In Which I Watch Out for Ryan. {Kinda.}

You suffered through yesterday's story...do you have it in you for one more?

So Ryan is working on selling his beloved Old Trusty {renamed, by me, of course, as the Asphyxiator}. He put it up for sale online, and this week he had a bite. He told me he was going to meet someone about the truck, and I informed him I was going with him.

For surveillance.

Because I'm sure all of you would PICK ME FIRST to be your watchdog in such a situation.

But I've seen the movie. I was aware of the dangers and equal to the task to protect my husband.

We made our way to the Meijer parking lot for him to meet the gentleman interested in the truck. I pulled into a parking spot a few hundred yards away, slid down into the front seat and donned my sunglasses.

I made mental notes of the car that pulled in and the gentlemen that got out. I slid the window open and took photos of them in case I needed to turn those over to the police at any point in time. Then I realized I didn't have a clear view of their car, so I put the car in drive and looped around the parking lot to get photos at other angles.

I felt so Sandra Bullock.

I sent a text to my sister {with the above photo} telling her I was the undercover meet up watchdog. She replied with "Concealed carry?" I said, "I do have concealer. And lip gloss."

I felt that was a good answer.

The gentlemen looking at the car looked...and looked...and looked...so I took up a texting conversation with my mom, in which I learned I am the Honest Toddler. {If you listen to BLT, you'll understand what that means.} Here was our chat:

Me: So I'm on duty now for the meet-up. I have taken pictures of the men in case something goes wrong. Hi, my name is Bekah and I watch too many movies.

Mom: MEN??

Me: There are two. It's taking forever, which doesn't matter, except I get ice cream when it's over, and you know the danger of withholding that from me.

Mom: Taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r is exactly how long?

Me: A good 10 minutes so far. Maybe longer.

Me: ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!!!

Mom: He's done?

Me: No, I was just reminding you of the sense of urgency. In case you forgot.

Mom: I remember.

Me: They put the hood back down. The guy is pacing. BUY THE TRUCK AND I WILL SHARE MY ICE CREAM!! I bet he can be persuaded with food.

Me: Test driving.

Me: Test drive over. It's like watching the Judas bargaining scene in the Easter Pageant. Just a bunch of nodding and shaking and gesturing.

Mom: LOL!

Me: Think it would help if I rolled down the window and yelled BUY IT!!!! I'M READY FOR DESSERT!!!!!!

In the end, the gentleman passed on the vehicle, and an hour later, we were back in the parking lot, showing it to two other...individuals {gentlemen would be not quite the right descriptor}...who, according to Ryan, spent most of their time burping and telling him stories of trucks they used to own in days of yore.

Apparently selling cars is not always a smooth process.

But let the record show, all was well in the end {despite the fact that the truck has yet to sell}, and I actually got an entire blog post written during the second adventure.

That may not speak well for my surveillance skills.

Farewell, Old Blue; Hello, Red Bandit

Oh, people.

PEOPLE.

This has been a week in Shafferland transportation. I thought you might enjoy the sheer craziness of it all, so here you go!

A few months ago, Ryan became concerned about the amount of miles piling up on his vehicle, which is our best one {and my saving grace on icy commutes}, so he bought back a car he used to own...just a little old Neon with a good chunk of miles, a bit of rust on the exterior, and fabulous gas mileage. He cleaned it all up and since December, he's been driving that back and forth to work and on random chore outings.

Last Thursday - a week ago this very fine day - he and I were traveling home, talking on the phone, and organizing the night ahead: mowing for him, house chores for me.

All of the sudden he said, "Uh oh."

I panicked {because duh, what else would I do?} and asked what was wrong.

Calmly, he said, "My car just died. I think it's the timing belt."

Now. Let's pause for just a minute here to think back to the day when my timing belt broke in the middle of the Fort Wayne Airport Expressway. I immediately burst into tears and had a full-on panic attack with loud cries of prayer. Ryan? He just calmly announced that his timing belt had broken, and he would need to hang up and pursue a solution.

{911 was not his solution.)

It actually was pretty amazing in a God-sort-of-way, because the belt broke AFTER he was driving through the city and the jams caused by fair traffic. It actually broke 1/4 mile from my parents' house, right in front of their friends' home. This house has a gated driveway, and the gate is NEVER open, but it was that day, and he was able to coast in and be safe off the heavily traveled highway. My dad was home and was able to hurry over to make sure all was well with the homeowner. I was so thankful for all these things, because I was on my way to meet a friend and couldn't get there to help him.

