Life in His Hand

Being a follower of Jesus does not mean that your life suddenly turns into a rose garden. It does not mean you have no problems. They are thinking about closing my church down. It does not matter that we are a living, breathing community of believers who meet together in our small town to worship God and strengthen each other. It does not matter that by being here we are keeping a light burning in our community for people of like beliefs which cannot be found in any other church in our small town. It does not matter that we are bonded to one another. No it does not matter. What does apparently matter is the size of our bank account. We don't have much money. It does not matter that we share a pastor with the church in the next community which has means and in all actuality we are not costing the conference anything more. No it doesn't matter. We simply do not generate enough money in tithes. We do not matter... But we matter to God. And we matter to each other and the peopl...

Every New Year, I pray for a word that sort of describes and sets the tone for the upcoming year. Last year's word was- "step."   God impresses them on my mind. You can click on "step" in my labels to read about what all happened with that word this year. Last year was very hard, as I was approaching the New Year. I was under tremendous pressure at home. I knew my husband and I needed to get a divorce. I just didn't know how the kids and I would make it. So there was a lot of fear surrounding that. During that year (2011), God had provided things for us (teaching me to trust Him) when there simply was no money, including moving us to this smaller, cheaper house-where the kids and I could have a chance to afford to live on our own, when the time came. I knew the time would come, when I found out we were moving here, because He had announced it to me a month ahead of time. Soon, I need to share the story of the sparrow and the little blue house. Another st...

For those of you that don't know, this year has been a doozy for me. I went through a divorce and all the transitions and changes have been very difficult. I am really learning to trust God. EVERYTHING is different. There is not one aspect of my life that hasn't changed or hasn't been affected in some way, even things that are foundational to me, like church, haven't been left untouched by this. But there has been a lot of growth on my part. This has been good for me, although it didn't/doesn't always feel so wonderful. Divorce is hard. I knew I needed out of the marriage. The emotional trauma that this divorce caused was just tremendous.  And so the pain and all the emotional stuff I went through, actually surprised me a little. I didn't think it would be so bad. Slowly, things have gotten better. I am learning to stand on my own two feet-still feeling a bit wobbly. On the flip-side, the benefits of this life-changing event are wonderful. I am no lo...