For many of you who we see often, you know the debate of moving South or not has been ongoing in our home for about a year, well ok, maybe a little longer than that. The past two winters have been really rough on me personally. The bone chilling cold combined with the wind plus the cloudy days, make me not want to leave my home, ever….I would much rather stay inside, eat fattening foods and wander my home aimlessly or just sit and do nothing. This feeling of lethargy and isolation is very unlike myself, remember I’m an ESFP aka The Entertainer. While I haven’t formally been diagnosed I am pretty positive I have SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
We were fairly certain that moving to South Carolina was in our future this spring. I was going to have a job working with my wonderful friend Leslie doing what I love, my husband would continue to work from home and most of the kids were on board with the idea. The warmer weather and no snow sounded fabulous and the ocean being only 3 hours away was a dream!
The possibility of all the new places to explore, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia and Tennessee and taking weekend getaways to Savannah or Charleston were definitely on our list. I dreamed of attending blogging conferences and get togethers, Country Living Fairs, Lucketts Market and flea markets in the area, plus thrifting with Leslie and decorating a new home!
Our spring break trip to Greenville was awesome and we left there more in love with the city and the south in general than when we had went in the fall. We were thinking we could move there by the end of June so the kids would have time to get settled before the school year started up in August. We were ready……and then many things became unclear to us which I won’t get into all of that on here but we were so sure and then, we weren’t so sure. We spent weeks praying, talking to friends who could give us wise counsel, going back and forth, back and forth. Spun into confusion, unsure where we should live, seeking God for answers and really just not at peace with anything.
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. 1 Corinthians 14:33
A few weeks ago our pastor called us to a 10 day Daniel fast to pray for our church and whatever we were praying for a breakthrough in our personal life as well. Perfect timing for us as we were really confused when it had seemed so clear just a few weeks prior.
Sunday night my main squeeze and I sat on the couch, prayed again, talked it out and made the decision that we were moving if we had approval from my hubby’s work. On Monday I just couldn’t shake this feeling of unsettledness about our decision which was weird because I wanted to move, like let’s pack up the house and go!!!! The warm weather was calling to me!
On Monday I had a phone conversation with a friend I hadn’t talked to in quite a while. During our chat she said something to me that I just knew was the wisdom and the word we had been seeking from the Lord. It was so hard to call my husband and explain the phone conversation with my friend and her words of wisdom, knowing that we needed to hear what she had to say.
Timely advice is lovely,
like golden apples in a silver basket. Proverbs 25:11
So not even 24 hours later, we reversed our decision and decided to stay right where we are.
We were laying a dream we had down and saying, ok Lord, it’s not now and maybe not ever but we trust you. Thank you for giving us wisdom and discernment, for speaking to us through trusted friends, for the plans you have for us here.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
For more than a year now I have been wondering what my purpose is, what I am to do with the time I have in my days now with all four of our kids in school all day. While I still don’t have a definite plan, since we made the decision to stay, I can see God bringing together bits and pieces. I will keep walking in the path set before me, using his word as a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, only being able to see so far but just far enough and I am trusting in that.
And while we are sad to not be moving South, we are also not sad that we have to stay here. Our neighborhood is awesome, so many kids outside playing together, running back and forth in costumes and motorized cars, scooters and rollerblades, setting up lemonade stands, playing dolls and growing up together.
The trees are blooming and we are getting the deck ready for another summer of swimming and dinners outside. The summer activity schedule is being formed, vacations are being planned and company is getting penciled in on the calender, all signs of us letting our roots go down deeper here.
! “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7
This was my verse last year and it’s truth is more fitting today than ever. Maybe I understand this verse more this year after the past few months/year which has felt like a drought to me. I’m trusting the Lord and I know that there will be fruit from this past year of drought.
I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. John 15:1-4
If you’ve managed to somehow make it through this whole post, all this to say, we are going to bloom where we are planted! I’m excited to see what God has in store for us here in Minnesota!
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