{Although, again, I'm of little help in these messes.}

Ryan's mom was on her way home from town and was able to come get him, and she took him to borrow their pickup truck and his uncle's trailer. Ryan's cousin happened to be at his aunt and uncle's house and was willing to drop his projects to go with Ryan to help him load the injured car up onto the trailer.

And Nita, bless her heart took pictures of the whole thing for me.

They hauled the car back through all the fair traffic and to the far side of Kokomo to drop it off at the car shop Ryan always goes to.

And it was closed.

Like permanently.

WHAT?!?!!?!?!?!!?!?!?

So....they hauled the car back through the city, back through the fair traffic, and unloaded it from the trailer.

In a long decision making process that makes for terrible blog fodder, Ryan decided not to fix it, but to sell it - hoping someone would want it for parts, maybe - and channel his focus toward something newer.

So he listed it online at midnight on Saturday. By 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, he had 4 inquiries, and by 4:30, he'd sold it.

WHAT!?!?! We can sell a dead car in less than 24 hours and not two perfectly good houses!??!?!!? Explain it to me.

And so it was that Tuesday night, Ryan and his brother loaded up the car onto the trailer, and he and his mom delivered it to its new home.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ryan had discovered a little truck online that he thought might be a good replacement for both Old Blue and the Asphyxiator. {You remember the Asphyxiator, right? It's his pickup truck that has lived an...intense...life.} So after he dropped off Old Blue, he went to check out the truck...and so it was that he became the proud owner of...

...Red Bandit.

As you may remember, last week he was kissing a pig. This week he's hugging a truck. Am I being replaced!?!?!?!!? :)

I am so, so happy for him. I know he's been juggling two REALLY OLD cars for a long time, and to be able to have something a little newer is a blessing.

And a sweet upgrade from...well...the Asphyxiator.

And for the record, the yard still isn't mowed. It turns out that running the Shafferland Transportation Company takes up ALL our spare time. HA!!! Maybe tonight. Thursday, take two! {And by two, I mean, of course, two yards.}

Wednesdays in the Word: Verse W

First of all, let me say a giant THANK YOU for the kind comments yesterday. I was hoping the words of the prayer we heard would encourage YOU {and hopefully they did}....and you encouraged me with your kindness. We are holding tight and know God has a perfectly-timed plan. But goodness, the prayers are so helpful.

We've made it all the way to W in our study of verses...and this is one that falls into the category of "easier said than done."

I've been thinking about this one...because my guess is when you saw those words, you either charged yourself guilty or innocent from falling into one of two temptations: food or sex. And now, feeling either appropriately convicted or freed, you're ready to move on.

But today I'm urged to stop and think about some of those other temptations. The ones we don't really pause to think about in this context.

* The temptation to be lazy in work. {Not just AT work, but IN work.} To not give our very best. To coast along.

* The temptation to lose our tempers...with drivers on the road, with our kids, with people shopping across the aisle from us {gulp, Bekah}.

* The temptation to let something go that needs to be addressed...a hurt, maybe. A lost friendship. Something that might cause wounding if we scrape at it, but it still deserves attention.

* And speaking of that...the temptation to neglect those closest to us. To be too busy for our spouses or our kids.

* The temptation to live beyond our means, because let's face it...having stuff and going places can be so much fun.

* The temptation to skip out on tithing so we can pay some bills.

* The temptation to take credit that isn't ours, rather than pointing to the one who deserves it...because we enjoy the attention.

* The temptation to skip out on our devotions or church rather than investing in time with God.

...you get the idea.

Pray, so much, against the temptations to be less than God made you to be. To be less than a good example for Him.

...And now, I have some praying to do...

Waiting Rooms

We knew when we sat down in church on Sunday morning and the sermon title printed in the bulletin was "What Are You Waiting For?" - that we were potentially in real trouble.

Our pastor got up and delivered a timely, beautiful message that struck both of us smack in the middle of our hearts. He gave the analogy of going to the emergency room...a place no one ever really wants to be anyway...and hearing the words, "Have a seat, and the doctor will be with you shortly."

