hello again…

I’ve been a bit absent from the blog world lately.  When life picks up the pace Live Writer seems to get left in the dust.  I’m hoping to change that habit.  I get all these thoughts and things I want to put down on virtual paper and then *poof*, they’re gone before I can find a chance to get them down. 

Anyhoo… it seems like so much life has happened that I haven’t mentioned.  God is revealing so many things to me and He’s doing His amazing works in my extended family too.  He’s brought people into our lives we never would have expected and showed us what it looks like to love.  I’m so excited to see Him working in and around my life – it’s awesome.  I guess I’ll just try to catch up a little at a time. 

First off, this idea of homesteading is taking on a more clear and distinct shape.  I’m discovering how it is fitting into God’s plan for our family as a means of ministering to the community around us.  At first I thought it was something God was using to teach us contentment and joy in work – loving and praising Him through the everyday tasks He gives us.  I still think this is a valuable lesson He’s given us to learn, but it’s only part of the lesson.

  Like stepping stones, He’s building up our faith and taking us, step by step, closer to Him.  Slowly narrowing our path, little by little.  Lesson by lesson.  We had to learn contentment without stuff, joy in work – knowing it is for God’s glory, how to love one person with the love of Christ, before we could learn to serve and love others in our community and neighborhood with the love of Christ.  All these lessons are coming quickly but definitely in a logical order.  While we haven’t mastered any one of these enlightenments, they’ve clearly been laid out and presented in a purposeful pattern.  We would never have been able to love a community without first knowing how to love an individual who is very different from ourselves.  We would never have been able to love an individual if we were not willing to find joy in God’s glory rather than our own selfish greed.  We would never have been able to joyfully give and work if we were worshipping stuff.                                           Stepping stones… as if God knows what He’s doing.  ; )