Dear Family, Friends, Acquaintances, and Blog Followers,
Thanks so much for your patience, and support as I have stood at the crossroads here for a bit, and taken some time to reflect on the future of our family's public journaling here. I'm still wrestling with the decision, and am continuing to pray and seek advice. To those of you who have left comments here or have emailed, thank you so much! Your thoughtful comments have been so helpful and encouraging!
In this nearly two weeks of praying about this, the Lord has brought to my mind on two occasions in two different ways Joshua 4:5-7. (Once in a book I happened to pick-up and read, and then it was the special message at a baby shower we went to on Saturday!)
This is one of the passages in Scripture that speaks to God's request of His people to leave reminders for future generations of His goodness, faithfulness, miracles, presence, protection, provisions, etc.
"And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the
Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel,
6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”
I was particularly convicted of this when the Lord spared Joseph and I from certain death nine years ago. He put in my heart back then to document some of the Big and Small Ways* He has worked in our family's life. And so I did, resulting in a little book (*name of the book) that we gave to the kids on the one year anniversary and celebration of all He had done in saving our lives. And I've had this in mind as I started blogging two years later in 2008. So, this is not a new desire/conviction for me, but feel that the Lord has encouraged me again in continuing to document His wonderful work in our lives for the generations to come. Leaving a solid reminder in this way of God's providential care in our lives will hopefully pass on our faith in Him, and give hope, inspiration, motivation, encouragement, and strength for their journey with Him.
I'm also reminded of ALL the scriptures that speak about telling others of all of God's wondrous works! I definitely feel refocused in this way, to use our blog for giving Him more recognition, thanksgiving and praise. (I really sense a general conviction about just being simply more thankful to Him for everything in our lives!)
I've heard from many of you who have shared with me your wishes to keep the blog public so that we can keep in touch this way. We are super honored that you have found the blog to be of some blessing, and you have encouraged us greatly to continue sharing our lives in this way. We are humbled by your caring and interest in our lives. And so we are definitely willing to be more "vulnerable" in this way as we continue to write more personal posts. . . knowing how supportive you are (and forgiving with my writing!) The Lord is also gently reminding me once again that this life and everything I do is not about me and how I feel! (Although, I am going through a particularly emotional time of life, and do really, really thrive and am greatly spurred on by your words of encouragement! ;-)
And lastly, another thing the Lord has brought to my attention (thank you, Rhonda, at the baby shower) is re-focusing on not only documenting all of God's goodness and faithfulness here, but spending more time on "being" living stones (1 Peter 2:5) day-to-day. I think leaving "memorial stones" here on the blog for future generations should definitely come second to presently being a living stone or testimony of Christ to all those around me. As our blog title and "Welcome" page suggests, we need to be thinking and praying about "making the most of every opportunity" the Lord gives us everyday to share about Him and serve Him and others in everything we do. This can make such a difference in the lives of those around us now, and also leave a Godly legacy in our children.
So, to summarize this time of standing at the crossroads, I think I am at peace with continuing to journal publicly here, but with some purposeful re-focusing on more of Him and less of me. :-) Not sure yet how this will look, or how different the outcome might be, so we'll take it one-day-at-a-time, trusting the Lord to direct all our steps. Thanks again for all your support and especially for your prayers!
