Maybe Our Journey is Not Meant to Be...

I have encountered several people who have said that since it has taken so long to sell our house that it must not have been God's plan after all. Or that God wanted us to learn something else along the way and it was never about packing up and hitting the road.

Don't think we haven't thought of these things and prayed fervently to God to make his way clear.  There have indeed been times when God has pushed on in a certain direction in life but the whole lesson was really about something else and we never achieved what we thought was the ultimate goal.

What's that saying?  It's not the destination, it's the journey.

It is more important to us to do what God wants then for us to be right.  It would hurt our pride a bit to have God suddenly say, "No, it's not really about you traveling the country for a year, it was about what you learned along the way or the people you met. It was simply to see if you would take that great leap of faith and trust me."

So we have gone back through out the past year and reexamined.  What prompted us to try to set out on this journey- was it something we wanted or God wanted? Did we pray about it and seek God's will each step along the way?  Did we see God step in during the past year to make things happen?

Every time we have reexamined we have come to the same conclusion:

• We in no way ever wanted to sell our home and live in an RV for a year with our family.  So this was not birthed out of our own personal desires.
•  God was the go to guy in each step of this journey and we always followed his prompting and leading for each and every decision.  We weren't just doing our own thing. Each twist and turn has been God's doing.
• Nothing shows  that a dream or goal is God-breathed more than when he makes his presence known through doing the impossible.  We have seen this happen during the past year also. We had no idea how this would all work out at all, but he keeps putting the pieces in place.

So our conclusion is that we are right where God wants us to be and still fill led that we are suppose to pursue this cross country journey.

Often we think if we are in God's will then things will happen FAST!  Tell that to Noah who built a boat for 100 years  Was Noah not following God's will because it took a long time?  What about the Israelites?  Ok, they were being punished for 40 years for disobeying, so maybe that isn't a good example. But God still delivered on his promise in the end.

I read the following this morning out of the book Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson:



"Until recently I attached an ASAP to every prayer.  I wanted God to answer as soon as possible.  But this is no longer my agenda.  I don't want easy or quick answers because I have a tendency to mishandle the blessings that come too easily or too quickly.  I take credit for them, or take them for granted.  So now I pray it will take long enough and be hard enough for God to receive all the glory.

I'm not looking for the path of least resistance; I'm looking for the path  of greatest glory.  And that requires high-degree-of-difficulty prayers and lots of circling."

Isn't that the truth??

It reminds me of those that come into wealth very quickly or easily and then squander it away.  Those that have lived with out, have struggled financially and had to work for every dollar tend to handle a windfall or increase in wealth better.  They appreciate it more don't they?  And they are more likely to give glory to those who helped them achieve their dreams.

I have people who I haven't seen in a long while ask me,"Oh are you back now?!"  I laugh and say we still haven't left yet.  I then explain that I have come to the realization that God knew we would be in deep trouble if we hit the road right away last year after he first laid this journey on our hearts.

We have acquired so much knowledge of RVing over the past year.  We would have been risking our lives if we would have just jumped in last year with such limited knowledge and experience.  We were prepared to do that at God's calling(as scary as it would have been), but he knew that it would be better to give us time. I greatly appreciate that now!

We will continue to reevaluate God's direction in our lives, because our prayer is always that he take the reigns no matter what direction that may lead.

But for now, God is making it clear that we are still working towards traveling the country for year.

Here is my new prayer:


"I'm not praying ASAP prayers; I'm praying ALAT prayers.  As Long As it Takes. I'm going to get in my prayer circle and I'm not coming out until God answers. This does not mean I'm forcing God's hand.  After all, we can't force God to do anything! It just means I'm praying with confidence. I believe that God never overpromises or underdelivers. He always delivers on His promises, but He does it on His time!" 
~Draw the Circle

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Offer On The House -Clarified!

We had an offer on the house. But the family could only get a loan that left us quite a bit short of what we need to hit the road.

