the road which is too hard for us

I’m writing this on the anniversary of the day Luke and I met three years ago on 7. 17.17! Our moments since, though some have been planned and some unplanned, expected and unexpected, each of them whether easy and fun or hard and scary are building blocks necessary for growing us into who we are today and who we will be years from now. A move to Memphis, opening a business, new jobs, military adventures and a global pandemic to name a few are part of our story. Now I’d like to say I’m a champ at the hard and scary, however I often find myself in moments of self pity and fear. But, praise God I don’t have to sit in those moments forever, and praise God for friends and family reminding me to keep my eyes fixed on Christ and the victory we know is at the end of the road! I giggle now after the fact even though I know it's true but my sweet husband doing all he could to comfort me recently told me I am a warrior and I know how the final battle ends. Most days I don’t feel like much of a warrior but when I remind myself of those truths, that God is good in all His sovereignty and I actively set my heart to seek Him instead of fixing my gaze on the circumstance in front of me, He gives me strength to pass through that tough moment and eyes to see His goodness in it.

"To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

It’s hard to deny myself. Myself wants to be annoyed and frustrated and doubt and fear. But when I come to those moments, I’m working on asking myself, where do I see God in this? And reminding myself of where He is. He is still on His throne. He is still good. He is with us. Even when the world around us is a straight up mess, He is working. And using what’s meant for evil for good. Sometimes we just need to look up and ahead. Knowing that He goes before us and that the road which is too hard for us is best walked with our Savior who in Him there is victory at the end of the road!

One praise I continue to go back to is that had Luke been here and not away, and me not able to work for a while because COVID, we would be relying more on the business for support in such a rocky time for small businesses. But his absence is a blessing in how it’s providing for us during this time! We are both continuing on in Downline ministry online, and are learning SO much! We have both mentioned so many times how we will probably never have a moment like this again where we have some time to grow so much in knowledge of the Word and we are thankful for that.

I hope you all are seeing goodness in the messy. And hope in the shadows!

I cancelled this week, for the second time, a flight and hotel in Greece. Per the Greek Embassy, U.S. citizens are still banned from entering Greece at the moment. Luke is headed to his first maintenance period where the ship is docked for three weeks. I was hoping to get there to see him for this but we will just keep waiting to see what happens with COVID and travel. He has another docking period for 3 weeks in October, so that may be an opportunity for me to go. As is everyone else we are taking it a day at a time! We are coming up on 5 months apart and his return date is at the end of November so we are over halfway there! I think it’s better I was unprepared for this. Had I known it was going to be more of a true deployment and separation for this long, goodbye would have been much much harder.

I’m praying through what the next few months may look like now knowing I may not be traveling for a while or at all. It's been hard to find motivation to paint, more on that later. I’m thankful for those who have reached out to me for commissions and wholesale and will let you know when I’m at it again. I may pick up the palette knife again very soon!

I’m so proud for Luke and his promotion to LCDR! He is now O-4 Lieutenant Commander and got his gold oak leaf! I was hoping to be there to pin him but thankful for technology and that we were able to see it happen! He is continuing on with his Bible study there. Please pray God will lead him in that and bless the relationships he is building there!

Hang in there everyone and thank you for your prayers and support.

Remember that the road which is too hard for us is not too hard for Him!

Luke has had a few opportunities to have some local food and check out local beaches nearby!

Thankful for video chats and friends!

Hope everyone had a happy 4th!

Delta is still queen of the pillows.

And big shoutout to our Exercise Coach Germantown manager Spenser and his team and awesome clients for doing such an excellent job with the gym with everything that has been thrown at them. We are so blessed at how God keeps providing.

3 years with this man of mine! {one of our first dates at Shelby Farms!}