What's Your Anchor?

Whew! We are in the midst of a whirlwind of activity. I've had several blog worthy moments but I haven't managed to post them. In addition to moving sooner than I had expected, I am working through two Bible studies. One is "No Other Gods" by Kelly Minter and the other is "To Live is Christ"' by Beth Moore. I'm doing the Kelly Minter study with my bloggy friend Kristy. We post our comments for each other to read every week. I'm doing the Beth Moore study with my friend Becky. Becky is a Navy wife I met while we were living in Great Lakes. When her husband got orders to Washington we decided to do a Bible study by phone each week. Some weeks have been busier than others and we've had to postpone our phone date, but most weeks we get to talk and work through our study. This past week we decided to email each other our comments since I would be caught in moving chaos. Ideally I should have had these done around Monday, but didn't get them posted until yesterday (Saturday). The Minter study is subtitled "Confronting Our Modern-Day Idols." It deals with things in our lives that we make into idols and allow to come before our relationship with God. We don't plan to make them idols, it just happens. With that in mind, I felt like I should post my Bible study comments before I took time to post on my blog. Of course, tomorrow is Monday again and am I ready? No. Sorry girls!

To catch everyone up, we did find a great house in the new area. It is has four bedrooms and a full finished basement. The kids will each have their own rooms this time around. We have four bedrooms here, but we use the fourth as an office. Having the finished basement will give us the extra space for that. We took some pictures but the owners are in the middle of cleaning up after the last tenants (four college students) who left the house in less than desirable condition so the pictures don't really do it justice. I will however share this one of the foyer from the top of the stairs. I think it is beautiful. (I may not once I have to clean it.)

We will arrive at the new house on Thursday and the movers will deliver all of our stuff on Friday. I'll get some better pictures and post them then. When we were moving to our present house from Great Lakes, a friend of mine was praying for me. I remember her praying that God would bless me with a house that made my heart sing. I thought that was such a sweet prayer and the words have stuck with me. We have made some wonderful memories in our current house and it has been our home. The house itself has given my heart more of a hum, but the house we are moving to has my heart singing. I can hardly wait to make it our home and build some new memories.

As I was packing up our kitchen, I took down some verses I had written out and put on the refrigerator. Moving here had it ups and downs. At times it seemed like there were many more downs than ups. I know the Lord has used our time here to teach me some valuable lessons. One being what it truly means to lay everything at His feet and trust Him to work it out. A couple of my friends have pointed out that I am a bit of a control freak (I'm not sure where they get that idea) so if you agree with that perspective you can understand how hard this lesson has been. Trusting God doesn't mean you let Him handle the things you don't want to handle on your own, it means total surrender.

One of the verses is from John 14:27. It says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." One day I was listening to Moody Radio and the speaker asked the question, "How do you know you are in the will of God." The answer he gave was that as long as we are walking with God we will be in His will. This past week in the Beth Moore study she said "a sense of peace will virtually always accompany His will and direction. Christ is the Prince of Peace." As I move on from this season of my life, I have peace.

One of the other verses is from Hebrews 6:18b-19. It says, "We who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. " The Lord is my firm and secure anchor. Wow!

In the same Beth Moore study she was talking about a season in the life of Paul where things were good but it was time to move on. There are countless good things about our life here, but it is time for us to move on. As I removed these scriptures from the refrigerator where they have hung for almost two years, I wanted to pack them away to hang up at my new home. Then I felt like God was telling me that this season is coming to an end and He will continue to be my anchor, but I could let those scraps of paper go.

I can't go to sleep tonight until we are totally packed so that will be enough rambling from me. I have a few more travel/moving tips so watch for those in the next couple of days.