Meet my Family!

Let me introduce you to my family!

Jim and LouAnn, my mom and dad  

My oldest brother Eric, his wife Jessica and their son Gavin (New baby coming in August!)

My brother Evan, his wife Joye, and their daughter Clara.  (New baby coming in August too! )

Love them all so much!  

So much fun being an auntie to these sweet little ones!  

And we can't forget this guy... our buddy Ace.  :)

Rejoice in the Lord!

Lately I have been thinking of the goodness of God.  How even though circumstances in our lives are not what we would ask for, His way really is the best!  He sees the big picture, we only see right now.  One of my favorite verses for some time has been Joel 2:21  "...be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things."  It is so wonderful to know the joy of hoping in the Lord.  Though trials may appear to be God's wrath and lack of blessing, really, trials are a blessing and a way in love our Lord molds us to be more like Christ.  We can get bitter when we think of a trial as being forsaken by God, or we can grow in faith and in character when we accept a trial, and trust the Lord has a plan.  I'm so glad He loves me enough to want me to be better for Him!  I can only hope that by His grace, I allow trials and testings to change me and make me more Christ-like!  

I heart this encouraging song on the radio this morning:   

Rejoice in the Lord

by Ron Hamilton
God never moves without purpose or plan
When trying His servant and molding a man.
Give thanks to the LORD though your testing seems long;
In darkness He giveth a song.

I could not see through the shadow ahead;
So I looked at the cross of my Savior instead.
I bowed to the will of the Master that day;
Then peace came and tears fled away.

Now I can see testing comes from above;
God strengthens His children and purges in love.
My Father knows best, and I trust in His care;
Through purging more fruit I will bear.

O Rejoice in the LORD
He makes no mistake,
He knoweth the end of each path that I take,
For when I am tried
And purified,
I shall come forth as gold.

Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So!

One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was to share with others the things the Lord has done in my life!!  I want people to see that God is real!   My relationship with Him started seven years ago and I am so thankful that in His goodness, he led me to see my sinful state, and cause me to repent and put my trust in Him.  I'd like to share with you what the Lord has done and how He gave me a new life in Him!

I grew up in a loving home with loving parents and two older brothers.  We grew up going to church each Sunday.  I was baptized as an infant and confirmed in Jr. High.  My parents wanted me to know about the Lord and I am so thankful my mom talked about God and told me I needed to have Him in my heart.  It is likely the influence of my parents making church important that made me interested in the things of God and gave me a respect for Him.  

When I was about nine years old, I began to have some problems with anxiety.  At a time when life should be simple and carefree, I was so fearful and full of worry.  We had a neighbor lady we were close to who had gotten cancer, and I began to be afraid of death.  It was also around this same time that I had some friends tell me that you needed to be "saved" in order to get to heaven.  One day, thinking it would make my fears go away, I prayed to be saved, however, I did not fully understand what that meant, and that prayer was not based upon the Bible.  I had not yet understood WHY I needed to be saved.  I did not see myself as a sinner.  There also was no change in my life after that prayer.  The Bible states in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;  behold, all things are become new." 

I went on to have a normal teenage life and decided after graduation from high school to go to college in North Dakota for dental hygiene.  I started college in the fall of 2000, and thought it would be a good thing to join a Bible study on campus.  I went to a Christian Fellowship each week, but never felt comfortable.  We sang songs about God, and they had discussions, but I was nervous every time I went because I felt I needed to act like I was spiritual and that I knew the Bible well.  However, I hardly knew anything about the Bible.  What I needed was someone who knew their Bible, and had a real relationship with God, to just simply explain it to me.  

In the fall of 2001, I started classes in the dental assisting program.  We were just about to start class one day when a young man in the dental hygiene program came in and announced he was doing a Bible study Thursday nights.  I went to this Bible study the following week, and from that first week I knew this was the Bible study I was looking for.  Everything this man said was backed up with scripture and it was explained in a way that I understood!!  Finally I had found a place where I could just come, and listen and learn!!!  

