Encourage One Another

Here lately I have been very convicted about how "blessed" I am! God loves me and I feel that love...I really feel it. There are alot of reasons, but one is that I have people in my life that have been encouraging me. Not a lot of people...but people I value, people of like-mindedness, people who care about me, people that have been chosen by God to do His work. "Let us hold unswerving to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25.

In life, for most of us, it is hard to be unswerving. We have a process, we have to grow in our faith. For some it comes easier than others, some aren't called on as often as others...I have never lost a child or been abused or had an unfaithful husband. But, even though I have never been through really hard times, I still have had times that I have questioned God's faithfulness. It is by His grace and His choosing to reveal "why" after I have walked through something hard that has helped me grow, that keeps me hanging in there when I start to doubt. I believe we are to encourage others with our experiences of His faithfulness so here is one....

We lived in Augusta, just blocks from my mom, dad, and sister. We also lived just one mile from my in-laws. We loved where we lived and we were atttached to the house (we brought our newborn son home here).But because of our homeschooling and distractions (the city) we wanted to move...move to the country. So we put the house on the market. Everything that we could have done to sell it we did. A friend, that was a realtor, even came in and told us what furniture we should put in storage so the house would look bigger. We did not live in a fancy neighborhood or have a very big house..no big selling points. It almost killed me trying to keep it clean and organized (remember I was homeschooling two children so there where at least three people in the house 24/7). The realtor would call at the worst moments and we would have to leave so the house could be shown. This was our life for about two years, but we where encouraged by others, spurred on to keep it on the market, but even then we often faltered..swerved...asked God if we were hearing him correctly how come he didn't just bring someone to buy our house?

Then in May of 1994 our lives took an unexpected turn...my mother-in-law got sick and was taken to the hospital. During the next six-weeks we spent each and every minute in the hospital. My mother-in-law had surgery, made it out of intensive care, was moved to a regular floor, but then took a bad turn. During this six week period the house was the last thing on our minds. My family stepped in and showed the house when needed but it was at it's worst. It was dirty, messy and definetly not straightened. It was a stop off for us...a place to grab a sandwhich, check in with whomever had the children and change our clothes. Then, one Monday in June our house sold!! Dirty, unorganized, cluttered...a mess...and it sold. But, our joy was short lived...that same week, on Thursday, my mother-in-law died. We were devastated, we were unprepared, we were hardly able to function. And we had to vacate by the end of the month. We buried my mother-in-law and had thirteen days to be out. My parents stepped in and told us to put our belongs in storage and move the seventy miles..come live with them for awhile..give ourselves some time. And we did.

This was all part of God's plan...you see my dad was losing his eyesight...he was in what they call the denial stage. He was really struggling and so was my mom. When we moved in all of this became apparent and my husband "took the bull by the horns" so to say...he stepped in to help. He helped get my dad to Emory, a hospital in Atlanta. As I looked back God had the perfect plan for us and I see it now even though then I didn't understand...1) we were with my dad at a very hard time and hopefully helped him in his time of need, giving back to him a little of what he has given so humbly to us 2) my husband was commuting 80 miles one way to work which gave him time and space alone to grieve without any distractions 3)I needed my mom, I need her to answer hard questions for me, I need her strength for me and for my children, I needed her as a soft place for me 4) my children had just lost one grandmother, they needed their other grandmother, the security she provided 5) we needed the love that ministered to us that we could have only received by living with them 6) we needed the comfort of knowing that the Monday before my mother-in-law died, that we were able to give the good news of our move to the country, a place she knew her son and grandchildren desired to me. It made her very happy.

We stayed with them a year, then moved to the country on a piece of property my daddy had. Living with my parents was the best of times and the worst of times and I see now that it was God's perfect plan for us. He has a plan, his plan is perfect, he wants us to not be anixous, to trust in him and wait on his timing. My Lord and Saviour has given me a gift...the gift of a lesson learned. He chose to walk me through a hard time, a time of doubt, a time of sadness and then revealed his plan to us...only after we had walked the whole path. He gave me a lesson to be used to spur on others, to encourage others, to hold close to my heart and when I swerve bring back to memory HIS everfaithfulness, HIS perfection, HIS timing and also HIS abundant blessing on me. So here is my story...I pray that it will spur you to stand on our Father's faithfulness. I pray that it will encourage you to wait on our Father's perfect plan...whatever you are dealing with that is causing you to swerve. I pray that we can keep on meeting in the hope of encouraging one another in this life and for the life here after.

Thank you heavenly Father for having perfect plans for me. Thank you, no matter how hard I push against you that you are everfaithful to fulfill your work in me. Thank you for your abundant blessing and give me the opportunity to spur others on in their faithfulness to you, my God and my King, forever. Amen