Loving Life

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.  Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God^. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:4-7

Our family has had to remind ourselves of those verses quite frequently in the past few months.  We've had to seek the Lord for some major decisions and God certainly gives peace that surpasses understanding when you follow the steps and paths that He has for you. 

Lots of things have changed.  We now have a 14 month old, which is so hard to fathom, where has time gone?! Miss E is doing well, she is beginning to talk or use sign language for communication and is walking everywhere.  People frequently ask us how old she is because they don't expect someone so small to be walking.  She only weighs about 17.5 lbs and is just now beginning to wear size 12 month clothes.  She loves all the animal mounts that we have in the house and gets excited when the Outdoor Channel is on or when she sees animals.  I think she may be a bit of a tomboy.  On the other hand, she has a necklace that she loves to wear around the house.  All you have to do is tell her that she is pretty and she beams.  Her favorite thing is food and eats so much! I'm still trying to figure out where she puts it all.  She is still a fairly serious girl, but smiles and laughs a lot more than she used to. 

Over 6 months ago Mr. E was approached by another company with a job offer.  Our initial reaction was that we were not going to take it because it involved a move.  Well, after much prayer and consideration, we felt that God wanted us to accept the new position.  As much as neither one of us wanted to leave where we were living, we are now so happy we did. We are enjoying our new residence and looking forward to the plans that God has for us here.  Jer. 29:11

This has been the year of having to lean on the Lord, especially with all the changes.  I love it when I can see the reasons that God does things or doesn't do things in our lives.  Things that we were planning on pursuing were either shut down or never got to take off like we wanted and we can now see why.  I'm so glad that I am not in charge of my life, I would certainly make a huge mess of it, if I got to make the decisions that I wanted to make.  I know that God won't always tell us the "why" and sometimes we just have to trust, but this year, He did show us some of the reasons.  We are always thankful for God's grace, provision and guidance.   He certainly knows what is best!