Have you ever planned a vacation, bought your plane ticket, booked your hotel room, packed for yourself and your kids, woke everyone up at 4am to make a 10am flight, forgotten something at home and had to turn around only to make it to the check in station and have the nice and oh-so-friendly attendant tell you that your bag is too heavy to fly on the plane? Your options: Pay a large fee or leave something behind. Has anybody else besides me felt like this in your spiritual life? Often times I felt like I did everything I could to plan perfectly, and yet something still goes wrong or something that we or I never wanted to happen, happens.
The people who know me, and know me well understand that I have no problem sharing who I am, where I came from and what I’ve walked through. Those of you who know Ben and I know that we have the same philosophy about our marriage walk. All you have to do is ask.
We came to Georgia over 4 years ago at a time of make or break. We struggled a lot in our marriage, had two amazing daughters but were also a signature away from turning our “‘Till death due us part’ into an ‘Irreconcilable differences.’” Even when we lost sight of who we were as parents, spouses and individuals we never lost sight of whom we needed to turn to. It was by the grace of God that we fell into North Point Community Church where we were finally being fed the way we needed to, started to put others first by volunteering and started focusing on our personal walks.
For years I carried a lot of guilt and anger about things I had done or said over the course of our marriage and often felt like I wasn’t worthy to be a part of such an amazing organization. But somewhere, somehow in my walk I realized that I didn’t want to turn around, look at my past and feel condemned any longer. I wanted to turn around, look at my past and be reminded of who He is and what He has carried me and my family through. When I finally let that sink in I was able to fully give myself to the one part of our churches ministry that I had felt a passion for. I am SO glad I did! There isn’t a Sunday, or an outing with ‘my girls’ that goes by where I am not extremely grateful for this season in my life.
So whether you feel like your ‘baggage’ is under the weight limit or hundreds of pounds over, just remember that His son has already paid the large fee.
Matthew 20:28 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”
Wish I had jumped in here earlier. I am really enjoying reading your posts. Keep it up, you have alot to share.