Home again

I have been absent. I don't know if you've noticed. I have written a few posts, and didn't publish them.

The holiday season was amazing for us this year. I crafted and created my heart out, and I was very pleased with my gifts. People said they like them, though I always wonder if they are just being polite.

We had plenty of time hosting people in our home through December, and my heart was bursting with joy because of it. We had just the right amount of time with people, and time alone with our family. We had lots of time outside on our pond skating. There were times when I had just stand still and silent, smiling. Having people I love out in the open prairies with the sun shining while skating and playing hockey... sigh... perfect!

A funny highlite of the holiday season for me was something my brother in law initiated. He emailed us all in the middle of December talking about starting a family God story journal for us as an extended family. He encouraged us all to come prepared to share something and add it to the journal that would be a collective treasure for our family to look back and see how God has worked in our lives over the years. Yes, this is the kind of family I am blessed to be a part of :) So I got thinking... and what God revealed to me is so powerfully shaping me that I wanted to share it with more people. I sat down and I felt like God gave me the word HOME, and a spider web like visual of all things going back to the center- the center being home. This is what I wrote to add to the family journal.

I am thankful for the chance to be encouraged to reflect on how God has worked in my life--- we all have so many stories to share and remember, and I can't wait to show my kids and grandkids that journal with evidence of God's faithfulness through generations.

"My God story is actually kind of a summary of an entire year. When I thought about how God I saw God in my life, it was like a web all leading to the same idea and it was a years’ worth of God.

2011 was the year of Home for me.

After so long of feeling lost and sleepy in my faith and life, I had a spring like awakening when on a retreat with Twyla in Canmore this past January. God spoke to me that I had fallen into a winter, like as in Narnia, and that He was slowly defrosting me and bringing me into the warmth and beauty of spring.  It was a cool image and I was thankful that God spoke to me and encouraged me that way. That was the beginning of coming home.

The home analogy is visible in many areas of my life, not just a spiritual awakening.

This year was a year where I came to a place of comfortableness with relationships and friendships. I feel like I am at home with people I have built relationships with. The ladies who were in the mom’s group last year,  had the privilege of watching one of our members grow significantly in her faith and witness her be baptized. The whole process of changing the group to a church based ministry was a big challenge and I had a hard time being obedient. It has not been easy, but I have heard His leading and I see how He has woven things together to make the current group a thing of beauty and strength. Though it is not what I originally pictured, it is what He designed and I see His hand leading the entire thing.

Leading the moms group was key to my coming home to feeling excited about ministry again. For a long time I had been overwhelmed and limited in my involvement in ministries. The mom’s group helped light the fire in me for ministry again. Then Awana came and that re-ignited my passion for working with kids. It was like coming home to who God designed me to be, and seeing the areas He gave me passion for.

This year has also been a year of remembering our passion for hosting in our home and using this home to bless others. Not just in official ministry but also as a lifestyle. Tyler and I both enjoy hosting people and groups, working together to pull things off. Having key events here has reminded me of one of the reasons why we felt God lead us to this home in the first place—and that was to fill it with people! It is exciting and energizing to see Him giving us a purpose for our home, and a bit of a mission as a family.

Home is also where we have been doing our educating this year. Officially starting school with Emmett was a big scary step. But home educating has not been the challenge I thought it would be. It has fit into our life very easily and the results have been encouraging. I know that home is where He has us for now and I am thankful to be able to teach my children.

And finally God is bringing me home to His heart and arms. I am coming back to a place of intimacy and growth that I once had and am longing for again. The years after having the boys have been a blur spiritually but slowly I am making and taking time to make Him priority again. As I journey with Him, He is drawing me closer, back to Him. I am learning more about living in the moment and seeing each moment as a gift."