Chocolate Castles as wel

This week has been such a time of reflection of where we have come from and how God has brought us back to this place.

Maybe it is the Fall temperatures which have been so welcomed this past week (even had a tornado hit about 1/2 mile from where we live) which has given us a few nights of rain and cloudy days and of course, made me want to bake everyday.

Things now are back to normal as we are totally settled and feel that sometimes we never left Dallas at all! We kind of somehow just fell into our old way of life with some of the same friends who we have done “life” with for some many years. And while that feels wonderful to be able to do that, we also get excited to see the new ways God will use us and new folks that we are getting to meet! This week we had some new friends over for dinner along with a friend who we have known for 20 yrs. It was such a great reminder to us that while it is always so good to still get together with friends who we have memories with, it is so neat to be sitting there making a new memory with people who we have just met!

As we continue to think back over the last 10 yrs of our lives, it is with a great fondness that we can talk about what The Lord has done for us in spite of some trials and unwanted circumstances which came our way! Looking back, we know that God was still working in our lives to bring us to a point which grew us closer to Him and that He has allowed our hearts to heal from the hard days back in 2013 when we left California. Today as we drove out of the church parking lot, I turned to Randy and said “this is the first time I have truly felt like I’m home since we left Pasadena”. It has been a long journey back here! The Lord allowed us a time in a wilderness, not only physically but spiritually! Each place He has taken us has taught us lessons which we might not have learned without being there! Lessons which included times of learning to trust God when we didn’t feel His presence! A lesson that taught us that He is always faithful to lead and guide even though some of the places He took us were not places that “felt right” at the time and used us in spite of our inadequacies. We have learned that if we want to experience spiritual blessings in our lives, we must be totally surrendered to His will, not ours! We must, in our times of brokenness, remember that we still have things that God can take and use for His glory! That our faith, no matter how small, can grow “even when our vision is blurred! That faithfulness isn’t measured in performance or perfection, but by endurance.”

“Our loyalty to God is determined by our faith in His promises, particularly when it requires waiting through bleak and troubled times!”

Our journey these past 5 years has been filled with days of doubt sometimes, but we know we have been given the opportunity to come full circle back to the place that we call home! Not only physically, but in our hearts as well!

We are not only grateful for the lessons we have been learning but for Gods love and PROVIDENCE over our lives!

” Great is thy faithfulness O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning from Thee! All I have needed thy Hand hath provided, Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me! ”

Quotes are taken from Daily In His Presence