Our homes and our family have played crucial parts in our lives. Of course, our children have entangled their way in our hearts, but also the homes that have been the framework for great memories. First of all, the children. We have invested much in raising our family. It takes time, energy, patience, finance to home school. And we felt the call of God to make that sacrifice. Along with the investment came heart ties. As the Word says: where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be. We also felt the call to include them in ministry. We took them with us to prayer meetings, local outreaches, and to mission trips overseas. Again....more heart ties. We invested in their physical bodies in the way of being involved in select sports activities and tried to develop gifts by taking them to special classes and to music lessons. So much of our lives were spent....and with joy we did so.
Then God began to take our investments....away to other places.....ouch. Too soon it happened. The children were beginning to sound really good in their string ensembles. Our maturing voices were blending well in song. Their bodies were strong enough and capable enough to be helpful around the house and homestead. Yet, there they went. What we had built began to change form and to be reconstructed in other environments. My footing was being shaken. My grasp loosened on what I loved and gave myself to.
Then there were the homes. The main home is the one we visited a weekend ago. We spent most of our child raising years there. The hands of our children had helped Don build an addition on the home. Their hands had pulled nails out of the hardwood flooring we had installed. They had nurtured baby goats, chicks, lambs and donkeys on the acres there. The boys had helped string the fencing and stack the hay. We had sung in the music room we had added on and they played instruments together. In the living room, the Word had been opened for family devotions. Youth groups had gathered. We had family meetings planning how we could better serve the Lord and others. A treehouse was built and a natural fort existed under the large, overgrown junipers.
The basement was used for friends to frolic in adverse weather. We snuggled on the couch in front of the VHS movies we used for math. We had wonderful believers to worship with. The children's grandparents were nearby.
We had bought hand shovels to dig our pond in the side yard. The front yard was used for soccer, volleyball and football with friends.
The dining room with it's cathedral ceiling was a gathering place nearly every week for fellow believers to fellowship as well as the setting for birthday dinners.
We dreamed of our grandchildren experiencing the same joys on that land.
Then God said, "Go."
Again what had become entangled in our hearts....through investment in the Kingdom things....had to be torn away. We were leaving it for....we knew not what.
What is God doing? Why doesn't it feel right? In times like these, we learn what it really feels like to forsake all and follow God. We learn what it means to not love the world or the things of the world. We start to feel what God is saying when he says not to love your children and your family more than Him. It hurts. It's an adventure.
In retrospect, I can see how God is leading and working. Leaving this home brought us in contact with people that we needed to meet. Our children found their companions through venturing away from us and home. They found their callings. I thought they should find all this right there in that home we had loved and worked in!! Couldn't God do that? But, no, it wasn't the way I imagined it or how I had planned it.
If we leave houses, lands and people, God will provide more in His time and His way. But...I liked the ones I had. Why did I want to leave them? I didn't want to, but God called us out and He has given good fruit out of the obedience.
When I visited this former home a few weekends ago, our son, Jake, told us that the homestead where he has been living with his mother-in-law and family will most likely be sold when they move to Thailand. Double grieving that weekend in my heart! Look at this place!
I'm not trying to be overly negative....I just want you to feel the cost. A shaker shingle barn.
A cabin on over 100 acres of woods. Moose and bear coming through the pasture. An old greenhouse to start plants in the cold springs of Maine. Cousins for our grandkids walking distance down the lane. Warm wood heat in winter and a wood stove for cooking and heating water.
Going is leaving what is comfortable...but also it is a forsaking in the heart. Yet, Jake and Naomi are gearing up to leave what is precious of this earth for eternal rewards....which they do not know yet what those will look like. Are the rewards worth it?? Oh, yes!! The people, experiences and spouses for our children are soooo worth it. Yes, I would have preferred these things be provided WITHOUT me leaving what I loved. But, that's not how God wanted to do it. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Then God began to take our investments....away to other places.....ouch. Too soon it happened. The children were beginning to sound really good in their string ensembles. Our maturing voices were blending well in song. Their bodies were strong enough and capable enough to be helpful around the house and homestead. Yet, there they went. What we had built began to change form and to be reconstructed in other environments. My footing was being shaken. My grasp loosened on what I loved and gave myself to.
Then there were the homes. The main home is the one we visited a weekend ago. We spent most of our child raising years there. The hands of our children had helped Don build an addition on the home. Their hands had pulled nails out of the hardwood flooring we had installed. They had nurtured baby goats, chicks, lambs and donkeys on the acres there. The boys had helped string the fencing and stack the hay. We had sung in the music room we had added on and they played instruments together. In the living room, the Word had been opened for family devotions. Youth groups had gathered. We had family meetings planning how we could better serve the Lord and others. A treehouse was built and a natural fort existed under the large, overgrown junipers.
The basement was used for friends to frolic in adverse weather. We snuggled on the couch in front of the VHS movies we used for math. We had wonderful believers to worship with. The children's grandparents were nearby.
(This is the rear of the house now overgrown and vacant)
We had bought hand shovels to dig our pond in the side yard. The front yard was used for soccer, volleyball and football with friends.
The dining room with it's cathedral ceiling was a gathering place nearly every week for fellow believers to fellowship as well as the setting for birthday dinners.
We dreamed of our grandchildren experiencing the same joys on that land.
Then God said, "Go."
Again what had become entangled in our hearts....through investment in the Kingdom things....had to be torn away. We were leaving it for....we knew not what.
What is God doing? Why doesn't it feel right? In times like these, we learn what it really feels like to forsake all and follow God. We learn what it means to not love the world or the things of the world. We start to feel what God is saying when he says not to love your children and your family more than Him. It hurts. It's an adventure.
In retrospect, I can see how God is leading and working. Leaving this home brought us in contact with people that we needed to meet. Our children found their companions through venturing away from us and home. They found their callings. I thought they should find all this right there in that home we had loved and worked in!! Couldn't God do that? But, no, it wasn't the way I imagined it or how I had planned it.
If we leave houses, lands and people, God will provide more in His time and His way. But...I liked the ones I had. Why did I want to leave them? I didn't want to, but God called us out and He has given good fruit out of the obedience.
When I visited this former home a few weekends ago, our son, Jake, told us that the homestead where he has been living with his mother-in-law and family will most likely be sold when they move to Thailand. Double grieving that weekend in my heart! Look at this place!
I'm not trying to be overly negative....I just want you to feel the cost. A shaker shingle barn.
A cabin on over 100 acres of woods. Moose and bear coming through the pasture. An old greenhouse to start plants in the cold springs of Maine. Cousins for our grandkids walking distance down the lane. Warm wood heat in winter and a wood stove for cooking and heating water.
Going is leaving what is comfortable...but also it is a forsaking in the heart. Yet, Jake and Naomi are gearing up to leave what is precious of this earth for eternal rewards....which they do not know yet what those will look like. Are the rewards worth it?? Oh, yes!! The people, experiences and spouses for our children are soooo worth it. Yes, I would have preferred these things be provided WITHOUT me leaving what I loved. But, that's not how God wanted to do it. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Is there any deeper gift a mother can give than her children and grandchildren to serve a hurting world and a beautiful Kingdom? There really are no words. Neither will there be any words to describe the harvest. His way. His time. I love you Karin.
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