One moves out and the other moves in!

There has been so much going on in my life lately! I went on my first missions trip to Cambodia and as soon as I can figure out how to post my pics I will. I took some really good ones. I've had to say good bye to one ministry and hello to another. My best friend and I are staring in our first ever radio show called "The Imperfect Wives" on Blog Talk Radio via CWA this Tuesday. I'm in the midst of a health scare. We are praying the doctors are wrong and I will be fine. And, Bill is in the process of retiring from the Navy. But with all this going on, the thing that has my attention the most is what's going on in the lives of our twins.

Bobby (the oldest twin by a minute and believe me when I say he claims it to the max announced he was moving out a year ago You can catch up on the story here September into his girlfriends home. She was pregnant and we were becoming grandparents. Wow!! I can't believe it has been just over a year. My heart broke that day in ways I didn't know it could.

This past Monday Bobby called and asked if he could move home. I had no clue what to say so I told him he would have to talk to both his dad and I before he could. It's not that I didn't want him to move home. My heart leap at the possibility. I knew I needed Bill to be with me when we talked. Bill and I needed to talk, not that we haven't already. We have actually talked about it a few times once we began to see the signs that he may want to come home. Ground rules had to be agreed upon and in place.

Bobby shared his heart and we shared ours. The ground rules were set on both sides and Bobby moved home yesterday. The twister in all this is Troy announced on Tuesday that he wanted to move out. Ok, a girl can only take so much in a week. We think Troy wanted to do this because he knew his brother needed to be home with us. Troy is a more serious type. He has a good job and is in collage full time. Though they are twins they are worlds apart in every other way!

The big moves took place yesterday. Troy moved into a friends house and Bobby moved into Troys room. When I woke up this morning it felt like Christmas.. You know that feeling of excitement when you can't wait to get up because you know the one gift you wanted the most is sitting under the tree? That's how I felt this morning. My gift was safe and sound asleep in his bed in our home. I'm sad that Troy decided to spread his wings and move out but I know he will be fine. He's just a few miles away. He never has been able to go to far from his mom. My boys have to grow up and I have to let them. With God by my side I know I can do this..

Simply,

When did I get this "Plank" in my eye?

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from you or take your Holy Spirit from me." Psalm 51:10-11

The hard part about being a praying wife, other than the sacrifice of time, is maintaining a pure heart. It must be clean before God in order for you to see good results. Writing down what I'm thankful for in Bill did just that… it's hard to harbor ill will toward someone when you are being reminded of the good things about them. Cleaning our hearts out of things that can betray us toward our loved ones helps our hearts to be pure.

Have you ever prayed, "Lord, change him now!”? I did just that many times before realizing I wasn't helping Bill or myself. I was coming before God with a dirty heart. How do I know? My attitude was bad and I was expecting God to perform a miracle without accepting that I wasn't any better than him. One of the things I love about reading the scriptures and learning how to effectively pray for our husbands is that we learn so much about ourselves. God began to draw a picture of what my own heart looked like on the inside and it wasn't pretty. I had a lot of cleaning to do.

This reminds of Matthew 7:13, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? “ Plank!!! I had a plank in my own eye...it was easy for me to bring to God all that Bill was doing wrong while leaving myself out of the equation. This isn't what God wants from us. We as wives need to come before God each day and confess any sin we have in our hearts. On those rare days when I feel like I made the right choices, held my tongue, and reacted in a godly way in all situations, God brings to my remembrance something I did. My point is this: we always have something to ask God to forgive us for. We are human created from dust. But God is faithful to answer our prayers as we seek him.

Can I encourage you? Correction is always good when it comes from our Heavenly Father. He wants to change our husbands, but wants our hearts right before him first. Why? Because we are the one who is coming to him. When you have time, go back and read all of Psalm 51. You will be encouraged, enlightened and comforted as you are reminded how Great our God is and how His mercy endures forever towards us!!



Heavenly Father, create in us a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within us. Don't cast us away from your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from us. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen!! :o)