Shortly.

Ha.

I remember my visit to the ER over a decade ago. I had gone in with unbearable abdominal pain, heard the famous above words, and made my way to the waiting room for the doctor arriving shortly. Not long into my stay, the pain became too great to sit, so I asked for a cot of some sort. They were out of cots, they said. WHAT!?!? You're a hospital, for crying out loud! How can you be out of beds?? They offered me a wheelchair. Well, I didn't need a rolling version of the waiting room chair, so I went back to wait.

Not long after, a sweet mama came in with her daughter, whose head had been gashed open and was bleeding badly. As the mom pressed bloody towels to her head, I so desperately wanted to tell her if she'd just say that kid had chest pains, she'd get right in. In my 3 hour wait, I'd learned that was the golden ticket. I was close to developing a few myself if it would speed the process along.

So...no. I don't believe in the doctor will be with you shortly.

Pastor Steve talked about the way God often asks us to wait and in His time frame...it's shortly. But in our time frame...it's long and laborious.

I am pretty sure we were the invisible sermon illustration.

At the end of the morning, he invited those in a season of waiting to stand...and I promised God if Ryan stood, I would stand with him. He did, and I clutched tightly to his hand.

We stood there with our heads bowed and heard the pastor urge the Body of Christ to look around and if someone near them stood...to go stand with them as a sign of support.

It was like junior high revisited {in my little brain}. Oh please let someone come stand with us. We still don't know most of the people who sit around us, so I had no idea who might be willing to step out and stand with two waiting strangers.

I felt a hand rest on my shoulder and peeked out to see a face I recognized from my days at IWU. I was so relieved that someone had taken pity on us that I began to cry. {Please hold your shock.}

Then Pastor Steve asked the supporters to pray aloud.

This man didn't know us. He had no idea what we waited for, and if I had to guess, I didn't figure "selling two houses" topped his list.

But he opened his mouth, and I'm not kidding...the most anointed prayer I've ever heard just poured out. I was convinced God had tapped him on the shoulder and told him exactly what we needed, and that's the way he prayed.

I was crying hard by the end.

We thanked him after church, and the next day, I emailed him to thank him again - and to explain what we're waiting for. He responded with some of the same words he prayed, and they so moved me, I wanted to share them with you. Maybe you're waiting too, and you need this today:

May the love of God, grace of Jesus and presence of the Holy Spirit be with you during this time of testing. May the test become a wonderful testimony of how God has blessed. We pray that as you roll this burden upon the Lord and wholly commit and trust it to Him, He will cause your thoughts and actions to be agreeable with His will and your prayers will be answered. May you be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power in Christ Jesus, so that you will obtain fortitude (victory in all circumstances) and patience (always in right relationship with the Lord and others) with all joy and thanksgiving. Your God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus. May the Lord grant you an extra measure of love, faith, patience, and longsuffering as He answers your prayers in the best possible timing.

And so we wait. And we pray. And we trust. 

Fun at the Fair!

Ryan and I grew up in Howard County, and we love the county fair. I've heard it's one of the best around...but I wouldn't know from experience, because it's the only one I've ever been to.

Despite our busy schedules, we managed to carve out two nights to go to the fair this year, and I thought I'd share some of our adventures with you!

Awkward selfie as we walked to the fair on the first night. We skipped paying for parking and walked the distance. :) 

 First order of business: a lemon shakeup for this guy! He got one both nights, actually. I can't have them, but he loves them!!!

 He was also VERY excited about his fried mushrooms.

 Me? Well, I was happy to see the walking taco tent! This year they had OPTIONS for chips, and I went with the Doritos!!

 Ran into my friend Katy, so we had to get a picture. :)

 I guess Ryan felt left out, so he found a friend, too!!!!!

 I just loved this picture. Sadly, we didn't get to ride this one this year. The first night we went, it was 99 cent ride night, so we'd have lost HOURS of our life waiting in line. The second night, we chose to spend our remaining funds on food. LOL!!!!!

 We did hang out with our friend Shawn on the first night, and I happened to capture this on the crazy ride. It's not actually CALLED the crazy ride, but that's how I feel about its motion.

 Ryan went for a Philly cheese steak sammich, and I had a few bites. It was just okay. Probably won't get that again.

