I have walked though life with a few motto's that people have heard me say such as:
Go Big or Go Home! (I think I even have this one in the bio on my blogspot here lol)
Dance like No One's Watching (spoken from the mouth of a gal who loves to dance, until I am invited to!!)
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger (when I was so sick in 2005,2006 and literally almost died)
Well as of this week, I/we now have a new one, and I think the family has all agreed that this is the one for this time of our lives. It is a combination of two phrases that we are joining together to make our motto for this time and I also feel like the print I bought from Faye Hall Art years ago(I believe it is titled Faith) is a pictoral summary of our new motto!
Surrender All & Trust God Fully
Let me share my thoughts on my new motto. I am not sure if it goes this way, or if it should be reversed as in TRUST GOD FULLY & SURRENDER ALL
BUT this new motto of ours has come out of this past year, and especially since April. I believe that we are very quick to say to God - yes LORD I surrender. Sometimes we even raise our open hands, palms up. I remember when I was walking out in the garden in 2023 and I knew that God was calling me to surrender everything. I was praying out loud, and weeping, as I told the LORD what I was giving to him, and surrendering. It was one of the time of my life where I was scared to actually pray and say what I said. That day, and that prayer, vividly came to mind as months later we headed into a very tough year as a family and the break up of my daughter's marriage. However even though I remembered that day of praying through my tears, not once did I blame God or ask him "why" and in fact I see where God did some amazing things in the life of my daughter and grandchildren and the rest of us, even amidst the brokenness. Surrendered prayers.
One can say, sure it is easy to surrender all, when things are going well. And TBT you are absolutely right. When the sun is shining and the sky is bluest blue, and birds are singing, we see "surrender" in a different light. Often when we are knocked face down, we are also faced with whether we will surrender (or not) I know a couple people who are struggling with addiction and you would think they are the lowest they could go, but it is still not easy for them to surrender and I think it would be safe to say they have not totally surrendered yet. (BUT I am only observing, only God knows!)
One thing I know for sure in my times of surrendering - it is hardest thing to do because often the things we are being told to surrender, are the things we love (both good and bad unfortunately, one can be called to surrender drugs, or alcohol or food, but don't want to even if those things have taken their toll on a person's health, wealth, mental stability)
ANYHOW, back to me and my times of surrender. I have found it hard because it has been things I LOVE dearly ... my spouse/kids/grandkids; the ministry God called me to; the house that Alvin and my son and at the time, our son in law helped them build. Those are people and things I love with all my heart. If I was called to give up things I hated, then it wouldn't really be a surrender would it.
The post before this one, talked about God telling us we were done with ministry. We knew then that we would also sell our home as it is too big for this 67 year old couple. Yes, there has been some sadness but for the most part, such incredible joy. Bring it on LORD - bring on the next chapter. So we began to look at homes, with shops (for Alvin) ... and a couple months ago, we put a conditional offer on a house we felt was for us. It had been on the market for a while when we saw it. The conditional sale was extended once by us, and then the date extended to tomorrow by the couple when our last time came due. The house was on Birds Hill Road, and yes it had a shop. We were excited about the possibility.
Our house as of today has been listed for 4 weeks. We have had two showings in the first two weeks and now nothing. We also knew that July is a bad month to list a house. HOWEVER we were trusting God on it all.
On Tuesday night we got a call from our realtor that began, "I wish I was calling with some good news..."
Alvin and I had already talked about the looming deadline, and that we were not going to ask for an extension. That was what Dave was calling about because they had an offer, but we had the first chance to decide to buy it, or not. We said no, we wanted to let it go.
When we got off the phone we felt great release and relief. It is a strange thing because last week we talked about whether God was wanting us to finally conclude ministry and trust him. And Alvin and I also wondered if by hanging on to this house to buy, that perhaps we needed to let go of that too. So we feel relief.
Many people have told us - "It is going to sell - your house will sell soon." "We are praying about someone both purchase the home and also to take over ministry." I could not list the amount of times we have been told that.
What we are hearing very loud and clear right now is that we are now called to surrender all ... and to trust God fully on these steps - this time in between - our lives - our family - the ministry ending - someone to go forward in ministry - the purchaser of our home - and the furutre home for us. This is why I realize that we now have a NEW life motto: Surrender All & Trust God Fully
The definition of a motto (Cambridge dictionary) is
- a short sentence or phrase that expresses a belief or purpose;
- a word, phrase, or sentence that expresses the principles or belief of a person, group, country, or organization
