From House to House

Our Sunday School class at church (yes I’m old and still call it Sunday School) has been having members share their testimonies! It has been so wonderful to hear how God has worked personally in each of these we have heard thus far. My Testimony was going to include how I still try to tell the Lord what I’m going to do and still expect Him to bless it instead of asking Him what His plan is or for guidance. I’m a slow learner in that respect! Even after seeing how much smoother and easier things went when I followed His will, I would still fall back into…”I want to do this or that and live here or there”…without even thinking about what Gods will was for us! Well yesterday it was my turn! I had told our Director that I would give my story either Aug 20th of 27th! (See I told you I still tried to control matters). But he texted me on Thursday and ask if I could do it yesterday! I quickly began to read over the words I had written trying to memorize as much as I could! I worked all day Fri on it as I didn’t want to have to read it, I wanted to be able to just talk about it! We had been told to try to limit it to about 10-12 min still giving our teacher time to teach the lesson! Saturday morning at 5:30 am the Lord woke me up and laid on my heart a new direction that He wanted me to tell! So I got up and started all over, writing about all the ways God had led us to different houses in different cities and how He had used each of these houses for His purposes! As i began to think back over the last 27 years we had been married, there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to tell all the ways He had worked in our lives allowing us to use our homes for so many wonderful ministries! But after praying about it, I decided to use the ones that had the most impact on in Randys’ and mine lives! As I thought back on so many different stories, I couldn’t help but stop and thank Him for the many blessings we both had received when we allowed Him to guide us and surrender to His will instead of trudging ahead with what we wanted! First of all you need to know that I love to move and in 27 years we have moved 13 times! That was the old me. It’s not as much fun to the new me! Just having to now pack and unpack isn’t as much fun as sitting with a piece of pie watching Wheel of Fortune! BUT…..in each of those 13 houses God has gone before us and used each and every one in so many different ways! Instead of making you read about every one of them, I thought I would share just one that has meant so much to us both as it shows Gods Hand of guidance as well!

This testimony begins with the fact that right after Randy and I married in 1996, we realized that with our track record, it was going to take more than just love to make this work, so we walked down the aisle of First Bapt Dallas and surrendered our marriage and our hearts to the Lord! It brought a whole new meaning to our marriage. We told the Lord that we wanted to not only surrender our marriage but our home as well. That He could use it for whatever He wanted! Each house that we have lived in has so many precious memories! Each move to a new city gave us so many different ways in which we were allowed to serve! God is a God of not only forgiveness and grace! ( not to mention second and third chances) but He gives us so so much more than we ever deserve! He is the God of impossibilities that ultimately shows us that He wants to be involved in our lives! For the sake of time (if you are still reading this) , let me just tell you one story of how God blessed us in leading us to one of our many houses!

We were looking to move closer in from Frisco to Plano to Randys job! We found a house that seemed to be perfect for all the entertaining we loved to do. It was in an area of town that we had driven through many times, always dreaming of living in! Well a house became available in our price range. We put an offer in and it was accepted. We were both so excited that finally we were going to be moving to this neighborhood to a house that mentally, I had already arranged the furniture, started picking out wallpaper and began to plan the first party. When Randy went for the inspection, he called me to tell me that we would not be buying the house. It had to have structural repairs, all new wiring and so much more! I cried! We both were so disappointed! This dream house would have been a nightmare to repair! Well this inspection was on a Wednesday and on Saturday, we went back to a house we had looked at before putting in an offer on our dream home! When Randy ask me what I thought, my reaction was “I guess we need to take this one, it will be ok”. My heart was not in it and I was having a pity party. But we bought it, made it us with new wallpaper and paint and carpet! The Lord knew He wanted us there and before 6 months was behind us, different ministries began to ask us if they could use our house for different purposes. This house was right across the street from our church and it became a hub of activity! We housed summer interns, a friend used our home on Monday nights for a program for girls healing from abortions! The Women’s Ministry used our home for so many different aspects that it seemed like every week there was something The Lord used our home for! It was truly a glorious time in our lives and the last night before moving to CA for Randys new job, we sat there on the bottom step of the inside stairwell and cried. We both knew that Gods Hand of protection had been over us in not allowing us to buy a house that would have cost a fortune to repair but also was so far from our church that all these ministries would not have been able to use our house. He had led us to a home that we were so grateful to have lived! A home that had truly been used for Him and His purposes. As we locked the door behind us for the last time, we knew, God had been with us in that place as He would once again lead us to a new place that would be used for His glory for new purposes! And He did! That is the faithfulness of our God! He goes before us as He did the Israelites as He led them to a place of Hope and Promise!

His love endures forever!