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Hey friends,
I thought I’d post a little update on here, probably more for me than you honestly as I love going back and reading my random posts about life from a few years ago. For a bit I tried to have a personal blog and this blog as well but it just wasn’t working out. So, feel free to read if you want to or skip this one if you are looking for more decor/diy related posts.
Way back in January, I posted my word for the year, FLOURISH which you can read more about here. I had no idea what this year had in store for me but I just knew it was going to be good!
On January 13th, I wrote in my journal praying for a tribe of women, direction with what to do with my life, wanting a bible study and knowing the Lord had good things in store for me. He has been blowing me away left and right since that day!
My first answered prayer, I did a bible study with my friend Laurel (we met through a mutual friend when she needed help picking out a paint color) and it’s been such a joy to do a study with her! We went through the book and videos of To Live is Christ to Die is Gain by Matt Chandler, I highly recommend it. I loved our time together every week and really it was just what I needed to start off the new year.
An area of struggle for us has been finding a church home. We have lived in our current city for a little over 5 years now. When we left Wisconsin we just knew it was time to go but we were very sad to leave our church family that we had been a part of for almost 9 years. I don’t think we realized how truly amazing our church family was and how much we would miss serving alongside them. Our faith really found it’s roots at that church and my husband grew into his servant leadership there, it was so cool to be a part of. We really loved serving together and being a part of something powerful and amazing!
I hope that my heart will be very very clear in these next few sentences, coming from a place of humility and love. It has been very difficult for us to find a church home here even close to what we left behind and I now know that this is part of our journey. We have been part of two wonderful churches here but for various reasons, we really could not settle at either one. Through these churches we have met wonderful people, served on some great teams in various ways, seen great ministry take place, seen people come to the Lord, people be baptized, so many great things. I would recommend either one of these churches to anyone looking for a place to worship. Even though these were both great churches, something was just not right for us at either one. We tried, we prayed, we tried some more to stick it out but we were really both feeling discontent. The Lord wanted to work some stuff out of both of us and it was a good almost 5 years of desert wanderings that was needed and we can see that now looking back.
We’ve found a new church home, we are connected and serving the Lord! Hopefully there will be a blog post coming soon on how we made this cool wall for one of the rooms at church and we have a few more rooms that both my hubby and I get to work on together!!! I mean, honestly, that we can create and work on this stuff together, in the church, praying over the rooms while we work, that’s just the coolest thing! My love of painting, creating and design while working with my man, used for God, I can’t even. That He would allow me to do this and use it in this small way is amazing! On top of that, there was a church event for women to support a local womens shelter in our community and I was in charge of decor. To be a part of a group of women working together on an event, to have the caption in a photo of us be about a tribe of women, just what I prayed for in January, it’s really too much! To have people who see value in what I love to do, who can say, Yes, we need what you have, let’s work together, it’s what I have been desiring to do these past few years!
The love and joy we have felt finding our place has been amazing! I want to encourage anyone who is having a hard time finding your place to keep praying and seeking. For a while I really felt shame that we were on our third “new” church in five years because as humans we want to be the people who have it together and don’t want to be seen as a “Church hopper or shopper.” Once I put my focus on God who knows my heart, confessed my pride and just let it be, the peace was amazing.
Seriously, this has been a LONG journey for us and something we have struggled with but it was all worth it. Along the way we met amazing people and I love that I can still see these people around town even though we aren’t part of the same “church”, we are part of a big, amazing, beautiful, wonderful CHURCH body, we are brothers and sisters in CHRIST! Imagine if we all stepped out of our church bubble and joined hands across our city, how much could be accomplished in the name of Jesus?!? Our vision and prayer is that churches could unite and work together instead of keeping to themselves, so that the name of Jesus would be glorified!
You would think that all that I have written so far would be enough but God continues to just wow me. I have been back and forth on what to do with my business so I decided to let it die and I really was ok with it. Painting was getting to be too hard on my shoulder and I wasn’t finding joy in it. The hubby and I would have some conversations about me working in the fall, maybe a part time job that would be just days, no nights or weekends. I’ve looked a few times but nothing seemed right. Then a few weeks ago a job literally landed in my lap. My love of Sherwin Williams runs deep and through my business I developed a great relationship with the manager of my local store. I ended up accepting a part time position in the store and will start later this week. I’m excited to help people pick out paint colors and I love talking with strangers, so I think this will be a great fit for me. Another answered prayer as I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself and I was needing something to focus on besides cleaning my house and doing nothing.
One thing that I have really missed is having connections through blogging. Back in Wisconsin I had a friend who also blogged so it as fun to get together with her and talk shop if you will. Last year the city I lived in started a city moms blog. I considered applying to be a contributor but I didn’t for whatever reason. When the call came this spring for new contributors, I decided to apply. I am excited to say, I am a contributor to our city mom blog and I love it. It gives me a chance to blog in a little different direction than here. But what I love the most is, the chance to connect with other bloggers and moms in my city! We just had a meeting last night and I really loved meeting so many other women who love to blog and also love to connect women in our city. I’m excited to see where this leads, it definitely fits in with my love of connecting people and also from last year, my desire to go deeper into our local community.
The joy, the joy that I have experienced this year has been overwhelming to me. So many answered prayers, so many ways I feel God saying, Here let me show you this now. I really am flourishing and it’s amazing! The past few years of loneliness, numbness, shame, frustration, sadness, it was part of His plan all along, working out what needed to be worked out. Not to say I am perfect now, as it’s always a journey but it’s been an exciting year for me and it’s not over yet!!!!
Psalm 92
12But the godly will flourish like palm trees
and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.
13For they are transplanted to the LORD’s own house.
They flourish in the courts of our God.
14Even in old age they will still produce fruit;
they will remain vital and green.
15They will declare, “The LORD is just!
He is my rock!
There is no evil in him!”
