My husband and I have spent the last year on a faith journey with the Lord and I am happy to say that I’m baaack!
A year ago my husband and I found ourselves in a discussion about simplifying our life. Our home that was once filled with kiddos and a lot of action was now filled with just us! Our kiddos are no longer kids, they are adults now with lives and homes of their own. We realized that we were actually living in about a fourth of our home; do we really need 3 living spaces for 2 people? And what about that horrible drive to and from work that my husband was driving each day? 100 miles round trip, who needs that? What happened to the simpler life of the Fun Fifties where you s l o w down and take life a little easier? We were perplexed! What are we doing wrong Lord? The more I thought about it I realized that simplifying our life wasn’t going to *poof* just happen, we were going to have to make some changes.
To simplify implies that it is simple! But simplifying your life involves the C word, CHANGE! And change can be challenging, it can be scary, and depending on how great the change, it can be extremely stressful. For me, moving 50 miles West brought all of the above, for my husband it was easy! Women are emotional, men are fixers…there ya have it!
And so change began…
There was a house to pack up and sell, a house to buy (one that was smaller and more practical for the two of us), a job I was going to have to leave, and a new job I was going to have to find. We had a new grandbaby and children we would be moving further away from; oh my heart was in panic mode. HELP!
Interestingly, in the midst of all of the crazy emotions, I knew this was the right thing to do. I began to feel a peace deep inside my spirit, my heart just needed to get with the program! I knew we were making this move for all the right reasons and we had to trust the Lord to lead us and bring it all together for us. Another faith walk!
So, that’s what we did. We prayed for God to take charge, to protect us from wrong decisions, to lead us to our new home and to lead that perfect couple to the home we were selling. Together we trusted God with all of the details, which were many! And then we walked it out one day at a time.
One day at a time…
“So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.” (Matthew 6:34 TLB) Boy that is surly easier said than done for many of us, especially if you’re like me! When I make a decision I jump in with both feet and its full speed ahead to completion! Well simplifying our life was going to take time, it was not going to be an overnight transition and there were going to be many things out of my control.
A year later I find myself sitting here in a house that has now become our home, it is perfect! The town we moved to is 6 miles from my husband’s office, he barely drinks a sip of his coffee and he’s at work. Our neighbors are like Mayberry R.F.D 🙂 Everyone is so neighborly, kind and friendly! Our son, daughter-in-law and grandbaby are 40 minutes away from us now. I was heartbroken at the thought of being so far, but they have been amazing! They send us pictures and videos almost daily and we see them at least once a week. A few months before we moved, our daughter and her fiancé moved to the West side to be closer to their jobs, they are only 3 miles from us!
What did I learn?
Once again, I was reminded that He’s got our back. When you ask God to lead, you’ve got to get out of the way and you’ve got to trust Him. He is the Boss and He knows what’s best for us. He has a plan for your life and mine that He has personally and meticulously handcrafted! The Bible says, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalm 139:16 NLT)
As we began to submit to His perfect will for our life the pieces started falling into place. Faith is grown out of the times in our lives when we are most vulnerable. Our faith is able to grow greater than our fears when we take His hand and walk with Him through the uncertainties of this life.
Welcome to our simplified life and home!
