Quiet in His Love

I have undergone many changes in my life in the last two years. Can you relate? It has been a series of trials and little joys and amazing accomplishments and deep sorrows. Life has turned one way then another and twisted back around again. There has been one constant, even when I don't feel or see it. God has been with me at every turn, through every valley, on every mountaintop. I have struggled with this. So many scars exist in me. The most painful today is the loss of my father. I have had many David moments over the last almost nine months. Mostly the angry, questioning, confused David moments. The moments where it takes all my strength and my tiny bit of faith to say, "God is good all the time." Or, "I trust You." These are truths that I have a hard time admitting, yet I cannot lie. Admitting your struggles and your fears and choosing vulnerability helps expose those deeply hidden things to the light of the Son. And in that light we can see more clearly. ...

Today marks five months since my dad's death. How is it possible that so much time has passed so quickly. In many ways, life looks different than it did before. It is full of additional challenges and heartaches. Tomorrow may be the last day that I will ever set foot in the house that my parents, my brother, and I moved into in January of 1984. I wasn't yet three-and-a-half years old when we moved in, but I spent many years there. I got married at twenty-four, so I spent over two decades of my life in that house. As of Wednesday, February 9th, it no longer belongs to my mother. Instead of the house being the Naumann house, as it has been for over 38 years, it will be the "Smith house" or the "Anderson house" or the "Davis house." It's just a house...I know. An ordinary house. I haven't lived there full-time for over fifteen years, yet it holds memories packed in almost every corner. Memories that cannot be put into a box and packed away or ...