His Ways Are Not Our Ways...

It is a lesson that I have been learning in life...
particularly this past year.
My faith has been stretched,
my dreams... have been revealed as such... only dreams,
my ideas have been questioned, my convictions challenged,
my way of thinking altered, my plans changed...
But His grace abounds.
In His goodness, He teaches me and grows me.
And I am thankful.




One of those things that He has been working
has come to fruition...
as we have received official orders from the Marine Corps,
and undoubtedly according to His perfect will and timing.
And it's because of how miraculously He has worked,
that He has blessed me with being able to accept it more easily.

Whether, in the eyes of others, it be right or wrong,
I had not really anticipated our children going to college.
I believed they would prepare to serve God from home
or, perhaps, in an apprenticeship or some other way He would lead.
When we graduated our eldest last June,
she looked forward to preparing for the mission field
in various ways from home.
We began making contacts with missionaries,
planning possible trips and attending a missions camp.

God was working, though, something in our eldest's heart.
And certain doors where not being opened for our plans.
Then she shared with us how she felt the Lord
may actually want her to go to college
(even though she didn't really want to).
But she felt that the only one He would want her to go to
was across the continent in the state of California.
We, prayerfully, concluded that it was just too far away,
particularly at this time in her life.



She took it to the Lord in prayer,
resolving that if her parents did not want her to go there,
that meant the Lord did not want her to go.
And further prayed that if He did want her to go,
He would need to move the whole family to California
(knowing this was highly unlikely because there was no job
that Dad could do in California and we anticipated local orders.
And if those fell through, he had a request by name,
for orders an hour away).
She left it at His feet and determined to proceed
with other plans of going to missions camp.

A few weeks later, my beloved and I received word
that we were, indeed, getting orders.
And this week, those orders became "official".
And they are NOT local, as we had expected...

We are going to California.
And we firmly believe, it is the Lord that is doing the sending.
It was such a surprise... we were stunned.
But Ally... she was amazed.
Amazed of His will for her.
Amazed that the Creator of all heard her prayer,
which was given in an almost jesting manner,
and that He would answer it in such an obvious way.
He showed her how He loves us in such a personal way...
That He cares and that HE can.

We shared tears and laughter.
We are blessed how He has shown Himself real to Ally...
to ALL of us.


He is love. He is good.
He IS real.


We look forward to seeing more of how He works His will.
We thank Him and give Him all the praise!
Rejoice with us!


"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD."
~ Isaiah 55:8