February 2016

Time slowly passes and a lot of days I feel like my heart is going to explode. 

Lord, How can this be? What is going on? Where are the people who are making these decisions? How can this be the church that you speak of Lord? Why? Why? Why now? Why this way? Why the fear? Why the shutting out? Lord....where are you? Are you near?

The days are filled with tears. 

But on Sunday...on that day, even driving there, we feel you Lord. We feel pain, but we still feel you.

Tears still fall. 

Lord, I want my kids to see us following you....I hate that they see the ugliness. At the end I want to be able to show them the beautiful picture you have painted - the faithfulness of you lavishly loving us and guiding us through the darkness.

Down in the valley, when waters rise
I'm still believing 

Hope is alive

All through the struggle and darkest day 

I'll remember the empty grave

Thank you for healing that comes from sitting in a row of chairs on a Sunday night while my kids play video games at my feet and my husband-well, he rests and heals and you tend to his broken heart all the while the worship music plays and Louie preaches about Jesus.  Thank you just won't ever be enough.


And Lord...my girls....my sweet chicks. What will become of them? Although you have allowed this to sift through your hands, and you have a plan for us, please God, please...have a plan for my chicks. Take care of them. And their mommas.

More of you God. Less of everything else.

2/8/16, Louie Giglio: Pain and risk have been the greatest catalysts to grow our faith.

Thankful for nights at the Grove with other women who have loved and poured into my family. Their support means the world to me.

-Karen

Your Will Lord, not ours.

The Giving Key

For a few months now I have longed for a Giving Key. I love the stories behind the company and so for Valentine's Day I asked for one. All three of my boys were with me when I went and looked at them. They come in several styles and lengths, and originally I wanted a silver one. They didn't have any long silver ones, and so as I looked at the length and color of this one, I found the key said:

BELIEVE

To be honest, I didn't embrace that word immediately. I walked around the shop thinking about the word and really wondering if that was the word I wanted. <- you did read that, right? 

It's been a month since Jeremy had the craziest week of his life. Since we both fell to our knees crying out to God about our future....was I really supposed to have a key that said BELIEVE? I wasn't even sure I even wanted to wear a key that said that. But...God...I absolutely BELIEVE that He wanted me to have that key. 

Matthew 21:22 "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

John 3:36a "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life..."

John 6:35 "...Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

I could honestly site the whole book of John...

Romans 10:10 "For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

James 1:6 "But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."

These are just a few of the verses I began clinging to...

When I started wearing the key, it gave me numerous opportunities to explain what a Giving Key was, but also to share our story with others. Through the months ahead I want to be found BELIEVING and putting my faith in the Father who knows me, loves me, and cares for me. 

-Karen

Your Will Lord, not ours.