Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

day full of crazy busy

this morning i am packing up my littles and sending them off.  they are both going to south carolina on a missions trip for a week with the church.  they will be spending their week helping work on houses of disabled and elderly people.  please keep them in your prayers for safe travels.  and please keep them in your prayers this week as they are showing Christ’s love to those they are helping.  i’m praying that lots and lots of hearts will be touched.  i’m thinking this is going to be a learning, growing and life-changing week for many of them.

this afternoon joe and i are off today to shoot a wedding at one of my fav locations.  it will be another day jam packed full of busy (and FUN).

love days like this!

out for now
~kisses

eternally thankful

this is the sixth anniversary of the best and worst day of my life.  this is the day i stood in my living room with tears streaming down my face and begged my husband not to leave.  this is also the day that made me step back and take a good, long look at myself in the mirror and realize my own faults.  and this is the day that i decided to make a change for me, for us, for our family and for God.

not everyone understands why i remember this day or why i “celebrate” it.  i think it’s super important to remember our past, it brought us to where we are today.  the word “remember” is used 167 times in the Bible.  i’m fairly sure God is reminding us of the importance of remembering.  i never, ever want to forget what brought us to that point on that day.  i want to remember what my actions were before and what i changed afterwards.  i can remember so vividly sitting in the middle of my floor, sobbing, and looking at the calendar and thinking “this is a date i will never forget”.  and i haven’t.  remembering is part of our design by creation.

one evening, not long after he left, i drove my car back a dirt road.  i followed the road to the top and pulled in to the perfect spot, nestled among trees and open fields.  it was a gorgeous, clear night and the sky was filled with stars.  i sat there that evening and cried for hours while talking to God like he was sitting in my car with me.  that evening the seed of forgiveness was planted in my heart.

i realized my relationship with Jesus had taken a backseat to life, along with my marriage.  actually, Jesus wasn’t even in the backseat, he was in the trunk.  i did not have time for Jesus to trip me up when i was busy living the ways of the world.  i realized i couldn’t change my husband. there was only one person i could change: me.   Jesus said, “You hypocrite, first take the plank our of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).  once i realized that, asked for forgiveness and started to nurture my relationship with Jesus THAT’S when things started to change, when i started to change.

there was never a doubt that i wanted to stand for my marriage, regardless of what the world told me to do.  God showed me divorce extracted a high price. one I simply wasn’t willing to pay.  there were people telling me to get a divorce and move on with my life, that I deserved better, but all i wanted to do was what God wanted me to do and that is it. i knew that standing was what God wanted me to do and i never let the thought of divorce even enter my mind.

some may support your stand for your marriage and your fight against the enemy, while some may totally disagree, but all that matters is that you do what God wants you to do. those that disagree with you might make their voice heard daily, or they might even walk out of your life because of it. you need to remember, one day we will all have to face judgment and have to be responsible for the things we did. all those people who had opinions about your situation will not be with you when you have to answer to God. so you have to do what you know is right.
i prayed, trusted God and knew His will would be done.  i basically handed my marriage to Him and waited for things to be done in His timing, not mine.  i was waiting for His intervention.  through that, God taught me patience and perseverance.  three months later, he returned home!

i am so thankful that our love story didn’t end there, that it did indeed have more chapters to it.  the reward of restoration was well worth the wait.  and i am eternally thankful that our love was rescued by God  ♥  i adore the beautiful God-scripted love story i have.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9

out for now
~kisses

a proverbs 31 woman

Give her the reward she has earned, 
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Proverbs 31:31
throughout all of Proverbs 31, we see this woman who works hard with her hands.  if we want to be a woman that honors God, we see over and over that we must work with our hands.  we must be willing to work with our hands doing those mundane things.  and do them with a joyful heart.  we need to use our hands to serve our husband, serve our littles and serve those outside of our home.  this reminds me of a quote by the Shakers “hands to work, hearts to God”.  i’m going to tell ya’all, this week as i was cleaning the kitchen for the 1,284 time that day, i felt a little sass rising up in my heart.  and at that moment God reminded me of this.  
this lady has worked hard and now she gets rewarded for that.  and what is her reward?  praise!  who is praising her?  her children (vs. 28), her husband (vs. 28-29), the Lord (vs. 30) and the community (vs. 31).  she certainly isn’t going around town singing her own praises with pride and arrogance.  this lady is humble.  in her heart, she worked hard for her family because she knew it honored God.  she didn’t do it for praise.  
Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips.
Proverbs 27:2
how is it possible that we are already at the end of our study on the Proverbs 31 woman? thank you so much for joining me weekly! i will absolutely admit, i’m a little sad. i’ve enjoyed every second of diving into His word and finding out as much info as i could about this noble woman. and i loved how it’s impacted my life!  though we might have ended the series, i never want to stop striving to be this noble lady and follow in her footsteps.
out for now
~kisses