the Body of Christ and if you are high-fiving Jesus these days or on your knees crying for mercy….I pray you are knowing His tangible touch in every moment.

I pray for you to learn all you can about Him in all the seasons and that you cling to Him as desperately in the easy times as the hard.

There is no other way to fully live than this.

And….

As a special treat tomorrow on the blog we have a guest blogger who has some further words of encouragement to share. You won’t want to miss it <3