Rough Waters

Sometimes life has rough waters, and sometimes it's easy sailing. All I know is that whatever ship you choose to cross the ocean, choose carefully. If you had told me what the last 60 days would have looked like a year ago, I may have cried. I'll start with the hard stuff and end it well. Please wait for the magical finale. In my life, these are not just coincidental, these are truly amazing works of God, my Father, who daily bears my burdens...

Give thanks to the LORD and proclaim his greatness.Let the whole world know what he has done. 

1 Chronicles 16:8

• Our AC went out for the billionth time, so we lived in a hot house for a few days...weeks. Well, we have these really awesome friends, the Hamiltons, who let us move in with them for that 105 degree week, and greater still, our home insurance plan covered our new $7,000 AC unit so we only spent a measly $300 to replace it. Don't you think God knew?
• Our roof got pelted with hail, so insurance said we needed a new one. So we have this really awesome friend, Josh, who hooked us up with a roof for less than the insured amount just so we didn't have to pay anything out of pocket, and there was even some leftover. Who does that for people?! Don't you think God knew?
• Our house was robbed of all electronics, and more than that, we felt so violated and unsafe. Well, we happen to have the most wonderful support system on planet earth, who not only cared about us, loved us, and helped us, but gifted us with THE most wonderful blessings to replace what was lost. Don't you think God knew far far FAR in advance?
• We've been doing Dave Ramsey's Financial University, and that means no spending on pretty much anything. Anything. Yep, go ahead and duck tape those shoes back together (just kidding...kinda). We've been in this class for 6 weeks and already piled over 10x our normal amount on student loans. Never did I know that was possible.
• Jonathan and I shot the most gorgeous wedding a few weeks ago, and our 7 hours of footage was stolen (and hard drives) during the robbery, including all of those amazing photos! Good thing God is in the business of showing off and answering prayers, because the camera cards, which happened to be already erased, were not at our house that day, and were able to be recovered by a company far, far away. Thank you Lord! I'll take it.
• Our family has been plagued with sickness after sickness this month, including the throw up bug. Good thing we are now immune and have a healthy, happy, and walking baby boy!

And because I have seen God's faithfulness in the past, I will trust him with my future. My grandfather is in his last season of life, and I have been experiencing never-ending dizziness that has yet to be diagnosed. Even so, I choose to sail on God's ship through these continuing rocky waters. Cheesy at the analogy might be, it really paints such a real picture in my mind, because I know that there is a beautiful beach waiting just a few miles ahead, and God is going to get me there if I just listen to his directions, one turn at a time.

From his abundance we have received one gracious blessing after another. 

John 1:16

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness. 

Psalm 115:1