Happy Easter! I hope that you had a great weekend and enjoyable time with family and friends.
If you were to ask a random group of people what Easter means to them, it would be safe to assume you would get a variety of answers? Although our past experiences can dictate our feelings toward a particular event and/or holiday, we should all have the same response to the greatest event in history – Jesus rose from the dead!
Our faith teaches us this, but do we really, I mean really believe this? It’s so easy to say yes I believe it, but to live it as we believe is something entirely different, especially when we have to put our trust in God. As I had shared with you in my last post, my family and I made a huge decision and are moving.
For about the last year and a half, we have been talking about what we think God wants for us. We had two awesome children, Faith (10) and Luke (6) and thought we were good; another child would mean sleepless nights, giant car seats and strollers (I swear each one of my child’s new car seat seemed to get bigger and heavier), and baby toys all over the house. However, my wife and I kept wondering if we would regret in 20 or so years of not at least trying to have one more? Would we reflect back and say why didn’t we have more, because of convenience? We prayed about it and believed because it was constantly on our minds that God was telling us yes.
When we discovered that God blessed us with a new little one, we were elated. However, now we wondered if God was asking us to slow down our lives as well. Now that we have 3 children, my wife wanted to spend more time at home with them and get involved in Faith and Luke’s school more. This would mean leaving her well established job and stay home. Our income would be cut in half, and this concerned us. We had both worked hard to get where we were and had a comfortable life.
Living in the Chicago area is expensive and now reducing our income in half, it was going to be quite difficult for us to find the right home. So we made a huge decision and began looking around the US and after much research and persuasion by my cousin who lives there, we found North Carolina. Now I must add that our other family members were looking to move as well. So, could all this actually be a reality including uprooting other family members ranging from Illinois to Texas. I have to admit, my wife had more trust in the Lord in this than I did.
There are a lot of details in between, but we constantly asked God to give us signs that this would be the right move for us, and boy did he answer! Our family in Texas landed a job in the area and bought a house right down the street from where we were buying a house. As I am actually writing this, we have other families searching for homes and jobs, and by the grace of God all will fall into place. I still need an occasional nudge from God letting me know he’s got this, and when I reflect back on this past year and a half, I believe that he does. If there is something that you’ve been pondering for a while, take it to prayer and consult with family. Throughout our lives we will all have big decisions to make, and keeping God at the front of any decision makes it easier, we just have to believe AND trust.
Side note about the image used – while home searching in North Carolina we stayed with my cousin and her family. Meeting for the first time, my kids and her kids bonded immediately. They are excited to live near each other and to be a part of each other’s lives. The image was driveway art they created and we look forward to seeing more of it!
God bless!
