You Live and Learn

This week at the Beach's has been challenging to say the least (hence the lack of posts on here)!

We started off this week finishing up a remodel of our master bathroom and laundry room...neither of which are completely done. Many trips to the store looking for things we have no clue about topped with several sleepless nights (sleeping on the couch is NO fun!), throw in a 4th grade field trip and a busy week at school and a ton of not-yet-finished craft projects laying around the house and you get one tired, stressed out girl!

We also started out this week with many conversations stemming from our new year's goal list, and started looking towards our long term goals and the decisions we have to make now to prepare for the future. Is it a smart financial decision for Shaun to start his masters now? When and what is his new schedule change going to look like at work? How can we prepare for a full time church position? Are we prepared to stay and raise a family here in Lake County or is God preparing us for His mission field somewhere else? When, Lord willing, will our first little one come along and will we be ready?

**Sigh** and this is only the beginning...

To add to the stress of this week, it seems that the Lord decided that this was the time to answer one of my prayers of how I need to be more like Him...loving those who are difficult to love, which, for the record, is not an easy lesson to learn! He has been working on my heart for a while now, but this week it really seemed to hit home.

With all that said, we still have 2 unfinished bathrooms and an unfinished laundry room, a ton of unanswered questions, and a lot of learning to do but we have survived another seven days! God is faithful even when projects are too big to handle, when questions and planning become to overwhelming to take, and when lessons to learn break us down so we feel, at times, that we can't take another step.

After lots of prayer and learning lessons this week, I wanted to share a few things that my faithful Savior has brought to light for me:

No matter how far I may stray, He is forever by my side, holding my hand along the way. (I really didn't mean for that to rhyme.)

Not every day is going to be like Christmas, but that doesn't mean it is any less important. It is still a day with the opportunity to further God's kingdom, which we should take seriously.

We will never hold all the answers in life, and that is OK! All we can do is live each day one day at a time, seeking God's will for our lives and praying that He will open the doors He wants us to walk through and close those He doesn't, all the while preparing our hearts for whatever awaits us on the other side of that door.

Learning to love those who are difficult to love means getting let down sometimes, being hurt by friends every now and then, and sometimes feeling like you're about as worthless as the dirt on someone's shoe BUT it is a humbling reminder that God loves those who are difficult for you to love just as much as He loves you! Life isn't always fair, but God is always in control and He always loves His children! Even when we frustate Him, hurt His feelings, or let Him down. He still loves us! Pretty cool reminder and pretty humbling to think that we should love others with this same attitude/perspective!

To sum it up, God is pretty amazing and His faithfulness has carried us through another week! So here's to another and another and another...I am determined to make 2012 the best year yet!

On a side note, I was thrilled to celebrate another BCS championship for my boys this Monday evening and it's with this last thought that I will leave you...

ROLL TIDE!!

-Kristy