A Walk Down Memory Lane

I did something so unique today that it really takes a blog to explain. I had made plans with a friend to go window shopping but we had to cancel because one of her children was sick. This is something I totally understand as a mother of three. It seems like one of them will be sick everyday for the next 18 years. So we rescheduled and I thought,"Hmmm, what am I going to do today?" 

I decided to go walking and fill up my soul with Jesus. Nature often does that for me. I dropped off Tiny at the gym for childcare and went walking outside. The weather was perfectly Fall, a cool damp breeze blew the changing leaves and the quietness of morning was still in the air.

I found myself walking a very familiar path from five years ago. When I got where I wanted to be, I briefly stopped and looked around. There in front of me was the neighborhood and exact house we had rented when we first moved to Richmond. A bit of nostalgia overtook me as I walked past our mailbox and looked up at the brick house. 

"Aw, that's where Baby Girl used to sleep," I thought. "And that's where she touched snow for the first time- and hated it." 

 

Memories flooded my mind and the Lord so gently placed a peaceful memory of  a blog I had written while living in that house. 

Bloom Where You're Planted was the second blog I had ever wrote. I was struggling with living in a place with so few trees and too many people. This Country Mouse felt lost in the Big City. On a very similar walk, when Baby Girl was just a toddler, we ended up discovering a soccer field with trees all around us and no people to be found. I had determined at that time to call it, My Peaceful Place. It was the place I could find rest in the Lord. It was the place I felt that God saw me. The verse I quoted originally was Ephesians 3:16-21

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:16-21 NLT

Oh what a powerful set of verses that is to read-especially now! To look back at life and see the inner struggle I faced to feel at home. And to think it didn't take God moving us once but twice to feel fully at home. I look back at the last five years and think,"Wow! God must have been whispering in my ear,"Just wait. Just be still. I have plans for you.Things you can't even imagine." And oh how I struggled with letting God work! 

But what's even more impressive is to think,"What will the next five years contain? What battles will I face? What times of joy will I embrace?" I hear these specific verses loud and clear now.

"Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is."

Wow! Oh yes it's true. Even for you, friend. Here, do this. Stop for a minute and think back to where you were five years ago. Can you see any blessings in your life? Do you see clearly the struggles you went through and how you came out a CHAMPION on the other side? That's God for you. That's Him showing how wide, long, high and deep His love is for you. 

So even now when it's hard to see through to the other side, go on a walk. Shut down your phone, turn off the tv, do whatever it is you need to do to find His blessings. 

My walk today left me feeling full of His Spirit and oh so thankful to be a follower of Jesus. Life isn't supposed to be easy because if it were, how could we appreciate the blessings that come after?

Wishing You Sweet Uninterrupted Time With Jesus Today,

Kim