Where I come from, "It's snowing down South", is the common phrase to
communicate to a woman that her slip is showing below the hem of her
dress. As grateful as one certainly is after receiving such
information, it is still rather disconcerting to realize that the thing
has crept down on you without your knowledge. Life is like that
sometimes, though. Just like that undergarment that quietly slides when
our attention is elsewhere, we slip into patterns of living that
honestly, are just boring and without life. Survival mode on auto pilot
becomes the norm as we lead lives of quiet desperation, not knowing
what it is that is missing.
After becoming convinced that the Lord wanted to do a work in us regarding the mortgage,
I didn't wait until a great "talking moment" to cautiously mention it
to Mr. Visionary. I did not bait him with a, "By the way, I have
something big I want to talk over with you" set up. But one day, when I
was kissing him goodbye, I whispered that I'd be perfectly happy if he
wanted to sell this house and move to Nowheresville and live debt-free.
If this was the Lord's will, I believed He would speak to Mr. Visionary
and confirm what I had heard. The Lord I know, although He uses means, and often does speak through people, did not need my help. Anyway, this was not about getting he and I on the same page. It is about each of us being on God's page.
It was the spark he needed for the Lord to kindle his smoldering embers
into a burning desire again. Mr. Visionary was no happier than I was
about the way life was going. He, too felt that there was something
more that the Lord had for us than just existing, but he was trying to
do what he thought the family needed. I knew that a Visionary any
man (or woman for that matter) who is not actively pursuing the dreams
and calling the Lord has given him is dying. I had forgotten...but the
Lord had not.
That one statement, or rather, the Lord's confirmation of it, freed my
Mr. Visionary. Newly reminded that I was on his side, that I had his
back, and was prepared to follow him wherever the Lord leads, Mr.
Visionary began to hear, and the dreams began to flow. He has been
working on plans for a new house that will be off-grid, with himself
working at home, because he truly believes it is God's will. The moving
and being debt-free are all means to the end of having Dad back home
where he belongs ~ where God originally put him.
All I want is to follow the Lord with my husband and children. I
believe He has a work prepared for our family to do as a unit. Culture
Smulture. The Lord never intended for Daddies to be away from their
families all day (or night for that matter). He never meant for Mammas
to raise the children alone all day, either. Not a homeschool-friendly
statement, I know ~ but it is true. I have had folks argue this point
with me from a cultural perspective or a 'practical' one, but a truly
biblical case cannot be made to refute this. I know this because I have
read about the Garden ~ Adam and Eve were together by design.
Father brought this woman and this man together
because He wanted us to BE together. Father put these children into
this family because He wanted them to be raised by the two of us together. We only have one opportunity to raise the sheyna kepelahs (pretty heads) the Lord has given us. That is freedom,
not pressure. Focusing on how we want ourselves and our children to
have a rich relationship with Him ~ to KNOW Him, makes it easier to
slough off all the extraneous baggage of life and get back to basics.
Knowing that He leads us to want to do His will and then to do it, means that we don't have to worry about how it will happen.
We can trust that if He leads us to something, He will lead us through it as well.
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