Dear friends, it has been quite a while since our last post! We have been very busy getting ourselves settled into our new home here in Illinois. I don't have any pictures to share today, but I will soon be doing a giant photo post. Today I just had to share a few words of inspiration. Will and I have been struggling to make our new rental house feel like a home. Things have been constantly going wrong with this house! Between leaking faucets, broken pipes, dirty bathrooms, a broken dishwasher, and strange smells we are really having to trust that the Lord brought us to this house for His purposes. I stumbled across the following the other day and was brought to tears...

"My Home is God Himself"; Christ brought me there.
I laid me down within His mighty arms;
He took me up, and safe from all alarms
He bore me "where no foot but His hath trod,"
Within the holiest at Home with God,
And bade me dwell in Him, rejoicing there.
O Holy Place! O Home divinely fair!
And we, God's little ones, abiding there.

"My Home is God Himself"; it was not so!
A long, long road I traveled night and day,
And sought to find within myself some way,
Aught I could do, or feel to bring me near;
Self effort failed, and I was filled with fear,
And then I found Christ was the only way,
That I must come to Him and in Him stay,
And God had told me so.

And now "my Home is God," and sheltered there,
God meets the trials of my earthly life,
God compasses me round from storm and strife,
God takes the burden of my daily care.
O Wondrous Place! O Home divinely fair!
And I, God's little one, safe hidden there.
Lord, as I dwell in Thee and Thou in me,
So make me dead to everything but Thee;
That as I rest within my Home most fair,
My soul may evermore and only see
My God in everything and everywhere;
My Home is God.
-Author Unknown

Will and I love that we move every few years at the whim of the Air Force. We are always up for meeting new people and exploring new places. The downside to this is that we also have to "rebuild" our home and our support system. Yes we can always pick up the phone and hear friendly voices, but it takes a little while at a new base before we can just walk next door and see friendly faces. This poem reminded me again that as our family sojourns in this world, we have a permanent eternal home in God. It is perfect, steady, and a place of refuge. What words of comfort!
Much love!
T