“Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praises in the islands [UK]“ – Isaiah 42:12

We just wanted to be sure, that if anyone hears anything about our story, they know one thing: God made it all possible and deserves all the glory.

God made provision for us financially.

God created community for us in London.

God gave us prayer people, direction, and guidance—He spoke to us through Joshua 3.

God made a way for us and proved Himself faithful.

We just happen to be the grateful recipients of His relentless love.

So now you know the details – well, the basics, at least – of our impending move to London, why we’re going and how it all worked out.

Spiritual Warfare. There are two things warring in my heart, vying for my attention and belief. In which will I choose to daily place my faith?

Understanding: I understand that the beginning of wisdom is admitting: I don’t know. I did a whole study on it. According to both the Old and New Testaments, when we admit that we don’t have all the answers, we turn our gaze outward seeking truth, we open our minds to God’s wisdom and look outside ourselves for insight. This is where wisdom begins. It takes coming to this realization for our hearts and minds to be malleable enough for God to mold with His wisdom – it’s a beautiful thing.

Feeling: I feel completely lost. Incompetent. Naive. Inexperienced. Too young. Wrong. Constantly. From the VISAs to the money and budgeting – even to the idea and reality of moving and setting up life on a new piece of earth.

Understanding: I understand that this is exactly where God wants me, that He can teach me things through this season unlike He can in any other. I know that this dependency on Him creates in me an intimate connection with God that I cannot experience apart from it. I am convinced that even in the midst of all these otherwise negative emotions, there is so much more going on here, so much more of the story – my story – being written. There are subtleties that I do not want to miss in the name of self-pity and lamenting.

Feeling: I feel like a little girl. I am old enough but not experienced enough. I have knowledge, but know enough only to be dangerous with the idea of change – not the actual change itself. I am a walking contradiction and am hyper-emotional.

Understanding: I have this mantra running through my head all day – which is only as often as I need to hear it:

“The destination is set, it’s how you get there that matters. Will you take time for others, find joy in the journey, and soak up every moment of your time here? Or will you choose to focus on yourself, how hard it is, how little you know, how ill-prepared you are for it all and miss this precious time that you’ll never get back?
The choice is yours.”

I feel I must be honest with you about this whole moving thing in case any of you attempt this same venture.

First and foremost, I know that this is – without a doubt – exactly what we should be doing exactly when we should be doing it.

But this is how it feels: It feels overwhelming. It feels like much too much. It feels like I have been running a marathon since January and can’t catch my breath. On monday, I had a list of things to do so long that when Grant (in an attempt to soothe me) offered to just go see a movie, the thought was immediately rejected by my brain. I couldn’t do one more thing. Not even a movie.

It is great to be doing this together – with Grant.

It is nice to know that this is not forever – it is a one time thing with a beginning and an end.

It would be impossible without prayer.

It has made me undeniably dependent on the Lord.

It has humbled me in ways I never could’ve imagined.

It has already made me better.

Want to take five minutes with me and just write without worrying if it’s just right or not? Here’s how we do it:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat with no editing, tweaking or self critiquing.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in {you can grab the button code in my right side bar}

3. Go and tell the person who linked up before you what their words meant to you. Every writer longs to feel heard.

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes for the prompt: LOSS

I feel I am in a bit of a season of loss. My Gram died less than a month ago (I’ve blogged about it on here). We are closing chapters here in Atlanta – which has been our home for our whole married lives! Today marked my last day working with a company I couldn’t believe in more – a job I could’t have loved more.

So I will be thankful in the midst of loss – not because of it – but because the hurt highlights the healing that has been happening all along.

TIME!

This is an excerpt from a message I just wrote. It’s been almost a week since I’ve posted… Sorry! This is my last week working (sad!) and at home we’ve been up to our eye-balls in paper work, preparing for our move. But I thought I’d post this little excerpt so that you at least have a snippet of my life this week.

“My women’s group just recently read For Women Only and discussed the implications in the book and what shocked me most was not the content, but the fact that I had read it before and yet had FORGOTTEN SO MUCH OF IT! I was rereading it thinking,

“OH YEAH! I should do that! How did I forget about that one??!”

So I’m trying to be more mindful of him and his needs and being sweet and expecting the best of him and respecting him and choosing not to argue. My goodness. The world would be a better place if I could be more agreeable 😉

Well, you know how that goes: I treat him better so he treats me better. So we’re currently circling cloud 9! Things are great and I feel like we’re right where we need to be with each other before this big move. So despite the hectic nature of VISAs etc, I feel calm and grounded.

God is so good to us.”