Who Knew?

On New Years Eve 2011 Bill and I sat and made goals for 2012 for ourselves, our marriage & our family. Who knew that God was truly listening & then laughed at us. 

I decided that night that I needed to make myself a priority. And I nievlely thought it meant health wise & joined Weight Watchers the next week. I also began getting up at the butt crack of dawn to spend time with the Lord. Having a quiet time had been put to the bottom of my list of responsibilities. But little did I know that night that God was laughing at me, "ohh, my precious child do I have plans for you" - Yep, that's what God must have been saying that night.

Our first goal for our marriage was to start the Real Marriage series by Mark & Grace Driscoll - the pastors of our church Mars Hill. We started the series, joined a community group to dive deeper into the book study & began the process of also really getting to know other couples at church. This series has been Awesome! It has stretched me more in the last 2months than ever before. I have had to come to some hard realizations about myself, about my marriage and our children. I also can say that today, I feel closer to my husband than I have EVER felt!  This series although hard has been just what the Lord wanted for us. 

In the last few weeks we have had to come face to face with some things in our home, marriage & personal life that we never thought we would have to. It is still very fresh & raw for me even as I type. But I know that to be refined by the Refiners fire means some pain & hurt.  But on the other side of this refining lays a life of beauty & grace free of shame & hurt and I cannot wait to get there!