Sometimes it takes defeat to remind me that God is my Father, my true Abba.
Sometimes it takes heart break to remind me that I serve a King who seeks to romance me.
Sometimes it takes isolation to remind me that I have a Redeemer who came and sacrificed it all so that I may dwell in His presence.
It takes His perfect love to remind me why we suffer.
Dangit, I really want to be someone who suffers well. I want to be someone that God can trust with hard times. The last few weeks have been testing me a lot. I've felt defeated, emotionally, a few times over. God has been taking me to a place within myself that I haven't wanted to visit for a while and I had quite honestly forgot about for a long time. It's hard, right now, because I can feel when my spirit and flesh want to rebel, but it's teaching me self-control and submission, which is exactly what I prayed the Lord would teach me (go figure).
Josh and I are praying our way through finances, we want to learn more how to put God first in our finances. The message at church this last Sunday was about stress, and the dude went on to say that for over 15 years, he and his wife haven't fought over money. Josh and I don't fight over it, but we don't ever want to either. We want to implement a way to give back to God before we do anything else with our money. God, save, bills and learn to live on the rest. Apparently that's the key to not fighting with your spouse on money. We're going to test it out. I'll let you know how it goes.
We're currently praying through schooling options for Josh. Moody is still in the running but Josh has been feeling lately that he doesn't want to miss out on the social experience of college. He wants to be able to participate in discussions on what he's learning and get mentoring and such. Which I'm all for. We don't want to take any short cuts. So, if it's Moody, it may look like moving to Chicago for a few years. PRAY WITH US. It's a big decision, considering it would mean putting off buying a house and having kids. In addition to Moody, he's looking into local colleges like North Central and Northwestern.
Work is going really well. This summer has been amazing. 6 weeks left and then summer is over! By the end of it, we'll be able to say we didn't take any of it for granted.
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Last night, I drove up to Camp Lebanon to say hello to my ladies. They graduated from high school this year and it is their last summer to be campers, and I have had the honor of getting to know them and walking along side them over the last four years. They really have turned into strong, beautiful young women and now it's their turn to change hearts with their lives. So to my girls, Sasha, Marissa, Becca, Sarah, Jamie and the other girls who couldn't be there this week...I'm praying for you always and I know that you will do great things where ever God sends you. Be prepared to be challenged. I'm proud of you, and I love you so so so much!
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Well, Josh will be home from work soon and I want to make dinner so, thanks for reading. Thanks for praying, connect with us! We'd love it.
Take joy,
Samantha
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