Joy

These last few weeks may have been some of the most stressful and hectic we've encountered thus far in our lives/marriage.  I haven't posted lately because, honestly, I haven't been doing a good job of keeping up my joy through our circumstances.  I don't want to bore anyone with details, or seem like I'm complaining, so I'll keep it brief and start with the positives:

- We're moving!  On my last post I showed some pictures of our new condo.  We're really excited about the new place and checking out a new town ...

- We found a renter for our Daphne condo!  After 1.5 years of unsuccessfully trying to sell our house, and 3 months of trying to find a renter, God has now answered our prayers!  We found a super nice guy who wants to make our house his home for the next year or so.  However, the market being what it is, we could not get a rent price near equivalent of what we pay on our mortgage.  That plus the new condo in C'ville means we'll be pinching our pennies more than ever!  Not to mention he wants to move in about 1.5 weeks before we can move into our new condo.  So that means we have to pack up quicker than expected and will be homeless for a bit!

- Stuart has been on the job hunt now for a few months.  We had some luck in C'ville with a job offer, but it would have been for a position that would be a few steps backward in his career goals.  Stuart, being the wonderful husband that he is, was willing to take it ... but after much discussion we decided it wouldn't be best for us.  So the hunt continues.  We are now considering options such as Stuart staying in Daphne and continuing work with Chevron until God shows him a position in C'ville.  Or ... we are also considering overseas rotations with Chevron (28 day on, 28 day off positions that would allow him to live with me in his off time).

All of these situations have dominated our thoughts, prayers and conversations for the last few months.  It's really been exhausting.  Our faith has been tested ... some days we pass the test and some days we fail.  Ultimately though we have faith in our Sovereign Lord and know that he will provide a way for us.  It may not be what we imagine now, but His plans are always greater than ours are!  Stu and I figure that in 10 years we will look back on all this and THEN realize why everything had to be as complicated as it is now ... and it will likely make a beautiful testimony of God's faithfulness for us.

I've learned a lot through these trials, and hope I will see more that God wants to show me.  I think we've seen that Satan will try his best to throw you off track and to make you lose sight of God's goodness.  We know that C'ville is where God wants us to be, and Match Day was such an exciting day for us.  But since, it seems that everything has gone wrong, from financial issues to people actually taunting my husband at work and saying he's not man enough to make me stay here so that he can keep his job!  Ugh!

I've also learned that whatever comes our way, we have to be joyous through it all.  I've been stressed before (med school, hello), and I've had tough personal and family issues to deal with, but this has brought to me a whole new level of stress and worry.  And as I mentioned I haven't been handling it well the whole time.  It got to the point where I wasn't excited about graduating Saturday, or having last visits with med school friends.  I finally realized (with a little help from my mother) that I was allowing Satan to steal my joy.  Once I realized that, I can't seem to get away from the word "joy".  Our new pastor at church (and one of our great friends here in Daphne), just started a series on Joy.  Every song I hear on the radio seems to be about joy regardless of your circumstances.  A lady in the store the other day asked me if I was a mother because I looked glowing and joyous (a little weird, but nice anyway)!

Joy is a Fruit of the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit lives within us as Christians and never changes, just as God Himself does not change.  So therefore, whatever circumstances we face, our joy should never change nor be taken away.

Now, I'll stop preaching  =)  But first, here are a couple songs that have meant a lot to me the past few weeks.  I'd just like to share!