Oh. My. Goodness.

Have mercy-- I have simply NOT been tending to my blog.  I'm sorry, folks.  Let's just say this school year has been a challenge so far.  Or rather, life has been a challenge recently.

I have lots of pictures to post, and will do so before too long.

But it might be a little while before I get back into my blogging schedule.

For right now, let me be totally honest with you.  The Bible tells me that godliness with contentment is great gain.  And it just so happens that those are the two areas in which God is growing me right now.  And just like when I was a kid, growing pains hurt.

Regarding godliness:  I had gotten into a passionless routine with the Lord.  I spent time with him, and truly, I wanted to become more godly.  But I wasn't making it a priority.  Hband and I had the opportunity to go to the Ekklesia conference in Jupiter, Florida, and it was so refreshing for my soul in many ways.  I was reminded that everything except Jesus is superfluous.  And that helped me tremendously, though it's not easy.  I was bombarded, again and again, with the truth from God's Word that God picked me to belong to him from before time began, plucking me from my headlong race to hell.  He chose me to love him, and because of that, eternity with him is mine.  How can I then not make him my priority?  He gave his everything for me.  How can I be so ungrateful?  This refocusing of my soul has also brought with it trials, as trials tend to produce the most fruit in my life.  And that's where contentment comes in.

I told Hband yesterday that I just feel "stuck."  "I'm just stuck," I told him, through tears.  "No, not stuck," he said.  "Placed."  He's right.  I'm only here because God placed me here, with specific things to do.  Where is here, you may ask?  The here that I'm struggling with is in Florida (the heat, my God, the heat!!  And absence of fall...), away from my family, friends far away, in a job I'm not wild about anymore, in an apartment and not a house, and an indefinite amount of time before we can have kids because we need to pay off our debt and Hband needs a better paying job.  I'd like to have a house, start a family, and move somewhere where it's just Hband and me, on our own little adventure (somewhere where the leaves change).  But that's not where God placed me right now.  Right now he placed me in a little apartment with a high-maintenance dog and a low-paying, difficult job in the heat of Florida's Gulf Coast, with no wiggle-room in our budget and no definite time we can start a family.

And I am choosing to be grateful and have joy in it, because that same God that plucked my from my headlong race to hell has also placed me in this moment, for some reason I can't see. 

Godliness with contentment is great gain.  And so I will persevere, if only out of thanks to my Savior.

xoxo, A