the chalkboard. seasons. and a church.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

ecclesiastes 3:11

bear with me as i work through this post.

the chalkboard: this was a wonderful housewarming gift from our friends tony and abigail. she thought that i'd delight in receiving a chalkboard...and she was right. i'd really been wanting a place to put verses, countdowns, song lyrics, really anything that would serve as an encouragement to us. so the day i pulled up to our house and the chalkboard was sitting there with a bow on it, i was thrilled.

seasons: the verse on the chalkboard currently is ecclesiastes 3:11. it is in the midst of ecclesiastes 3 where Solomon is talking about how there is a time for everything in life. and the good news about this is that the Lord is sovereign over all of these things. oh how that is good news. because in the bad times, the Lord is sovereign. in the good times, the Lord is sovereign. in the quiet times, the Lord is sovereign. in the loud, busy times, the Lord is sovereign. and all those times, those seasons, the Lord makes them all beautiful...in their own time. oh what hope that provides.

a church: and that verse. that was a part of the sermon on sunday at the church we go to. the significant part of the previous sentence is, "the church we go to." you see, we've been without a church home for just about two years now, until just a few weeks ago. when we lived in massachusetts, we had found a church that became our family. it was a place where ryan and i really learned about our faith and were challenged to grow deeper in our faith alongside some of the most wonderful people we have been blessed to have in our lives. these people are aunts and uncles to j, mentors to ryan and i, and people we genuinely love. needless to say, leaving that behind two years ago was one of the hardest things we have done. it broke our hearts. it also made it very hard for us to search for a church because our hearts were so sad about leaving, that i think we were trying to find exactly what we left behind. however, that doesn't exist. nor is it healthy to always be looking back when you are trying to move forward. we left MA for many real reasons. that church, however, was what the Lord used in our lives while we were living there during that season, but that doesn't mean that's what we needed in this next season of life. all this to say, the past two years, were, i think to really help us get to a place where we were ready to settle in and find a new church for this season of our life. we are so excited about the church that we have found and we really feel like it's a place we can worship and call home. praise the Lord.

so there you have it. the chalkboard. seasons. and a church.