Letting go...

Our orchid has made it through every move

   
The month of September was spent moving totes, of things deemed too valuable or sentimental to sell, between my parents and Eric's parents. There they will sit for the next 3+ years as we are serving in England.

     The last week of September found us moving the boxes of things we currently need, items that we may ship overseas with us, and our bedroom furniture to Eric's parents. We are officially moved in to his parents basement.

We were so blessed by so many people through out this whole transition. We want to say thank you to our friends and family who helped not only on our moving day but through out the month - packing the number of totes (a little more than 50), car trips taken, and furniture hauled.  We are also blessed by the generosity of Eric's parents to let us stay with them for the next few months.

We are so encouraged by our support team, we couldn't do it with out you!

Through out this whole transition I have been pondering on the difference of a "here and now" view and "eternal" view. This time has been especially difficult for me, as a woman I desire to take care and provide a home for my family. As someone who has been independent and self reliant for the last 8 years it is hard to rely on other people for my basic needs. My personality is one where I like to do well, to have things ordered and in their place, to have things make sense...  being in a position that the world would consider as 'losing' it is hard to remember our lives are held to a different standard.

If we aren't careful the world's view slips into our thought process and takes our eyes off of God's plan. It can be easy to look at things with the "here and now" view, the desire to have a good life now. It is easy to forget that our purpose isn't to have a good life now, but to follow God's plan and bring him glory.  Does that mean that everyone has to sell everything and go overseas? No of course not. It also doesn't mean that I have it figured out and don't struggle with the desire to have what the world calls a good life.

It just means that when we set things aside to follow God we have to remember to look at it from an eternal perspective so we don't get discouraged in what we are 'letting go'.  This past month my focus has been on what is being let go - when God wants our focus to be on what He is preparing us for.
When that is our focus it isn't so hard to have Joy in the midst of change, because our God works things out for our good and knows how to give good things to his children - whether those are things the world consider good or not.