He calls You Faithful

Our Love Letters 

A few weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated our "dating" anniversary. 

3/3/96 until forever was written on countless notes and letters and cards.

This part of my life has been a huge part of my story...for 18 years. 

More than half my life.

I was thinking on it again and asking "What was the point of all that Lord?"

And He answered..."To prove your faithfulness to me."

"What???"

I honestly thought, "Shut up???" 

(yes, I actually told God to Shut up!)

"That's it? All those years of struggling and waiting just to show we were faithful? For real?"

And so I leaned on my kitchen counter

and I was overwhelmed. 

Stunned.

A truth was set in my life that I never knew or realized.

I have proven to be faithful. 

I am Faithful. 

All those years...

7 years...

I believed what His word said and I resigned myself,

 mind, body and spirit to His truths and His promises,

not knowing how it would all play out, but believing;

having faith and hope that He would work it all out.

I asked my husband later that day, 

"Did you ever in those years of dating and the long engagement...

did you ever question that we wouldn't stay pure until our wedding night?"

His answer, very matter of factly and without hesitation was, "No. I knew that no matter what, 

it was what we were going to do. 

I never questioned it."

Yeah...

no matter what...

we were faithful to what He had called us to do 

and what He desired of us. 

And he is right...we never questioned it.

In that one instant...

in that one answer...

all the lies I have struggled with all my life...

the lies of not being good enough...

not being strong enough...

not being able to finish anything well...

GONE!

Holy Cow!!! Set Free!

Because...

I have proven to be faithful.

We did what was not normal, 

what was difficult, 

what took a long time.

We honored and obeyed my parents despite not agreeing with them at the time...

We were faithful to both God and man.

Though we weren't perfect...

 we were faithful.

Here's the whole truth:

If you are walking in whatever it is He has called you to, 

no matter what season you are in; 

whether you are newly married, in college, early motherhood, empty nesting...

juggling and living and figuring life out day by day...

whatever it is...

If you are living your life according to the word of God and according to whatever He has called you to do...

you are being faithful to Him.

You are Faithful.

You are proving yourself to be Faithful just like Abraham and David and Ruth and Mary...

They weren't perfect...yet they were called Faithful.

So in the things he has called me to right now...

this season of raising babies and toddlers and homeschooling 

and making countless meals and washing too many dishes and laundry overload...

in all those things that no one sees me do...

He sees me 

and He calls me Faithful. 

Not because I'm perfect.

Not because I do everything well (you should see my laundry room) 

or because I do it without complaint,

but because I'm doing it as best as a fallen, 

selfish sinner who needs Jesus every single moment of every day can. 

I'm doing it for the least of these and therefore, I'm doing it for Him. 

And because of that...

He calls me Faithful.

Beloved, He see's YOU. 

He sees the love you give your children, 

the stories you read to them, 

the meals you make

the hours of playing barbies and xbox 

and watching Frozen clips for the millionth time

He sees you waiting, praying, hoping...

daily living.

He hears the encouraging words you say to your husband.

He sees when you respect and honor and uplift the man He gave you 

as your helper in this difficult life.

He sees the hurts, the sacrifices, the pain.

He cares about your future together. 

He sees every look, every caress, every smile, every tear. 

He cares about the loads of laundry, the daily sweeping, even the dog!

He sees the hard work you put in at your job, 

the hours away from your family. 

He sees you at the 3 a.m. feedings when you are exhausted.

He sees  you when you hold your baby in your arms and soothe his tender cries.

He sees you soothe every boo boo and pray against the monsters and bad dreams. 

He sees you in early morning as you frantically search for homework and permission slips and fund raising money and shoes that never are in the right place. 

He sees you in the 30 minute car pool line, 

the driving from ballet to piano to football and gymnastics.

He sees you holding broken hearts as you pray for the right words of sympathy and healing. 

He sees you battling teenage drama and heartache.

He sees you fighting for your children at every age.

He sees you at the foot of every little bed, as you kiss goodnight and pray for restful nights.

He sees you as you wave good bye each time they leave for that college dorm.

He sees how much you love others, 

the way you minister to your neighbor or co-worker 

or the little children in your Sunday school class and the friend who needs your love.

He sees You.

And for all these things and so much more,

He calls you Faithful.

"If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones." Luke 16:10

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Joshua Box - Part II

I am writing about our Joshua Box in honor of this memorial day. A box with items that remind us of where God has brought us, protected us and overwhelmed us wiht mercy, love and grace.

Items - Tags from a mattress and a business card.

One Sunday at Church my husband, being the outgoing and never embarrassed person that he is, was asked to be a part of the illustration in the sermon. Of course he was all for it.

The illustration had to do with how no matter what you do to a hundred dollars, whether you stomp on it or crumble it up, the value will still be a hundred dollars. I can't remember the point exactly, but I do remember my husband on stage jumping up and down on this hundred dollars.

