Thursday, May 16, 2013

God Chasing {Writing our Family story}

 
 
 
This morning I drug myself up out of bed at 6 to go to the gym with my friend. After not sleeping well. Figures. 
I swam laps for about 20 min until I got a horrible headache, felt like throwing up, and wanted to die. 
Clearly, I am out of shape. 
I don't know why I told you that.. maybe I was hoping you could relate somehow and tell me how horribly exhausted you feel after working out, but it has nothing to do with what I am going to write about.. I just wanted you all to know I am obviously in need of a more frequent work out routine.

Anywho..

The past couple of weeks we have been going through an incredible series about writing our family story.
As it stands, the rest our lives, and our families lives, are unwritten.
No matter what happened in our past, the legacy our family will leave behind, is up to us.



Before this series, I knew there were things the Lord wanted to to change within our home but I just kinda ignored it.
Then, Sunday, we ended the series.
We were given the opportunity to choose one saying that we wanted to define our family.
Something we felt God wanted for us.
Something we desperately wanted for us.
I was sitting next to Nathan and all I kept thinking was fearless.
I wanted our family to live a life free of fear.
Trusting the Lord in everything and in turn leaving no room for fear at all.
We were asked to consider and pray over what we should write before we walked up to grab our stake. (this is what we wrote on and later would put in the ground of our front yard to signify our decision)
I looked at Nathan and I said, "Fearless."
He smiles and says, "That is exactly what my first thought was. Let's take it a step further. God Chasing. 
Me: What does that mean for us?
Nathan: To continually keep the Lord before for us as our family fearlessly follows after Him!
Me: PERFECT! 


 
 
In those moments, when the Lord speaks so clearly to my heart and I share it with my husband only to find out God was speaking the same thing to him, I get so overwhelmed with the realization of the Father's love for us. 
For Nathan. For Me. For our family.
 
The truth? What is it that I thought needed to change but decided to brush it aside? 
Me. 
I needed God to change me.
The way I speak to my husband. 
How angry I get over little things. Things that don't matter. 
How I show him respect and love.
How I honor him.
Because we chose God Chasing, my prayer is to keep the Lord before me. 
That way, He can teach me kindness. 
He can teach me forgiveness and selflessness.
 He can teach me to hold my tongue.
He can teach me to live a fearless life of following after Him.

As we drove the stake into the ground, I knew God had big plans for us. 
 
That no matter what my past looks like, or what's happened in my family or Nathans, generations before us, God has a beautiful, God chasing plan for our family and I trust Him to lead us to be the family He desires us to be. Fur babies and all.

 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9
 
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 
 
You can listen to all the lessons here.
If any of you do this with your family, I would LOVE more than anything to hear all about it. 
 

6 comments:

  1. God works in our lives in such amazing ways. I can relate as i need to work on many areas of my life as you mentioned above. Thanks for the great post & sharing the lessons. ;)

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  2. Ooooh this sounds awesome! I'm going to have to listen to the lesson! :)

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  3. I am so glad I clicked on this via twitter today! I want to share this with everyone... and hope to look into this series soon!

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  4. Oh, how I loved this post! It never ceases to amaze me how God continues to work in our lives :)

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  5. Love this Jess! Thanks for sharing!

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