Ever so often I get reminded of the Bible story about Joshua and the Israelites placing the 12 stones on the other side of the Jordan to remind their children of what the LORD had done for them.  So ever so often I'm going to blog here about a "stone" - some of them recent, some a little older, but all of them reminders of how gracious and good our GOD is and always will be! 

I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
       I will guide him and restore comfort to him,

 creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel.
       Peace, peace, to those far and near,"
       says the LORD. "And I will heal them."

Eleven years ago this spring the LORD accepted my greedy, selfish half-hearted decision to leave behind a very lucrative career and come home to be the wife and mother HE had created and called me to be.  It meant our family went from a high income to below "poverty" level, it meant selling our home, a car and anything else of value just to help pay off debts and still we would be left with some debt and take a major step down in the size and quality and location of our home.   We closed on our "new" 50+ year-old home needing major repairs and were due to close on our other home in 3 days.  The night before our home we were selling was to close, Hurricane Fran made her abrupt and destructive appearance.  We were left with two homes with damage, the one we just bought now having an oak tree of over 8' in diameter smashed into the front of the house.  Insurance would pay a maximum of $1000 to remove it and the lowest quote was for $8000!!  So we took the $1000 from the insurance, purchased a nice chain saw and paid a friend to help my hubby for the next 4 weeks to remove the tree (amidst many prayers of mine to keep them safe!!).  The purchasers of our other home backed out and for the next 17 months we struggled to make two mortgage payments on less than $10k a year income!  The LORD had to purge our greed and HE had to do it in a major way because our whole lives (about 35 years) had been lived to worship the dollar and what it could buy.  Over and over I was tempted by job offers to return to my previous work and leave the home, leave behind our commitment to follow the Lord and homeschool.  Over and over I struggled with sticking to that commitment when bills looked impossible to pay.  Over and over the LORD proved faithful and true to provide (always at the last moment so that I would remember that it was HIM providing and not of ourselves!!).   SO stone #1 represents what the LORD did to bring  me home.  For a "Type A", always-in-control, always-vowing-to-have-what-my-poor- parents-never-could-give-me person it was a tough lesson.  I like to remember it, though, so that I am not tempted to slide gradually back into that old "what can I get" way of thinking.  And I want to set it as a stone to my children and grandchildren to see what the LORD can do - even with stubborn, greedy, very self-centered people HE WILL use us for HIS will and HIS Kingdom if we just submit to Him.  So easy to say, so easy to know, so often too hard to accept - just submit.  But He IS faithful and provides in ways we cannot imagine and will "never leave us or forsake us".  As the scripture above says, He knows our wicked hearts BUT He heals us anyway!  Praise Him for that and so many other things He does for us that are undeserved...............

Only one life, will soon be past,

Only what's done for Christ will last!

-F