I’m embarrassed to say that the last time I wrote on here was August…AUGUST PEOPLE!! Somehow or another I went from “regular” writing to skipping weeks and months at a time. I just isn’t right, but it is my reality and here I am, hopping on the horse once again.

It’s hard to sum up all that has happened in the past few months. Our home has gotten a major makeover and we are nearing the end of all the remodeling. It’s been a labor of love but has taught us a lot about working together and has reminded us why we enjoy the work we do through Kinfolk. Then, in early September, my youngest nephew was diagnosed with Leukemia. Our family has been learning everyday how to hold one another up and encourage each other during this season. My sister, Colton’s mama, has been sharing about their journey on her own blog here. I’d encourage you to give it a read if you have the time. God’s been showing Himself so faithful in their journey and it’s a privilege to witness.

But over the past few months, through all of the experiences above and more, my faith journey has been stretched and deepened and reawakened (and I didn’t even realize it was sleeping in the first place). The bottom line is that I am a creature of habit. I like my rhythms and routines and schedules and anything “unplanned” is really hard for me to embrace. If I work a scheduled 9-5 job, Monday through Friday, then that’s what I plan to do everyday. If I have planned to work after Nora goes to bed, then any request aside from that tends to be a “no”. I’ve got goals and I stick to the plan. I don’t do well with spontaneity.

But the other day, I just sensed that my kiddo needed me. I was getting ready for work and we were just not jiving together in our typical morning ritual, and the more I tried to rush her out the door, the more she clung to me to get me to slow down. It was about a week out from my biggest event of the year (planning Homecoming for Messiah College), and everything logical said that I should be rushing into work, frantically pulling the last minute pieces together for that event.

But I just called it, and we stayed home.

We had a great day together, lounging around, taking a walk, napping, and sitting on the front porch while waiting for her dad to come home. And as we sat there together, I took this photo, because I wanted to remember this moment, knowing it was direct obedience of what the Lord was asking me to do that day.

I haven’t had a lot of moments like that lately. Instead of listening to obedience, I tend to listen to podcasts and speakers and writers who give me all of the tips and tricks on how to be successful. But lately I’ve been captivated by this idea of obedience. A writer that I admire shared the other day that her experience has taught her that “Abundance always follows Obedience”.

Mic drop.

So often, I fear obedience because of the ways it causes me to give up or let go. Even when I stayed home with Nora, there was always the possibility of disappointing the expectations of others, or having more work to do the next day, or being seen as disloyal. Obedience is not an easy thing for this strong-willed mama to do. But in that act of obedience, sitting on the porch with my daughter on a Wednesday, there was such abundance.

Lately, I’ve been challenged to think more intentionally about the ways in which I’m modeling obedience in my own journey. What voices am I allowing to determine my decisions? Am I letting fear keep me from making decisions that I know are right for me? When was the last time I did something out of obedience? For the past two years, the Lord has been stirring something in my heart, something that will take lots of faith and obedience to follow through on and instead of being known for “working for everything she’s got”, I’m becoming more drawn towards being known as for living a life of abundance based on her obedience.

Stay tuned as I’m looking forward to sharing more in the weeks and months to come.