Tag: u-turns

A Different Road To Travel

by Journeys of My Heart, posted in Life Foundations

Cropped RememberWow!  What do you do when you get hit with a situation you weren’t counting on having to deal with?

How do you react?  Where do you go?  Who do you turn to?  What?!?!???  Are you kidding me??  I had the opportunity to experience this yesterday.  I didn’t have to ask those questions because I knew who I needed to turn to!  But I can’t say that my reaction was without feeling.  However, I was rather numb after last night’s phone call.  Next, I was ticking off the points.   What does this mean for us?  Here is the dilemma:  our sale contract on our current house has defaulted.  No sale one day before closing.  My thoughts?  My word for the year came to mind…Remember.

There are so many thoughts that I ticked through in my mind over this situation.  What does this mean for our other house?  Can we pull this off?  We are starting this whole process over after working so hard to meet deadlines.  We are exhausted and we are going to start all over again?  Where’s the lawn mower?  Oh yes…it’s at the BACK of one of the storage units!  Laundry without a washer and dryer?  We better move the food and a few items back into the house.  How long will it take to have a secure offer?  At least we have a new air mattress!  Random thoughts as my mind races for answers.

Getting the idea?  This is not just inconvenient.  It changes everything.  Everything.  I can’t even really process it.  All I could say today was, “You know God.  You are in control.  There has to be a reason.  There is, right?”  Let’s be honest here.  I want to trust with my whole heart.  Not give in to emotions.  But there is no doubt that it is hard.  As I put things back into the bathroom so we can use it, and items of food back in the pantry, I still have to tell myself that.  Minute by minute.  We were advised to put it back on the market right away with the market being even better than when we first listed the house.  We are looking around at our house that hadn’t been cleaned well since starting the hard part of moving out.  Show someone our house right now?  We said ok.  We are IN!  Then, just a few minutes after our house was listed again on the market, an offer came in, two calls for showings and away we go!  We will see what the weekend holds for us.  The blessing?  We can ask more for our house with this listing than the last because of the change in the market.  God knows…

IMG_2529So I approach the next few days with careful watch on my feelings because they can get me into trouble.  I heard Laura Story’s song today as she sang about all the hardships we go through and the tears we shed, being what draws us closer to Him.  Yep!  Ok God.  There is my answer.  I will do my best to wait on your intervention; whichever way that should go.  We aren’t new on the block of trials, so I press on toward the mark.  Face the “new” in our journey and ask God to give me grace.  Sound good?  It is our only answer.  The only one.

Walking the journey with you…

 

 

Are We Here, or Are We There?

by Journeys of My Heart, posted in Life Foundations

IMG_2834I still don’t know.  We think we see the light at the end of the tunnel, but then there are the signs that tell us, no entry.  We have had a hiccup in the process and we are waiting to see how big the buyers think the hiccup is.  The kicker?  If we have to put more money into the house to sell it, hubby wants to invest in the house for ourselves, and stay.  WHAT?!?!?!????  I have packed half of the house up to do what???!!!  STAY here?  Oh boy!  Breathe girl… breathe!

So I let this idea roll over in my heart a bit, and I tell God that He sure go through a lot of trouble to maneuver what happens, to get us where we are supposed to be.  He must be exhausted trying to keep us in His will.  But that may happen in the plans.  It also can be that the process of selling this home is to teach us:

  • What we REALLY want.
  • What our focus is.
  • Get some things accomplished.
  • Learn to have an even deeper focus on trusting Him.

We certainly have had to do that, because it has been a ride for sure!  Scripture shows me how He will always be faithful to bring me back.  I have read of His faithfulness over and over again, even when I may have repeatedly abandoned what I know to be true.