 And it's not a year at the fair unless we have AN ELEPHANT EAR!!! This is how we capped off the first night.

 And....Friday night!

 This time, he started out with the sirloin tips. He was sad because the lady that made it spilled a whole bunch of it on the counter, said sorry, and handed it to him minus a big chunk of the food. Disconcerting at any turn, but more so when you're paying twice what it's worth!

 I had drooled over his fried mushrooms on Wednesday, so that's what I chose for Friday. With southwest ranch! YUM!!!!!!!

 I know it's really dumb to get soft serve ice cream at a FAIR when you can get that anytime, anywhere, but it just sounded SO GOOD on a hot Friday night. We did share this, FYI. {You know, I should have put that in my vows: I love you enough to share my ice cream. That's a LOT of love.}

 That night, we walked around with our friends Troy and Cilicia, and they talked me into visiting the petting zoo. {Because that's about my mentality level.} I really did think these guys were sweet.

 Note: Bekah making physical contact with unpredictable animal:

 They also had this old-fashioned combine running - and we stopped to watch it for a while!

 Grain!! {They would let you try it to eat it, but I wasn't sure how I felt about raw grain. I like jelly on mine.}

 We enjoyed walking around one last time and then said goodbye...for another year.

I realize this is 57 kinds of dumb, but it's so much fun to have a date to walk through the fair with. Worth the 34 year wait on that one. :)

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday we thought Ryan was going to have to work {which is rare on a Sunday} and we both woke up feeling HORRIBLE, so that was a bad combo! Halfway through the morning, we got a text from his boss saying he didn't have to come in. We were so grateful! We thoroughly enjoyed our day of true rest - our favorite breakfast sammiches from Subway, a fun trip through a model home {never done anything like that before} and of course - STARBUCKS.

* Monday one of our listeners/my friends stopped by the station with 2 boxes of Rise n Rolls. Ummmmm THANK YOU!!!!!! Thoroughly savored every bite of that unexpected treat. After work, Ryan went to help one of his friends load busted concrete into a dump truck {this was actually fun for them, I am told}. When he got home, we enjoyed dinner in the pirogi - in the rain! It was one of those lovely, gentle rains...so calming.

* Tuesday, I could not wake up! I was already on another cup of coffee by the time Mid-Morning began. And even that didn't do it. Lynne brought a treat for Ryan and I to share...the best key lime pie in the world. I couldn't even finish my piece, if that tells you how rich and wonderful it was! We enjoyed our night at home - and I watched my next Beth Moore Bible study - loving all I'm learning!

 * Wednesday night was our first night to visit the Howard County Fair. FRIED FOOD!! Ryan enjoyed his sampling of stuff - and I made short work of a walking taco...and then we shared an elephant ear. Ryan kissed a pig, because, well, why wouldn't he? And we spent some time walking around the midway with our friend Shawn and his kids. Lines were WAY too long to ride that night. We have to channel all our patience toward home sale, not lines for rides.

* Thursday started out pretty well...and then...oh the Shafferland drama. Ryan and I were driving home {separately, of course} from work, talking on the phone, when he told me his car had just died. Like DIED. It happened to occur not far from my parents' house, so Dad went over, and then Ryan's mom and cousin showed up, and in true it-takes-a-village form, they hauled the car away. It's a much longer story than this shuffle has time to tell. But look at this husband of mine. Still smiling even with a dead car and very reorganized night.

* Friday night, we went back to the fair for one last hurrah...we walked around with our friends Troy and Cilicia and their kids...and they even got me into the petting zoo and close to the animals! We watched an old fashioned combine hard at work and got a few last fair treats - including Ryan's favorite sirloin tips!

* Yesterday was my third time {Ryan's second} to work the Peterson Scholarship Golf Outing in Fort Wayne. We're not really golf people, but Lynne's husband has spearheaded the outing these last 3 years and has asked me to be the photographer. We were CERTAIN we were getting rained on this year because the radar showed this HUGE wall of water coming at us...but it DID NOT rain. Amazing. Ryan had fun driving the golf cart, and I had fun taking pics!

The Saturday Six

One.

Source

Found this gem of a house through the magic of Pinterest. Oh how I fell in love with it! Further reading of recent posts on this blog tell me that this family has since sold this house, but it's still beautiful.

Two.

