Content with a full heart!

This past week I had the wonderful opportunity to be reunited with so many great and wonderful friends. The girls and I went to New Jersey for a wedding by way of Virginia with a pitstop in PA! It has been a great week full of a whirlwind of activities, lots of conversations, little sleep, and lots and lots of laughter.We were happy to be able to squeeze in a couple of nights with Mimi and Pappy before heading back to Missouri. I have basically spent the last seven days spending time with loved ones. I am ready to leave tomorrow morning with a full heart, with a deeper understanding of how very blessed I am, and with a lesson learned.

We have been in Missouri for a little over a year now. While we do feel settled, there is, of course, a deep connection and "missing" of friends and family that are now separted from us by atleast 5 or more states. Some days we have struggled more with our move than others. However, time has allowed us to become more acclimated to our new home and has afforded us the opportunity to form relationships and become more connected to our Missouri setting.

It was as I drove down familiar Virginia streets that my heart was conflicted. I severly miss the familiar places, the special faces, the things that made our home....home! I drove down familiar streets literally with tears brimming, I met with dear friends, shared meals with loved ones, and "caught up" with so many dear people. It was like I was waiting to get that feeling, that notion, that we would be better off if we just moved back east! But it never came. Instead, I was reminded of the many things that have happened in our hearts and in our lives this past year. This trip has slowly become a confirmation of our move. With each get together and each encounter with "familiar" I sensed a resolve in my heart that the Lord has moved us to Missouri with purpose. Many of those purposes have actually already been fulfilled. But this trip has been for me a way of letting go. Not letting go of friends, but letting go of the fact that Lynchburg is my home. The conflict within my heart bothered me because I felt that letting go was synonomous with forgetting. My trip clearly has demonstrated to me that there is no possible way I can forget the many places and people that have helped make me who I am today. However, it has also encouraged me to realize in a deeper way that God's plan is so much deeper and better than anything I could have ever imagined.

I have had A LOT of time in the car. In other words, I have been thinking most of this trip. The Lord has shown me that there are other things I hold on to, not just dear friends from a former hometown. But more seriously, I hold on to so many things in my life that I feel like I should be able to control. In fact, I spend so much time trying to keep them firm in my grasp I miss out on the lessons that the Lord intends for me to learn. It is in fully surrendering those things I so firmly hold on to that I am truly able to receive and understand God's working in my life.

I believe the Lord has great things in store for our family in 2011. I think in order for us to be ready for them we had to be plucked from all that we loved and called our own so that we might be more open to hear what he has to say.

I begin 2011 with a full heart of what has been, and contentment for what is to be!