And at the end of the illustration our pastor gave him the money!

That was all fun and great and we were very excited about the extra money! Who wouldn't be.

At the time I was about 8 months pregnant with crazy kid. I had all of my showers where we were so blessed to recieve so much of what we needed and registered for.

The week before we had just purchased the crib and a few of the other necessities that we had not recieved.

When my husband got off the stage I whispered in his ear and said, "Woohoo, this will cover the mattress!"

On our way out of church that day, lots of people came up to us and congratulated him on the money. And as we walked out of the doors, a couple who we had never met before told my husband he did a great job and then asked us what we planned to do with the money. We immediately responded by saying we were going to go to babies r' us and buy that mattress.

The lovely wife said, "Oh don't do that. We have a mattress you can have. We bought one for our granddaughter when she comes to visit, but she actually sleeps with us so why don't you have it."

We were blown away. We had never met these people. They were insistent. The mattress was perfect. A lot better than the one we were planning to buy. And crazy kid has slept on it like a champ ever since.

And as for the business card...

During that time where I was 8 months pregnant, my husband was looking to move into a manager position. There was one opening up about 30 minutes away from us in a new location and we thought that would be great. We weren't sure when that position would open but it was the only one available at the time. We told our small group what we wanted and we prayed that God would open the doors and put him in the right place. However, our small group leader added a simple request that night. He prayed that God would place him where he needed to be and if at all possible, he would place him in the location that was 8 minutes away from our home. That God would give the manager at that location a better job and move him so hubs could be there.

We thought, "That would be nice." But, the reality was that this manager lived a few blocks away, he loved the area and it would be a miracle if he left.

God works miracles.

About a month later, the manager calls my husband and says, "Hey I just took a position in town with another company making more money. My wife and I just purchased a loft that we have been wanting. I wanted to let you know so you can post for my location."

A few weeks after crazy kid was born, he became the manager of the location that was literally 8 minutes away from our home.

We were amazed. Wow God. How much you love and care for us that you bless others in order to bless us. And they have no idea!

To God be the Glory!

Joshua Box

Every Memorial Sunday our church celebrates what we call "Joshua Box" Sunday. The majority of our congregation has in their home a Joshua box, which is basically any kind of box, be it decorative or a fancy shoe box and inside this box holds memorable items of the things the Lord has done in our lives and in our family's lives.

This is taken from the book of Joshua, before right before they cross the Jordan River and are about to enter into the promise land through the fallen walls of Jericho.

“Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.” Joshua 4

Our Joshua box sits in our living room and inside it has a few memorable items that show God's grace, love, mercy and protection.

Inside we have a few pictures of our house being built, my ID from when I taught High School and my husband's liscensing certificates.

We keep these items together because they all sort of occurred around the same time.

We were to be married in August of '03.

We knew that we did not want to move into an apartment and my husband, the frugal and wise financial person that he is had been saving money for a home for some years. We were driving around all over town looking for a home to purchase or build. For some crazy reason we ended up a little farther than we had anticipated, but nonetheless, a neighborhood had just gone up and the prices were low, the homes were perfect for first time buyers and we prayed, sought counsel and went on to purchase the house. By the way, we bought when the interest rates just happened to be at their lowest ever.

It was a leap of faith because I did not have a job yet, I was in the process of finding a teaching position. I had a few interviews but nothing had come out of them.

The house was going to be finished the week before we married.
It was late July and I still did not have a job. I had applied to every school district in the area. Nothing.

Then out of the blue, on the 29th of July, about 2 weeks before school starts, I get a call for a teaching position at a school I had never heard of. I interview and the next day they offer me the job. I learned that out of almost 1000 applicants, they offered a 22 year old, fresh out of college this position.

The funny part of it is that I don't even remember applying. Like I said, I applied to every district, some an hour's drive away, literally. And this school was about 25 minutes from our new home.

The house was built. We were getting married on Saturday, we signed on Thursday, moved in Thursday night. We spent our first night as husband and wife in our new home.

A few months later, my husband was given the oppurtunity to get his liscences and moved positions and locations to a location about 15 minutes away from our new home. He had currently been in the area we thought we would live in.

2 years later we got our of our comfort zone and began scoping out churches in the area. We found the greatest church in the world, fell in love with the people and have formed the most wonderful relationships. Our church is 5 minutes away from our house.

We never thought we would wind up so far from where we were first looking for homes, but God positioned us here. He knew so much more than we did. He blessed us so much more than we ever would have imagined.

In the next few days as we begin our memorial day weekend, I will be sharing with you more contents from our box and what God has done for my family. And, I would encourage you to begin one in your family so that one day your children may look into the box and ask what is this for and you can share with them the goodness of God.