My mom let us borrow her newest cleaning purchase: the e-cloth. We used it to wash all the windows at the Greentown house - and though I was skeptical...it worked! Just warm water and the cloth made for clean windows and no streaks! Amazing. 

Three.

Source

This week I interviewed Teresa Berg, a photographer who donates part of her time to taking glamour shots of pets up for adoption. She found the photos on pet rescue sites to be lackluster, and wondered if endearing photos of the pets would help them become adoptable. CHECK OUT HER CUTE PICS!!!

Four.

Source

So I was reading Kelly's blog this week and WHO SHOULD SHOW UP in an article she wrote, but my blog buddy Natasha! SO excited for her! Way to go, Natasha!!!!

Five.

I don't know how many of you have read Francine Rivers' novel Redeeming Love, but it's a wonderful, wonderful book - perhaps the one she's most known for - and she's written many books! I just read this yesterday: that they're making her book into a movie. I'm excited to see THAT!

Six.

Source

Several months ago, I interviewed Susan from Between Naps on the Porch, and I just love her porch. I want to sit on it! Permanently! :) She's having some overhaul work done on it - and she wrote this post about how things get worse before they get better. I hate that part for her, but I love being reminded what a lovely porch this is!!

Temporary Relocation

Another peek into my prayer chapel visits:

Tuesday number two of the in-earnest prayer dates began with much greater enthusiasm than Tuesday number two of the modified prayer dates.  I didn’t show up and start chattering away.  I didn’t feel nearly the apprehension as I walked from the office to the prayer chapel as I had a week earlier. 

That is, until I got to the door of the chapel.  A white sheet of copy paper was taped to the door with a sign announcing the chapel was closed until Thursday.  I stared toward Heaven.  Uh, God?  What do I do now? You specifically told me to keep seven Tuesday dates with You…here.  Not at home.  Here at the chapel.  What is this?  Is this a thwart of Satan to throw me off track?  Is he trying to get me to give up in the second week like I did last time?  What is going on?  Is my second “dip” toward cleansing going to be jeopardized? 

Okay so maybe I did start to chatter.  I have no idea why the chapel was closed or what role, if any, Satan played in the timing of it.  Perhaps it was just one of those things.  But I did feel God prompting me to come to my house – and stay in my backyard.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, and just a couple of days before, I’d pulled out all the porch furniture, so I had chairs to sit in and the sun to soak up.

I have to admit that I was a bit cautious driving home.  Had I heard God right?  Was this some sort of trap?  The instructions had clearly been to go to the chapel and pray.  Yet I didn’t have a choice today.  The chapel was not available.  I pulled in the driveway and pushed open the chain link gate that leads to the backyard.  I wiped down a freshly dust-covered green plastic chair and slid into it. 

As I had done the week before, I just took a deep breath and looked around, soaking up my surroundings as I waited for my first God-given clue of what the week’s lessons were to be.  I didn’t have long to wait for the first one.  In between the honking horns and nearby hum of construction, I heard birds singing.  An entire chorus of birds filled my yard and the neighboring yards as well.  I listened to them sing and faintly remembered the outline of a verse:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?”  (Matthew 6:25-26).

I watched the birds perched on the privacy fence and the ones splashing and flapping around the birdbath.  I observed the ones plodding through the yard and pecking randomly through the grass for whatever treasure may be found.  I definitely did not see a lot of worry.  And something else was noticeably absent from my view of the bird convention in the yard. 

Fear. 

Those birds were not enslaved by a bit of fear.  They weren’t afraid to fly or dig or splash or build a nest.  If I’d been a bird, I’d have been afraid to fly into the next yard – what if I accidentally misjudged and flew into a window and died from the blunt force head trauma?  If I’d been a bird, I’d have been afraid to dig in the yard – what if I stuck my face straight into some sort of recently applied yard chemical that burned all the feathers off my head and gave me permanent brain damage?  If I’d been a bird, I’d have been afraid to splash in the birdbath, because knowing my luck, it would not be water I found, but just a mirage, and then all the other birds would have seen me flapping in the empty bath and laughed me out of the yard.  If I’d been a bird, I’d have been afraid to build a nest – because what if a big wind came that night and knocked the nest out of the tree and I’d not yet secure nest-owners’ insurance?

Fear.