I continued to go to these Bible studies and I learned so much about God's word that year! I was so excited about what the Bible said!  I would go home on weekends and share with my family what I had learned!  However, even though I had learned so much, and was so excited about it, I still was too full of pride to apply the things I was learning to my life.  I was still blind and didn't understand in my heart.  The Bible says in Matthew 13: 15 "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted and I should heal them."  That was me.  I understood and agreed, but not with my heart. Many times the young man who did the Bible study would speak about sin and how we are all born sinners and spiritually dead.  He would speak about how Christ said "Ye must be born again."  John 3:7.  When he would say these things I would always cling to that prayer I made as a child and try to tell myself I was ok, but deep down, I knew I was not in a right relationship with God.  I knew I did not live in obedience to the Bible.  So, I began to try to clean up my life myself.  I tried to read my Bible and pray,  I tried to listen to better music, and not watch certain television shows, but while I tried to make everything clean on the outside, these things could not make my dirty sinful heart clean on the inside.  

The young man that did the Bible study graduated that spring, and I continued to go to school for dental hygiene.  He and his wife stayed in contact with me, and he would sometimes come and do Bible studies with me.  During the next three years, I didn't go to church or Bible study, but I could not forget all I had learned.  In the spring of 2005 I graduated and had moved back home.  I didn't know what was next for me or where my life was going.  I remember praying that God would somehow give me a Bible study like I had before.  I still wanted to know God and knew I needed His word!  A few weeks later I got a call from the Bible study leader.  He called to tell me a friend of his from his church was doing a Bible study in a town near my hometown!  I got off the phone and was so excited.  I KNEW God had provided this just for me!!  

I started going to this Bible study the next week and was so excited I was hearing God's word again.  God was able to work on my heart again through the preaching of His word, and about six months after I started going to this Bible study I was under very strong conviction.  Not only was God's word showing me my need for a savior, but I had also met new friends who really lived for God and had seen how true Christians lived.  Christ was not just a part of their lives, He WAS their life!!  I knew I did not have the peace, joy, and purpose like they had and the fruit in their lives was convicting to me.  

The man doing the Bible studies stated one night "How can you be saved, if you've never seen yourself as lost?"  He then shared the verse in Luke 19:10 which says "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." This is when Christ did the most beautiful thing in my heart and life that could ever happen.  God humbled me, He opened my ears and my heart, and showed me that because I was a sinner, I was worthy of hell.  Romans 6:23 states "For the wages of sin is death;  but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  It's a scary, humbling thing to admit what you are, but it is what is needed for a person to come to Christ.  Christ saves sinners who want mercy, not the self-righteous.  Christ said "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  Luke 5:31-32. I did have a sickness-it was my own sin. I had been so self righteous and prideful.  So ignorant and blind.  But spiritual blindness is only taken away by the Holy Spirit of God through hearing the truth of His word with a willing, open, and tender heart.  God had to draw me before I could be saved.  It was so hard and scary to finally admit I was lost.  Conviction is hard, fear of going to hell is hard, but this work in my heart was so beautiful!!!  

Even though I knew I was lost, I still struggled with giving God control of my life...I still wouldn't trust Him.  I feared what others would think of me, because if I was going to really make Jesus the Lord of my life, and obey what the Bible says, I would be different.  Finally, six months later, I came to the place in my heart where nothing else mattered to me but being right with the Lord and knowing He would save me.  I came to Christ, with a changed mind and heart about my sin, and I accepted Christ's blood as the only way my sins could be pardoned and the only way I could get to heaven!  I am so thankful that the goodness of God led me to repent! He saved me May 7, 2006 and life since that day has been different for me!

So many things have changed in my life since that day.  I look at the world and people completely different.  I love people like I couldn't before.  I care about people's souls!  Before, I didn't think about if someone was saved or not, but now, I want to help people to know the Lord and help them to know for sure where they will go when they die.  Also, because God showed me what I was, and because He died for me, I love Him and I want to know how to obey Him!  I used to be able to just live life day to day and not even think that much about God and pleasing Him.  Now, He is constantly in my thoughts all day!  My only fulfillment is in my relationship with Him!  I do the things I do because I love Jesus Christ.  The Bible states in 2 Corinthians 5:14 "For the love of Christ constraineth us..." Because I love Him I want to know how He wants me to live.  It is now my desire to obey Christ, and I want to make Him pleased with my life in every area!  I am so thankful that He is helping me to grow in Him.  It is only by His grace that He has changed my heart to want to please Him.  

God has given me the purpose to live for Him, to serve Him, and most importantly to tell others how they can know Him too!  I give all glory to God.  Salvation is a beautiful miracle and it is my prayer that you would know that miracle too!  

"Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;"  Psalm 107:2