THE GREATEST OF THESE《3》

FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2016

 WELCOME 
and
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm hoping to be back a little more often,
catch up on some old posts,
and hopefully start being creative again,
I miss it!

pt1 pt2 p4 pt5 pt6 pt7

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There was a huge delay due to some pressing matters

 (more on that here)
 but it was a good delay
and I'm believing for completion of this series soon.

Now that you're here,
stay and catch the 3rd segment.

I don't want to overwhelm anyone so they've been split
and start right where I left off. 

I encourage you to start from the beginning so you don't get lost.

They're snippets of situations/struggles we've faced in our marriage,
(at times still work through)

including some difficult/valuable lessons learned
and shared with you out of obedience to the Lord.
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cont'd 

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At this point we'd been married about 3 years,
experiencing much discord.

I remember thinking about future activities, plans & events;
would we have "good"or "bad" days?
We were so divided by our hurts we couldn't see how
malnourished our spirits were.
Our hearts were much like the first 3 examples
 in the Parable of the Sower

here

It's only by the grace of God we didn't rely on typical or addictive methods
to handle these hurts.
Just when we needed a huge shift,

 the Lord led us to a different church.

It turned out one of my youth leaders had become a senior pastor,
now he and his family were leading a small congregation near us.
I was extremely excited to reconnect with them
and start attending their services.
 Hubby on the other hand wasn't as eager to make the transition.
I truly believe it was just fear of the unknown 
and a big move out of his comfort zone.

It's not like I didn't have my own reservations
but I had been praying AND praying that "something"
would change.
SOMETHING had to change.
It was either moving to a new place of worship
or finally connecting with the believers at the current location. 
The Lord worked it out
and the new church became our home church.


<<<<<<<<<<

Serving

Hubby wasn't too sure about serving either- volunteering his time to help;
he was still trying to figure out if we'd made the right move haha.
The church we had just come from was much larger;
one could easily hide or blend in, but not the case here.
I took the opportunity to get involved immediately;
I so needed connection
and hoped hubby would find it here for himself.

He'd never experienced this level of fellowship,
support or friendship from a group of people.
I on the other hand grew up in a small church;
everyone knew each other, worked together and functioned as a family.

here

It didn't take long before hubby made connections,
desired to be a part in some way
and joined me on the greeter team.
That led us into different ministries, bigger commitments 
and eventually unexpected opportunities for leadership.

We were inexperienced but willing to serve
and that provided 3 things:
-a mutual interest we could invest in 
-focus on others
-much needed friends!
Not just friends but a second family,
with amazing times, great memories,
 and encouragement throughout the years.

About 2 years into this transition we decided to start a family.
We were working on the marriage, making slow but steady progress
and excited to grow.
Unfortunately that first attempt didn't work out as we'd hoped
and we fell back into old habits of processing. 

In spite of our failures and new level of brokenness, 
the Lord desired to use us.
It turns out those things didn't cancel out/discredit 
the work he was doing in us and through us.

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To be cont'd
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