Did I Hear You Right?

The boys were napping and I was getting in a little Bible reading time. I read a passage of scripture that I've read over and over, but for some reason it's never struck me like it did this time.
We all know the story of Saul to Paul right?
If not, go read Acts 9!
Let's not focus on Saul for min. ok? Let's take a look at Ananias.

"And the Lord said to him, 'Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul...'"

"Ananias answered, 'Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.'"

But the Lord told Ananias to Go and he did.

But this is what got me. What if he hadn't gone? What if he ignored that voice? What if he justified not going with how dangerous and life threatening it would be for him if he did?

What would have Saul's life looked like if Ananias did not obey the Lord? How would things have turned out differently? Would there have been less followers of Jesus? Less people reached? Less people ministered to?

And your wondering why this even matters? Because Ananias did obey the Lord and Saul became Paul. And Paul became a disciple of Jesus who made disciples.

But then I start to think about my own life. Have there been times I've ignored that still, small voice? Have I ignored promptings from the Lord? Have I justified ignoring those promptings with the thought that whatever has been asked of me won't really make a difference?

We need to open our ears. We need to always be listening. We need to be looking for opportunities for the Lord to use us. Because something small (or big) could change one life and that one life could change so many other lives.

We can't always see the effect of what God asks us to do, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is being obedient.

Even if we don't think it will make a difference, we can't underestimate a powerful God.
God took a man who was capturing and killing followers of Jesus, transformed his life, and used him to  bring so many to Him. He used the least likely to proclaim His Glory.

Have you listened to Him today?
Oh, Lord, open our ears to hear and eyes to see.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Is it too late to post about Halloween? Nah :)

Introducing the Wizard of Oz gang...

My friend, Kaitlyn and I decided to have our kiddies dress up in a theme and they were so darn cute! I still can't believe we got a picture of them all sitting together. I made Eli's costume which was pretty easy because it just involved some patches and yellow stretch fabric that I cut into strips to resemble straw. I wanted to make all the other costumes too, but in the end I'm glad I didn't. We just have way too much going on with this house reno. 

The Lion and the Scarecrow who wouldn't sit still :) typical!

I love these boys! 

The Tin Man aka Will

The Lion and Dorothy chatting

Kaitlyn and I decided to dress up as moms! I think we pulled it off pretty well ;)

The boys loved dressing up in their costumes. They kept pointing and laughing at each other. They also loved collecting candy (for their parents to eat). Eli waved and said "buh bye" as we left each house. Overall, we had so much fun. It was a great success and I can't wait for next year!

Now, for a little house update...

Here I am putting up the ceiling. I'm really happy we chose to do this. It is looking so good. 

And...the most exciting part is that we now have kitchen cabinets installed! 

I absolutely love how everything is turning out. It is pretty stressful making all these important and costly decisions without being able to really see it all together. It's good to know we didn't pick horrible choices and that it is all finally starting to come together! 

Floors are currently being put in. One step closer to being done.

Putting It All Back Together

Now that we have ripped apart our house, it's time to put it all back together. This is the part where I'd like to just hand it over to someone else, but that costs lots of money.

We are redoing all the electrical in the kitchen and living room. I'm so thankful my husband used to be an electrician and actually knows how to do this stuff. I get to be the electrician's helper. Which means that I've gotten to do a lot of crawling around in the attic and learned way more about wiring and circuits then I've ever wanted to :) 

Next is putting up the sheetrock. This is a chore! We have had several late nights working on this. 

These are the half walls we built to go around the stairs leading to the basement. Still have to finish them.

And, here is my new kitchen in boxes! So Excited!!!

The cabinets are actually being installed today! Yay! I'm loving how it all looks. We are on our way to being done. It will still be a little while until everything is completed, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!