IMG_2837Today as I opened my Bible, I turned to Psalm 116.  It talks of the author’s love for the Lord, and all that the Lord has done for him.  He is praising the Lord for His goodness.  That was lifting to my spirit today, as well as, a gentle reminder to stay in gratitude.  What refreshment to my soul!  My Gratitude Jar hasn’t been growing over the last month or so.  That’s not good.  When I am not dropping those hearts in my jar, I can easily let other things that come my way get the best of me.  Of course, that is exactly what  satan wants; he wants to discourage me in every way possible.  So today, I have dropped a few hearts in my jar and told God I will continue as I always do to remember (my word for the year) to always live in gratitude.  Today, I am very grateful for U-Turns that we are allowed in life.  Wow!  What a blessing to be able to know that God will forgive me, gently lift me up and turn me back around.  What a picture word that is…u-turn.  I have to allow it.  I have to be willing to turn back around.  I am the “U” in u-turn.  I can either keep struggling, or surrender and let Him do what He needs to do in me.

So today, I send out my message to you to encourage you to let God allow u-turns in your life.  Maybe you have never even considered that God WOULD
IMG_2838allow a u-turn.  You may be carrying around a huge amount of guilt from your past.  Don’t be a martyr and carry that heavy load around.  Unload it at the cross.  Surrender it.  We just experienced Easter and that is what Easter is all about.  He doesn’t want you to have to live under the burden.  Let Him pick you up, clean you off, set you down in the opposite direction, and walk the rest of the way with you.  It is what He desires.  You have the decision to make.  I would love to walk up to the window of my life and look in to see what He has in store for me.  But I can’t.  However, He sees the end from the beginning and He will eventually help me see clearly through the window with out cracks, or brokenness.

I turned around once again today.  I did allow Him to work in my life.  He immediately encouraged me through His words in the Psalm.  Do you know what?  Even though I had some good plans and reasons for the change we felt God was leading us in, maybe, just maybe, God can make all those changes right here where we are.  I will wait on Him, and I am asking Him to help me see with more of His perspective and vision.  It’s like walking out from the darkness and into the light.  Don’t wait.  Talk to Him about it.

Walking the journey with you..

Will You Sell Out?

by Journeys of My Heart, posted in Uncategorized

I have found it rather difficult lately to watch various people who will ditch their loyalty for the sake of recognition or money. Do those who do this think they will gain any kind of loyalty for themselves?  Oh, they might gain ATTENTION from those who just want to get the story, but nobody really likes a tattle tail. I have always felt that if you worked alongside someone, you were to respect and keep confidentiality a priority with them unless it brought immediate danger to them. They deserve the same when you leave or part ways also. But so many will do anything to gain notoriety or make some money off of someone’s life or circumstance. Do you think the question is ever asked, “Will I enhance or degrade this person’s reputation if I break their confidence?” It saddens me that many never seem to ask themselves that question.

I would venture to say that we all have things we do or say that we would rather not have others know about us. That reminds me of a speaker I heard that asked a great question. He said, what would we feel like if God showed our life on a big screen where everything we ever did, said, or acted like were played there for everyone to see. I don’t know about you, but there would be things I would not be proud to have shared with everyone. It is something that is between God and myself, and with the work of the Holy Spirit, I want to improve. Thankfully, God gives me His mercy for “do-overs and u-turns”.  It is my desire to journey further with the Lord and to edit my life movie so that I am more of what God would see as fitting for the big screen. I want Him to be honored in what I do, say and act like. No regrets. I want to give him the keys to my house and allow Him to clean my darkened rooms.

Now you may be thinking, “I would never say the things these television people and a few others I know, are saying about their friends or boss.” Oh yes, we do! This is key: How many of you have walked out of church, having had a great worship and fellowship experience with fellow believers, and then closed your car door and let fly about something you didn’t like about the sermon, the worship, a person, or something someone said to you? Yes…we DO sell out. I have sold out at times. We just aren’t making money or credit off of the story.

Will you sell out to satan’s plan? Will you justify your words or actions based on some reasoning that you have? Or, will you use your mouth to edify and build up and carry another’s burden by keep their confidences to yourself no matter what? I desire to bring glory to God through my mouth. I turn my keys over to Him. Have I arrived? Nope. Not yet. But am I aware that I need to? You bet! There… is my plumb line.