My topic of the day.  My next issue in a line of issues to correct before I would be ready to handle a relationship.  After all, how could God trust me to be a part of a healthy relationship if I couldn’t pull myself away from a web of irrational fears?  I’d never be willing to give the relationship a chance, because I’d be forever wondering what might go wrong with it or who might see me fail.

I squirmed in the green plastic chair.  This might not be the most fun cleansing of the seven weeks. 

A Glimmer of Hope in a Gift of Love

I thought I'd visit my prayer chapel story for a couple of days...some of you have said you're anxious to hear where it goes next!! This particular part is how my very first visit {which I'd so long fought and worried about} ended:

I stepped back into the world, leaving behind the quiet of the peaceful chapel.  As I made my way down the sidewalk, God again brought me back to the story of Naaman.  He reminded me that Naaman had been required to dip himself in the Jordan seven times in order to come out a cleansed man. 

And seven times is what I ask of you.  Please come here seven times.  Seven weeks.  Seven Tuesdays.  And know that when you leave this place, you will be cleansed. 

I thought of what had just transpired in the moments before – certainly more lessons than I expected to learn in such a short time.  And yet I felt as though my first cleansing had taken place.  I wasn’t fully healed yet, but the first layer of disease had been stripped away.  God had taken my repentant offering from my sin.  He had accepted into His rightful care what I had sinfully demanded as my own responsibility.  He had taken what held me back.  He had forgiven me for my poor choice. 

And while I knew I’d grieved His heart for holding onto that for so long, the love and mercy I’d felt as I released it was amazing.  No condemnation.  Just mercy and love.  This is cleansing.  This is restoration.

I took a deep breath, but before I could go another step, God had one more surprise.  I looked down at the sidewalk when I turned onto the main stretch of cement, and found that literally thousands of white petals were strewn across the path.  I don’t know what kind of trees line that walk, but what a beautiful blossom they hold in the late spring! 

A tiny giggle escaped me as I walked through the soft path of flowers.  It was as though God created an aisle for me…one like I hope to walk on my wedding day…an aisle toward a new future with the man He has chosen to be my husband. 

And I love that about God.  He knows the very things – tiny though they may be – that thrill my heart.  And He knew that one of those things that I love to do is to dream about my wedding day.  To imagine myself at my wedding, in my gown, surrounded by my friends, pledging my life and love to this man who will capture my heart.  And in His love, God let me savor a taste of that day to come by flooding a sidewalk with flower petals.  By giving me hope that the day will come.  That this cleansing is worth each visit to the chapel.

What a loving God!  That He would meet me after many months of disobedience – both in my running to the arms of false hope and in my running from His command.  That He would love me so gently.  That He would find me worth the cleansing. 

The only words I could find that night in my journal seemed so short in comparison with all He’d planned for me that day.  But they were from the heart:  Thank You.

Wednesdays in the Word - Verse V

Can you believe we are almost to the end of this alphabet verse journey? Thank you so much for hanging in there with me as I have walked through this time of learning. I have so appreciated all the comments and emails and other messages you've sent...letting me know the different ways God has spoken to you through these verses. After today, we'll only have 4 verses left!

Today's bit of wisdom from the Word...

Looking back at this verse, I wondered why I picked it instead of...say...something about VICTORY.

But then I remembered.

I chose this particular set of verses to symbolize what I would say to someone just beginning life with the Lord...or life outside of a parent's care. These are verses that I hope would encompass the main points of living a life pleasing to the Lord.

I chose this one because OH how tempting...and easy...and natural...it is to continue to take charge of our own revenge. To manipulate words and situations in order to clear our own names, even if we tarnish a host of images in the process.

And while there certainly are times and places where it's appropriate to stand up for yourself and speak words of truth where lies have been spoken...there are also times and places where it's appropriate - and courageous - to allow God to be in charge of your vindication. To trust in the truth that your behavior has been blameless {this is also a great reminder to do that as well} and know that God will come to your defense in ways you can't even imagine.

It's a lesson Ryan and I are still learning in some ways...our stubborn pride gets in the way and we forget to be still...and trust in the Lord to take care of us.

I believe this is one of the important, unmentioned lessons to learn in our walk with the Lord. Jesus gave a great example in His own arrest and trial. Vindication doesn't get much sweeter than being raised from the dead!