Time to Wake Up

    Forgive me for falling asleep, Lord. It has been a few busy weeks, and I have been on auto piolet. I have been going through the motions of going to work, feeding my family, attempting to clean my home, and walking Blessing. It's been an exhausting few weeks, Lord. I know now it's because I have been asleep in my faith. Forgive me for that Lord. I was reminded this morning in church that the Christian faith is the only religion where we pray to a relational God who desires to have a personal relationship with me. Thank you, Lord, for wanting me, Father. I have been exhausted these last few weeks and have been wondering why. I eat right, exercise, and sleep well.  I do all the "right" things and yet I forgot the most important thing. Time with you, Lord. Proper, intimate, relationship-building time with you, Lord. I have been doing everything right by the world's standards and yet forgot about your stands Lord. Forgive me, Father. Thank you for your message this morning in church. In Jesus' name, amen.

    This was my prayer after listening to my pastor's sermon this morning. The message was from Matthew 26:36-46, where Jesus wanted his disciples to stay away and keep watch while He went and prayed to The Father. It was a powerful message that I needed to hear. You see, lately, I have a) been on auto piolet, and b) my thoughts have been a little too consumed by the world, by covid-19 and the state of the government, and instead of praying over it all, I have been complaining.

    It occurred to me last night as I was falling asleep that I have not gotten my journal out in a month. I also realized that outside of our time in quarantine at the beginning of the month, I have barely read a book and besides a family photoshoot before Christmas, I cannot remember the last time I took my camera out.

    Needless to say, God has given me a wake-up call this morning that I am eternally grateful. Not only has He waken up my faith. He reminded me of the importance of enjoying my life and my hobbies. Because there is more to life than just working and paying bills, God wants us to enjoy our life.

    So this afternoon with a beautiful snowfall that God has blessed me with (first snowfall since November). Blessing and I went to the park behind our home, played on the playset, and ran around the adjoining enclosed field. She ran, I walked. We also enjoyed a photoshoot on the playset. She is my good little model.

    Once we returned home, I felt renewed and reenergized. Thank you, Lord, for a wonderful afternoon. I woke up this morning with little interest in engaging with life today until you woke me up.

    Friends, I do not know where you stand today, but I know that God wants us to have an intimate and personal relationship with Him and that can only happen when we are awake and engaging with Him. He is not simply the guy who delivers your Amazon package, where you simply smile and say thank you for your order. He wants to be yours and my best friend, whom we tell everything to.

I pray that this post blesses you where ever life finds you today.

God Bless

~Ruth

The Things You Have Now, You Prayed For.

    Over the last few days (two weeks ago now) I have been frustrated and grumbling over not hearing word yet over the apartment that my hubby and I applied to live in. Hubby tried to remind me to be patient and that we are on the top of the list for the apartment and that the superintendent already knows and likes our family so, therefore, there is no reason the company would not want to rent to us. Even with this reminder and information, I am still anxious to hear back and move our family into our new home. Even with this 99% chance, we will get the apartment, I do not count my eggs before the chicken lays them.

    Do not get me wrong, we are very grateful to my in-laws for letting us stay rent-free on their property while we get our life set up here in Wallaceburg. It has allowed us to put a good chunk of money onto our debt and start our journey to financial recovery. Non the less though, we are anxious to move into our own home.

    A few days later, I was scrolling through Instagram and came across a post that read, "Remember when you prayed for the things you have now?" You can also word it like this, "The things you have now, you prayed for." The latter is how my brain interpreted it. It felt like God was smacking me right between the eyes, in a good way, because it is true. My hubby started working down in Wallaceburg right before Easter 2021.

    I would drive him to London (halfway) on Sunday nights and then pick him up on Friday nights. That commute got old, real fast, for both our family and our car. We did it though, by the grace of God, we were able to save up and prepare to move down to Wallaceburg. Once we had our moving expenses, we started looking for an apartment and a new job for me. To no avail though. 

    Meanwhile, we were getting very tired of driving and living separately. It was time for our family (hubby, Blessing, and I) to be under the same roof again. We were all feeling the strain. There was one night in particular where Blessing was missing her daddy and could not settle down for bed, I went to his t-shirt drawer, took two t-shirts out, one for her to lay on and one to wrap around her. Minutes later, she was asleep. The whole ordeal was very cute.

    We had talked about temporarily living where my hubby was staying during the week. It would not be a perfect setup, meaning it would not be "home" but it would get our family under one roof in the right town. Hubby shared his reservations with me about the idea and explained why it would not work. Later the idea came up in conversation with my in-laws, we shared our concerns about the idea and discussed if there was a way to make it work for everyone. We then prayed over it, and God said yes, it would be our temporary home. Praise the Lord! It had been five long months at this point and we were done.

    We quickly packed up our apartment, said as many good buys as we were able, and headed to our new home. An answered prayer. Yes, there have been adjustments, but even more blessings.

    While I sit here on my couch writing, I am thankful for this blessing. Yes, I am anxious about our new place, which I do not believe is wrong. It is wrong to be anxious and upset and frustrated about it. It is not wrong to be excited and anxious in the sense that we are waiting for an answer. Yes, I was frustrated and anxious about it at the beginning of the week and then hubby lovingly corrected me.

    God is always right. We did pray for our living situation. Ever since I saw the post on Instagram, whenever I start to grumble about not having answers for the apartment, God reminds me that not only did I pray for this, but if God wanted me to have the answer for the apartment, then we would have it. Waiting sucks. Guess He is also working on growing my patience.

    Friends, what things, people, or places are in your life right now that you are complaining about that you prayed and asked God for a few days, months, or even a year ago? It may surprise you. It is also a reminder to be careful of what you wish.

    

    I pray this post finds you well as you enter into the new year.

    God Bless

    ~Ruth

Today's photo was taken by my father-in-law the day we walked out our answered prayer and moved our family back under one roof.