Top Ten Throwbacks #8

Ohhhh how I love sharing this post with you today. It's one of my favorite parts of my story.

Yesterday I mentioned living in that terrible season of hard after I lost the man I thought I was going to marry. And for months, I wasn't sure life would ever feel right or good again. I was prepared to always live with a measure of heart-pain, because I thought it might just be my new normal.

In the fall of that year, some dear friends of mine invited me to visit them at their home in Wisconsin, and I took them up on their offer. I begged the Lord to allow that trip to bring the healing my heart needed.

And He did.

Some of you have heard me tell this story before, at retreats and other speaking moments, but for those of you who haven't, this is one of the pivotal moments of my faith story.

You can read the whole post here, and it's one of my favorites, so feel free to check it out.

My friends lived on this beautiful piece of property in the middle of rolling hills and gentle streams. While I stayed with them, I visited a dairy farm and got to feed a calf, I experienced my first authentic cheese tasting, and Allison delivered my morning coffee to me every day (on a tray)! It was a soothing, lovely trip in every way.

And on the last day, just mere hours before I set out to head back home, Allison did a little photo shoot with me there on that property. She told me stories about her family's history right there on that piece of land and explained how God had provided throughout multiple generations.

Then I stood beside this little bubbling spring - so tiny you could have almost missed it - but the reason her ancestors chose that land to be theirs. The sustenance of the land right there in a spring of water.

And in that moment, God impressed on my heart the words from Isaiah - Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up! Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

I drove away later that day, knowing the full healing had begun, and so grateful for it.

I will forever treasure this piece of land and the healing God did in me that week!