One year ago...

Wow! I can't believe one year ago today, I wrote my first blog. It feels like it was just a few weeks ago. I still remember where I was sitting and the emotions I was feeling. I was scared to death, lonely, anxious, homesick, but also excited to see why God had moved us down here. I'm not sure if I have an answer to that yet, but great things are happening. This has been an amazing year. As I sit here and think about what God has done in the last 12 months I see how awesome, sovereign, and mighty our God is.

I'm stealing this next quote from a Bible Study I am doing with our women's group at church. It is from Prisilla Shirer, and rings so true in my life. Most of you who know me know I've been in church my whole life. I have sat in the pews and listened to my pappaw preach since I was just a tiny baby. I knew the Word of God was true. I knew God loved me. I knew He was living within me. "What a tragedy it was to have Him living within me, know Scripture, and be acquainted with the ability of God but not recognize the connection between my reality and His ability." Throughout the past year I have finally realized His ability. Maybe that is the reason alone we went through this, so I would stop putting a lid on God's ability to do amazing things in my life, (yeah little ole me), pretty cool, huh? "Our God is predictable in His character, but He is unpredictable in His activity. You cannot box Him in. When you put a lid on a box, it doesn't limit God; it limits your awareness of God. He's still moving and speaking, yet you can be unaware of His transcendence, His greatness, and His ability because it's outside of your little box." How many times have you limited God in your life? I have limited Him most of my life. Looking back, God has always been good to me and blessed me, but how much more could I have been blessed if I really, wholeheartedly, believed, without a shadow of a doubt that God could do ANYTHING I asked for. "Whether God moves is a question of HIs sovereignty, not His ability. What He does is His business. Believing that He CAN is our business." So friends, believe! When I moved down here one year ago I knew this is where God wanted our family. However, that didn't make me any less sad, scared, and yes, a little bitter. But I prayed and prayed for friends, for a church that we could call home and become involved in, for my kids to meet friends, for God to use me and my family. And guess what, God surrounded our family with a group of friends here that I love! They have become like family to us. God led us to a church we love and are involved in. My kids have wonderful friends, and It isn't a coincidence that most of our friends have children around the same ages of our children. God is using Craig at Anderson University. They are leaving for a mission trip in 3 weeks. Yes, God is so good.

One last thing...I often have to remind myself of this. Philippians 4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
I have a prayer journal I have kept over the years. I love to get it out and read it. It is truly amazing to see the prayers God has answered in my life and the lives of others. It reminds me we serve an awesome God! "God made sunsets and sunrises. He exceeds all expectations. When you know your God is transcendent, that His ability and His truth go infinitely beyond you, then it causes you to pray differently. When you know who you're dealing with, it changes how you relate to Him. It makes you believe for bigger things. You expect more fully than you ever expected because you know that the God you're talking to is not just able, but He also loves you and has your best interest in mind." Priscilla Shirer