"Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will win favor and a good name
in the sight of God and man." Proverbs 3:3-4
Write them on the tablet of your heart. Put them down on paper. Blog about them. So you will never forget. Where I have brought you. Never forget what I have done for you. Never forget how you felt, or the way that I stood with you. Never forget what I have taught you.
This past year has been quite an interesting one for me. New revelations, new friends, new job, new relationship status, new church...the list goes on and on. But to understand where I am. I have to look back to where I came from.
2011 was a year full of both good and bad. Those always seem to go hand in hand. It's almost like God sees something bad has happened (not because He did it or let it, that's another post) and then He says, "Hey, look at this "Good and Perfect Gift" I'll give you.
At the very beginning of 2011 Jeffrey had just come back from Bethel. He was so excited to be home, excited to share what he had learned with everyone he knew. He got the opportunity to speak at the church we'd both attended for almost our whole life. The opportunity to tell people about the great God we serve and let God show off. Words will never, ever describe the feeling you get seeing your future husband let God show off through him. The feeling of a healing that you've seen with your own eye is indescribable. Mostly I remember just sitting on the front row and laughing. Then it happened. Fast forward to the next Sunday morning. The day is etched in my mind, written on the tablet of my heart. Grace. Rebuke. Betrayal.
Those seem like harsh words, but that is exactly what my heart felt as I heard the whispers that surrounded us for the next months. Then like a sweet fragrance~ an engagement. A new job, new town, new life.
A good and perfect gift. Grace.
You see, while this year has been full of people spreading unfair and untrue lies about Jeffrey and I; the Bible tells me that where "sin abounds, Grace much more abounds"... That means that in the midst of people lying and judging us (which is a sin...sorry) that the Grace of God much more abounds. Much more~an over abundance of Grace. Summer of 2011 brought Jeffrey home, it felt as though we were Much More covered in Grace. As though God let us say, "I told you so". God allowed us to look back and laugh at the lies people told about us. He allowed us to always see the truth. We spend all summer spreading that same Much More Grace to our friends.
Fall of 2011 took Jeffrey back to Bethel, and me back to Paducah. Where I found a wonderful accepting, Grace filled church. Learning to trust people was so hard. Learning to forgive those who speak badly about us is even harder. But as 2011 comes to an end, I can honestly say- I have.
In that forgiveness, God has shown me that He Much, More Abounds.
I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring. One thing I know for sure is that His Grace has made me perfect enough to accept whatever Gifts He chooses to give me.
Grace. Pure and Simple.
