Much ado about nothing

Moved into my house Sunday! It still looks like a tornado hit it, and then came back and hit it again, but there is some progress being made! I got the gas turned on today finally...heat is always a good thing when it's 27 degrees in the morning here. Space heaters have saved my life since Monday!

I'm so thankful for everyone's help this past week! I couldn't have done it without all of you chipping in. I'm so blessed and so very thankful for the love and support that you have all shown me over the past 8 months. A big thank you goes to my parents! Mom came to pack up my house in neat and tidy boxes while dad helped load and drove the uhaul and trailer so I didn't have to.

A special thank you to my sis, Hannah Beth, and her friends for helping unload the truck! I can't wait for you to move in with me this fall! It's gonna be so much fun! :)

Can't wait to get my internet set up! I can live without tv, but internet...now that's a different story! Long moving week still ahead, but I will catch up on here later!

Thank you everyone for reading this blog! Remember, God is good, and He is there for you today, tomorrow, and the next! He will NEVER leave you!

Until next time,

Megs

Listening to God through tears

Last night I was a mess! Having to say goodbye to the life you have lived for the past seven years.Having to say goodbye to your husband for the last time, and having to say goodbye to those who were there for you through the roughest times throughout it all. I remember packing boxes upstairs in my closet. I was listening to my iTunes and tears, tears, tears just kept streaming down my face. I'd only felt like this one other time in my life and that was when the divorce was decided. They were tears of sadness, happiness, and being scared of what the future holds. I trust God completely, and I rejoice that he has made me human to feel the way I feel about certain situations, but it is very hard. While I could not stop crying, I text a dear, dear friend of mine, told her how much my heart hurt and this is what she text me back, word for word:

"You have what it takes Megan!!! You were CREATED with everything you need to handle all this messiness with grace...It's not something the Lord has to give you...He already put it inside you. All the strength, all the hope, and all the trust that you will ever need.  You CAN do this! :) and when it hurts so bad...That's okay. It shows that your heart is beautiful . Because only the most beautiful hearts can hurt so much and come out loving on the other side." 

WOW! First of all, I have amazing friends who help build me up and I'm forever thankful for that. While her words were so encouraging, I still couldn't swing this overwhelming sadness. I asked God, what do I need to pray for? I simply asked for peace. "Give my heart peace", I said. I remember getting distracted by something, then a burden was lifted off of me. It's literally like God said, "You are hurting and rightfully so, but I am here, and I will hold you until the pain goes away." Until recently, I never knew God could speak so clearly to me! I believe He has been speaking to me this whole time, I just haven't been listening. While the sadness is still there, God keeps reminding me of the future he has in store for me. How can I not be excited about that?!?

I encourage you to listen to God. Shut down the TV  put away your iPhone,iPad, and iPod, hide away from the family and listen. God is speaking to all of us and He has amazing things to say, we only need to listen!

Until next time,

Megs 

Trusting With All Your Heart

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5

I don't know that I ever knew what it meant to trust in God and let go of my fears. To fully let go of myself and trust him. I thought several times in my life I had done just that, until recently I discovered that I've never given him full control. What does giving God full control even look like?

After the divorce was decided, I started looking for comfort in all the wrong places. I thought that if I consume my life with something like more friends, a hobby, a boyfriend, working out, or a sport that would bring me fulfillment. Little did I know that God was waiting in the corner for me the whole time. When I finally let go of myself, it's like he said, "Ah, I've been waiting for you Megan!"

Trusting God like Proverbs 3 describes, means you have to let go of everything you understand and fully rely on God to lead you. My "coming to Jesus" moment, if you will, happened one night this year when I was utterly exhausted of trying to find happiness on my own. I was sitting in bed, in the dark, staring off into space thinking about my life and what I wanted to become. I lifted my hands in the air and said out loud, "I'm done. I'm completely yours, I surrender". Sadly enough, I had never done this ever in my life and meant it 100% without question. I'd like to tell you that I literally felt a burden lifted off of my shoulders, but it wasn't like that for me. It took time, like he was waiting to see if I really meant it, then BAM! God blessed me beyond what I could ever imagine. I found that I don't really stress about much anymore and understand what God meant when he said that worrying about tomorrow is pointless.

