When Mike lost his job in November 2015 I had no idea of what to expect in the months that followed. I experienced a range of emotions from happiness, sadness, shame, honesty, humility and trust and biggest of all, I felt first hand God's love for me and I was overwhelmed by it. I am not the same person I was seven months ago and that is a good thing. Mike is not even close to the same person and our boys have witnessed up close and personal our transformation. This blog is really for Jay and Nick. As they age and get ready for adulthood I would tell them the following:
*Surround yourself with friends who will bare your burdens. Where in the world would we be without our friends?
*Family is family. I would tell Jay and Nick that in a crises, their differences won't matter. Your brother is your brother just as my sister is my sister. She felt my pain and prayed for me.
*Pray, pray and pray again - together!
*Kindness is a class act. It sets your apart from others.
*Money is important but it's not everything. Be smart with your money!!!
*The worst of times can be the best of times. There are some days when I wish we could go back to those early days in November and December. Crazy huh? But our family, especially Mike and I were so raw and vulnerable. And honestly, when we were at our worst was when we felt God the most.
*Be open and still.
*Surrender - I remember in January I talked about surrendering with Mike and his response was, "What does that even mean?" I get it, surrendering is a hard thing to learn but in our circumstances we had no other choice but to surrender.
*Look for God "winks" - they are everywhere!
*Know that life is hard. You were never promised an easy life but have faith, Jesus overcame the world.
*Everyone is broken. I don't care how their life looks on facebook. Everyone (yes, everyone) has a story of brokenness.
*Don't judge people (see above, everyone has a story of brokenness).
*Forgive yourself.
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