Behind all of these room makeover tours is a family of five making a new life. Due to life’s circumstances, by early 2015 my husband and I had come to the end of ourselves physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually. We were pressing in and leaning hard on God. We knew that He was faithful to see us through that present season in our lives. We had no idea how He would do it, but we knew He would. We remained open to watching the miracle unfold in front of us.
Fast forward to today…17 months after leaving our family’s hometown and we still feel His presence and will in our lives. At the time of our move, it seemed easy to leave. The peace that we had with a new career and home state was incredible. There were tears, but behind those we felt God’s blessing upon this leap of faith. We packed up our belongings and set out one summer morning in our U-Haul’s. We were taking our three children to a new home that they had never stepped foot in. The trust they had in us was such a great example of faith.
Only a few days after our arrival, it hit me. We moved. We left. We were alone. Those feelings were overwhelming. I cried. Every day. The kids cried. We cried alone. And we cried together.
We were blindsided by unforeseen issues and expenses with our new home. We were overwhelmed by all that needed to be done. Forget about what we wanted to do, life was based solely on needs.
A few months in and we began to come back up for air. There were days of happiness and even joy. Crying each day had become only once a week tears.
When I began to feel overwhelmed as our first spring began to bloom, Psalm 34:8 grew out of my soul in an instant: “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” Yes! He is good! He wants good for me! He has good for me! Do I see the good? I began to look around and say, “Yes! I see your good, Lord!” He has a good future here for our family.
As I looked to taste His goodness, I realized that there was something missing…in me. My feet were here. In our new home. But my heart was there. In our old hometown. I could of picked up at any moment and run back there. Then my feet and my heart would be in the same place.
But that is not what God had asked of us. He asked us to leave. We did. And now He wanted me to be fully here. Not there.
That was when I decided that after many, many visits to our hometown, I needed my heart to catch up to my feet. After a mid-summer visit, I was determined to align my heart and feet. My feet were in our new hometown and they needed to stay there. That meant the only option was for my heart to join my feet. It wasn’t easy to stay put, but I knew that God would bless this alignment with His will.
It only took a few months, but those months were spent plugging in and forming relationships. I worked relentlessly over the summer on our kid’s bedrooms. I needed to make my mark on our new home.
And when the time came to journey back to our hometown for Thanksgiving break last week, I prayed that I was ready. Oh, it was such happy days reconnecting with family and friends. We easily fit right back into life there. And then a surprising thing happened. I awoke three days into our vacation and realized that I was looking forward to going back home when the time came. I thought through some fun upcoming projects and I was excited to dive back into real life. At first, I didn’t realize the significance of those thoughts. But on our drive back home, the thought hit me: my heart had finally caught up to my feet!
I know that there will still be moments when we long for the life we thought we would be living. But, as we see little glimpses of the road ahead of us, we rest in the fact that God has us in the palm of His hand.
Friend, if you have taken a leap of faith and journeyed beyond where you ever thought you would, rest in Him. Whether you’ve moved 1 hour, 4 hours, or 24 hours from a home, I get it. There will be hard days. However, there will be moments of contentment. And those moments will grow to hours and then into days, weeks, and months. It is a process, but I have found that resting in God and asking Him to align your feet and heart in the same place is the first step. Then, open your eyes and fully taste the goodness that our heavenly Father has for us!
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
♥ Leigh
I needed this today. We moved 3 years ago and even though it was only 40 miles away my concern was with the kids and grandkids. Most of us had lived within 2 miles of each other. Even the other 2 were barely more than 5 miles away. But knowing I wouldn’t be in their lives physically as often has been the hardest. Nor could I readily babysit the grandkids at a moment’s notice, or pick them up from school or daycare if they needed me to. Also the convenience of the bigger towns (67,000) stores and activities compared to the smaller town of less than 700. Hi really loved the town we were in.
I’ve felt like I was torn between the two. But my husband’s dad and younger brother had passed away before we moved, within a couple of years of each other, and he was very close to them. Him and his brother did everything together. Since the move he has made some great friends and he loves it here. So for him I’m grateful we are here.
Now I realize I need to get my feet and heart aligned with each other as well. God is so good and does so much for us. But sometimes we don’t realize that we haven’t surrended it all to Him and allowed him to mend the brokenness we feel.
Thanks for sharing.