If There is One Thing I Know For Sure...When I Seek God, I Find Him

If there is one thing I know for sure, moving is difficult.  10 moves across seven states in 20 years, I should be an expert. It is a constant adjustment for our family and our children have been required to start in new schools and make new friends, time and time again.  Yes, it’s a crazy life, and sometimes, I tire of the constant change and sometimes, I relish in starting anew.

If there is one thing I know for sure, our moves are full of complications.  The pieces of a move rarely just fall into place, sometimes houses won’t sale quickly, sometimes we become unintentional landlords, sometimes the first and perfect house we try to buy doesn’t work out. Often we reach about Plan Z (or we simply quit counting) because it is a constant effort to figure out all the details and strategically, we must find a way over the hurdles.  Our destinations change – instead of moving to Flower Mound, Texas we moved to Southern Cal.  Instead of moving to Medford, New Jersey, we found a different job in Minnesota. Instead of rolling to a stop in Minnesota and living in our dream house we built, we now say, “Umm, that was just a “rolling stop.” There are times we have struggled to fit in to our new surroundings, but usually we hate to say good-bye because we have developed such good friendships. There always seems to be little problems that arise, that though they are minor, the magnitude is increased simply because these problems are added on to an already full plate.

If there is one thing I know for sure, even with all the challenges brought on by moving, God is in the details of each of the moves. He goes before me, (because eventually things fall into place, and we figure out the plan, and it seems as if God knew all along what would happen).  Sometimes, it turns out better than we had expected.  As someone told us, “God is rarely early, but never late!” God knew I love peace and solitude and that’s what I want in a backyard.  Good size backyards are difficult to find in the city we just moved to, but we found a last-minute rental (since our house was still for sale and we needed to move before the new school year) with a great backyard with trees, a local walking trail behind our backyard and lots of open space to look upon.

If there is one thing I know for sure, God has walked beside me through our trials.  There were days when things would get too difficult and I didn’t know if I could handle it, because over this last year, we have literally bounced from one challenge to the next, at times with little chance to catch our breath.  When I would pray for help because it was too hard, God wouldn’t take the challenge away, but I would be blessed with a sweet tender mercy that would carry me onward.

If there is one thing I know for sure, it has been because I question “God, do you hear my cry?”  or “God, I don’t know the next step to take?” or “God, please help me.”, that I have learned to trust and believe.  I am better off seeking God than going at my life alone. That doesn’t mean it is always simple to believe.  I have had challenges that have taken my breath away and kicked my feet out from under me.  I have questioned God as to the “why” of the challenges. But the questions become a desire to find God and find answers. The process of falling down and finding a way to rise becomes an incredible experience because it’s through that painful journey that I find peace, hope, and the ability to stand back up.

If there is one thing I know for sure, though moving has not been easy, and our family has had struggles because of moving, I would not change my life because I have come to know that God is mindful of me and my family. He has been there in my time of need. How grateful I am to know that when I seek God, I find Him!

A Force Shield of Protection

It had been a rough day.  I was feeling frustrated about the challenges of moving and seeing my children being required to adapt once again to their new surroundings.  I found myself home in the evening alone while all our children were at the church with activities.  I decided to work on my talk for the upcoming Sunday.  I had added a story from a previous adventure through a snow storm.  My talk spoke of gratitude even in our challenges, and that night, as I felt weighed down by my challenges and I was truly working to find gratitude for these challenges and help in dealing with them.  I had gone through my talk numerous times already (I am not normal -- I love giving talks, I love the entire process, and I work really hard to prepare).  This time as I read that story out loud an incredible thing happened and I saw more to the story then I had every realized before. It was an emotional and incredible moment -- to see what had been a tender story take on even a greater significance. Jonny's answer to prayer has always meant so much to me, but then to compare what I had experienced during that snow storm in a couple different ways to Christ's Atonement and to how he helps each of us deal with challenges was a new way of looking at the same story. I shall never regret our decision to go through the storm, because I now personally know how Christ will be our foundation and help us through the storms of life. I needed that knowledge after a frustrating day. I can face life, even when I want to shrink from my challenges, because I know that Christ will still be there to help me.

