I love to tell His story...

I love that each of us have a different story in life.  

I love that God made it that way -- for His glory.

And what I love most is sharing His story of my life.  

I'm nothing special without the hands and plans of an incredible God.  Yet, here I am, in awe daily and living a life that I never could have imagined.   I didn't get to this place without struggle or trial, as you may know, but it was worth every second and every breath to get to this place.  As in -- today, this very moment.

Honestly, this very moment is nothing special either.  But it's a handful of beautiful wrapped up in the story God gave me:

My wonderful husband is giving my sweet boys a bath before we put them down for a little nap.  The dishwasher is running.  I'm drinking iced tea and making a meal plan and grocery list for this week. Our house is recovering from a four-year-old pirate birthday party.  

Little bits of every day life going on right now.

But listen, this life isn't what I thought I would be doing right now.  The plans God made for me have daily amazed me and bring me to my knees.  I haven't always known the love of God.  In fact, I was 16 when I became a believer.  But God knew then that I was His and carried me and protected me and pursed me. 

Lucky me.

My life changed so completely after I felt the fullness of God.  Not all changes were immediate, I was in high school and still so young.  But my heart was His and I had never, ever felt such love and acceptance in my life.  Which is really beautiful because I'm certain that all the choices I made {on my own} were to be loved and accepted by anyone and everyone.  That backfired often and left me lonely and feeling so lost.

Life wasn't easy and God still carried me and protected me and pursed me.  More and more I wanted Him alone and was captivated by His word.  I'm not sure if I'll ever know the extent of His care for me -- but looking back, I know that there were days that I wouldn't have eaten lunch or had gas money or been able to pay rent unless someone had been the hands and feet of Jesus helping me.  Seriously.  God gave to me through someone bringing me lunch, so I could pay for gas.  Or getting a random check in the mail that I wasn't expecting, getting to work a few extra hours -- And I didn't deserve it at all. He did that for me.  

God provided so I could experience the world.  He lead people to give so I could live in Santa Cruz for a summer and in Venezuela the next.  I was able to share the love of God with people -- and it was so humbling and so life changing.  I grew up so much through those experiences.

I learned the beauty of family and the depth of friendships through people loving me in the church.  I learned the difficulties of trusting God and walking by faith.  I learned to be okay with being different than my friends because I didn't finish college and I had no future stability or direction.  I learned how to pay bills and to ration money and to give generously.  I learned how to pay my debts and to not think the world revolved around me {although this is an on going lesson!}. I just knew that -- after all of this -- God would still be faithful to me and would care for me.  He has never let me down.

And you see, this isn't even the end!  This was just the first six years of me being a follower of Jesus.  His plan is always perfect and always satisfying and always good. 

I'll share more of His story next time....