If I could choose one lesson this year that God has taught me, it would be to LIVE in community with other believers. This path has been messy and painful, difficult and rewarding. Unlike anything I've ever experienced. In Galatians 6:2 it says, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." We aren't meant to handle things alone. We aren't even meant to handle things solely through our prayer to God. The Lord uses community to speak his truth into your life, when we aren't hearing through other avenues.
For two years I tried to force God to speak to me solely through my feelings. I restricted the ways I would accept Him. I could hear the most powerful sermon in the world but if I didn't feel that familiar feeling inside, then God wasn't speaking. And that's just not true. God speaks through his WORD every time you open the pages, he speaks through his COMMUNITY every time you show up, he speaks through your WORSHIP, he speaks through your daily LIFE. It's not all feelings. And that had to be broken in me this year. I LOOOOVE feelings. I have capital F Feelings! About things! And God wasn't one of them!
But he was still God. Whether I chose to acknowledge that or not.
In Romans 1:21 it says, "Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused." I created a God that I wanted, and it wasn't good enough. How could it be?
This little bit above just slipped out; I feel an overflow of excitement and desire to talk about my favorite things. And my favorite thing right now (praise God) is God himself. I pray for that always. Thank you Jesus for blessing me with the power of community in your name!
Levi TRANSFORMED our backyard into the most amazing place! I felt like we were on the set of Parenthood :)
The Food. Guys. I cannot even. It was SO good. Literally every single dish was amazing! I chose to make the sweet potato casserole, dinner rolls, and an apple pie (all Pioneer Woman recipes).
Jimmy tackled the turkey this year and it was DELICIOUS!
This is Koen, our friend's Lauren and Micah's cute kiddo!
We all went around talking about what God's done through us this year and what we are thankful for, it was a really powerful time and I felt lucky to be there.
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