Here is the rest of the story: 

Once when traveling as a family in a severe snowstorm in the Sierras, my frightened 7-year old son worried over our safety.  He prayed and then shortly later informed us that the answer was Yes! Yes, Jesus would protect us; He had put a force shield over our car.  A few hours later we were still on the road, detoured off of 1-80, around Lake Tahoe both directions, and now on Highway 50.  The night was late, it was dark, the road was icy, the mountain treacherous, the drop-off intimidating.  The blinding snow coming directly at our windshield.  Ray felt we would be ok; he had the skills and the determination to see us through.  We followed a snowplow for a while until it turned around, and we were left primarily alone to see our family safely through the snowstorm.  All of our six children were peacefully sleeping in the back, unaware of the increase in the storms intensity.  

At one point, our car slipped, turned 90 degrees and stopped right in its place—the force shield had held.  What normally took us 2 hours to drive from Reno to Sacramento became a 7-hour ordeal for us.  Ray and I carried the burden of getting our family safely through the storm and brought our family safely home. Just as Christ once said, Here I am, send me. He came to earth, sacrificed and Atoned for our sins and made it possible that we could one day safely return to God.  His Atonement acts as a force shield that makes it possible to weather the storms of life.  

At times, we may be like Ray, confident, determined and have the necessary skills to make it through the raging storms.  At other times, we may be like me, battling fears and just holding on hoping that Christ will protect us and that we can weather the storm.  Or some times we may be like our children who slumbered that late night in the mountains in California, who were protected from knowing the magnitude of the storm.  Each of us in that car, Ray, myself, and our children experienced something different that night, but each of us were still protected by the force shield placed over our car. 
 

I Answer, "Yes, absolutely!"

There are moments in life when you stand back in amazement and awe.  For me that occurs when I witness the hand of God in my life – through his watchful care or sweet miracles or help through difficult challenges.  Today, I am on the other side of the difficult challenge of this past year.  With Ray changing jobs, the job in New Jersey not working out, and a new job in Minnesota, and then trying to put all the pieces of one move and then another together, followed by a challenging summer, I can honestly say, God went before me, walked with me, and was always there to catch me when I fell. But now, we are settling in, enjoying the challenge of building our home, and feeling very blessed.

Instead of moving to Minnesota and getting a job, I am the Project Manager on the house we are building.  At first, I was daunted by this task, but I figured after a daunting year of solving problem after problem that I was up for this challenge. Ray and I have never built a house before and some discouraged us from this undertaking.  But we just live our crazy life regardless of the opinions of others

My husband and I found a lot – where peace and nature surround us.  It is truly an amazing and beautiful setting.  It is something Ray and I have always dreamed of – building our own home in a peaceful setting. 

We could have let fear or inexperience stop us from taking on the task of building a home, but instead we jumped it with both feet and with the help of our good friend, Paul, we have begun to watch our new home take shape.  Paul, Ray, and I are teamed up to see this project through. As we have contracted out the work, I have discovered a part of myself I didn’t really know.  I love making decisions and I can make quick decisions (maybe its all the experience of putting so many moves together).  I love researching, looking at options, studying it out in my mind, and then making a choice – cabinets, flooring, countertops, paint, doors, the list goes on and on. Every decision rests on our shoulders and there are many decisions required to get a house up and off the ground. We have an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fulfill a long-life dream.  As the walls go up, as the roof is placed on, as I watch this home come together, I recall the day I stood and prayed on the beach in California over a year ago, trying to figure out our next step when things weren’t falling into place.   And these were the words that came to my mind in answer to my prayer,

“Do you trust Me?  Can you trust Me in this? Even when things don’t work out as you thought they would?”

 I answer, “YES, absolutely!”