God has shown me what He will do for me when I let go of myself. He's shown me that He will provide my most basic needs and then some if I only trust in Him and Him alone! The opportunities that I have sitting in front of me didn't even begin to happen until I let go of myself. Not expecting anything different to happen, God overwhelmed me with love and options. A ton of options, and all of a sudden too. I can't even begin to describe the love I feel from Him falling down on me now. God is amazing all the time. I don't know why it took me 28 years to realize that trusting in Him fully is what He most desires. Now I can take the options that God has blessed me with and start to utilize them while attempting to further His kingdom by what he places in front of me.

I encourage you to look at your life and face your fears. My fear was to not rely on myself. I've always been so independent, but what I realized is that God wants me to be dependent on Him. God is bigger than you and has a much, much BIGGER plan that you ever imagined!

I will stumble, I DO stumble. I do fall. I will make so many more mistakes, I don't want to even think about it, but at the end of the day I have a loving, gracious, amazing God who loves me and wants me. Let go and let God!

Until next time,

Megs

The Dishwasher Story-Asking for help.

Sometimes women forget that men are not mind readers. For some reason we drum up this thought that men have superhero mind reading talent, and that just isn't the case. The Dishwasher Story is only one example and in no way applies to every woman or every relationship. Your thought for the day, enjoy.

Joan loved being a newlywed housewife. She took on the household chores that were deemed to be the "woman's duty" and she took delight in them. She enjoyed her new role as a wife and loved taking care of her husband at home.
Joan did the dishes every night for 3 years. In her 4th year of marriage, out of the blue, she exploded into a fiery ball of wrath, lashing out at her husband with verbal abuse. She resented the fact that she had, for the last 4 years of  her marriage, always done the dishes and not once had her husband offered to help or assume the responsibility. I ask you one question: WHY on earth would she get mad at her husband for her own shortcomings the past 4 years of never asking him for help? After all, he saw from the very beginning that she took delight in doing these household chores, why would he want to take that away from her if he thought that is what made her feel helpful, useful, and fulfilled?

As women, we tend to assume that help will be offered to us if the person really loves us or cares about us and "sees" us struggling with it. On the contrary, we should be serving those around us with a willing heart, expecting nothing in return. Otherwise, it is not truly a servant's attitude and we are only just fooling ourselves. If you wanted help, at any point (ever) with the dishes all these years, why didn't you just ask? Why do we as humans assume so much when all we really need to do is open our mouths and ask for help? What is it about human nature that makes us think the other person is just taking advantage of us and in our mind we create a world where we think they don't really care about us at all?

I'm not saying that the husband should never offer to help with the dishes or any other household chore, I'm arguing the case that most of us will automatically assume their spouse can read their mind and know exactly what the other is thinking and what they want them to do. This is our first mistake! SPEAK to each other in an honorable, respectful way if you would like assistance with something, with anything. Never ASSUME anyone knows what you want.

Does this mean you have to be stuck in this rut forever? What if you've gone the past 20 years without asking for help when that is what you desire the most? Is it to late for you? Absolutely not! It might be weird and awkward at first if you have never asked for help, but I'm here to tell you, that those who truly love you and care about you will help you when asked. All you have to do is ASK.

Seasons of Life

"For everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh: A time to mourn, and a time to dance: A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to throw away; A time to tear, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; A time of war, and a time of peace." Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

If you didn't read all of the above scripture, go back and read it...no really, stop reading this and go back and read it now....go!

Okay, now that you have read it, go back and study it...think of times in your life where each one applies to you. Go. Do it. Read it again!

There is a time for everything. Never did I realize before that our lives have seasons just like the weather. Is this a good season for you right now? Have great things been happening in your life? Perhaps this is a hard season for you. Things just seem like they keep getting worse and worse. The greatest comfort is knowing that God set aside seasons for everything! The Almighty outlines them in his scripture. I take comfort in knowing that God gave us seasons of greatness and seasons of sorrow. We live these seasons daily and we learn from these seasons. These seasons make us and shape us into who we are and who we will become.

I tend to divide my seasons up into what I know and what I am comfortable with. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. I had a rough, rough fall season with my newly formed divorce papers sitting in front of me. My winter was so so as I was preparing for the sale of our house and final documents to be drawn. I am shaping up for a much better spring by trusting in God with all of my heart. Looking back through the rough seasons, I have learned so much and I am so grateful for them and the things I went through. The lessons I learned far outweigh the struggles I went through.

I pray that God will bless you with a delightful Spring season and that you will look to Him for all wisdom and comfort no matter what you are going through.

Until next time,

Megs