We were entertaining the option of maybe finding a campground to stay at during the winter in order to save up the rest of what we needed.  We scoured the internet and called around to see if any were even open year around in our (cold) area.  We found just one locally and it was right in the town the Hubby works at.  We researched what it would take to stay in a campground in the winter( since RV's really aren't set up for that).  It could be doable with some preparation.

It actually seems like it makes the most sense financially.  The Hubby has 3 weeks mandatory shut down over the holidays so we have to worry about that along with trying to pay off some debt and possibly storing our RV during the winter months if we are still around this area. We would also save on gas money for our vehicle since it would be closer to work and also to our church and grocery shopping.

Staying at the campground would allow us to put back around $1800 a month to help with the shut down, throw at some debt and we also wouldn't have to worry about added RV storage fees ontop of house payments. Plus we could be saving up for us to actually leave and have more of an official date to head out
( by March 2015).

But we just weren't sure.  So we do what we always do when we need guidance-PRAY.  We prayed that God would give us an unusual amount of wisdom to decipher what we should do about the house and make it crystal clear.  We said how we didn't want to make our own miracles and wanted to follow God's lead.

I went upstairs after our prayer to take a nap but decided to get in a chapter of "Draw the Circle-The 40 Day Prayer Challenge" by Mark Batterson( I highly recommend it!).  This is what I read:

"Don't let fear dictate your decisions. Letting your budget determine your vision is backward. Faith is letting your vision determine your budget.  And if your vision is God-given, it will most definitely be beyond your ability and beyond your resources. Why? Because then God will get all of the glory!  And I promise you this: the God who gives the vision is the same God who makes provision."

Nothing is a better example of that than our 23,000 adoption of which we had 0 in savings for yet somehow managed to not go in debt 1 cent when we brought Princess home!  God showed up in amazing ways during that process and he for sure gets all the glory.

The author, Mark, then talks about this crazy prayer he felt led by the Holy Spirit to pray for: 2 million dollars.  It would go to pay off a mortgage they had for the church.

"At one point, I got a little impatient and tried to manufacturer my own miracle with a start up business.  Unfortunately, what I thought was a $2 million idea turned into a $15,000 personal loss."  
( I updated this blog post because there was some confusion as to whether we were accepting the offer or not.  So I amended this post to clarify.  Sorry for any confusion!)

He goes on to say how him and some others still kept praying for this 2 million dollars.  And one day it happened in the form of an out of the blue phone call of someone saying they wanted to donate not 2 million, but 3 million dollars to the church.  Crazy, right?

I ran downstairs to tell the Hubby that we had gotten our answer. We are NOT accepting the offer.

One other thing that hit me when reading from the book was that staying in the campground made sense financially.  It was actually the safer road.  I have learned through my life that nothing that is God inspired and breathed ever makes sense.  It may 'feel' right ( Holy Spirit led) but it never makes sense in human terms( in our brains).

Sticking it out here and playing the old waiting game is way more risky and takes a lot more faith and trust.

So that's what we are going to do. Pray for an offer that is closer to our asking price.

We did have a promising showing from another family on Thursday.  They have to move to the area by October(e.g. serious buyers) and seemed to really like our home.  But I have no idea what other places they are looking at and what exactly their wish list is for a house.  So we are are just praying that the Holy Spirit moves them to choose our house and that they offer close to full asking price.  Did I mention the husband of this family is a pastor?  Who better to help fulfill this God given dream of ours than a man of God, right? lol It would also be ideal because they are in a parsonage now so they wouldn't need to sell their house.

We really don't want to be here all winter again( though we would come back for a little while to have the baby and for the holidays anyhow) but it's not really our decision to make.

I am reminded of a song:

"Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord."


We also had someone wanting to rent/lease our house from now till June of next summer and then buy it then.  That was also very tempting but we have no assurance that they will even be able to get a loan then and for the amount that is needed.  That would also take a lot of faith but after praying about it, it seems more foolish than trusting.  There is such a fine line and only the Holy Spirit can help determine the difference.

Many Blessings,

The Mama