On April 8, 2017 what started as a joke, unfolded into what became a life altering experience for my little family. In my testimony, I explained in greater detail how it all came to be. For those of you that haven't read it, go check it out! And for those of you needing a refresher (or simply wanting the cliff notes😉) we joked about needing faith and a pastor knocked on our door. Seriously. It happened just like that. Fast forward a year and we have faith at the center of all that we do. It is both wild that it's been an entire year since that day, but also wild that this much can happen in a year. There have been many moments over the last year where I've wondered how I'd managed to navigate certain obstacles in my life before without leaning on the Lord. Faith has become my crutch in more ways than one. I have learned to let go of certain things, to seek guidance through prayer and the gospel and to worship in such a way that I can literally feel a shift in my entire being. Overall, faith has led to a number of positive things in our lives, including anchoring for our family that we desperately needed, the development of a solid community, and immense education. Without faith, I truly believe we'd be in a different place now than we are, and I can't imagine what that would look like.
Before faith, we were both just trying to figure out how to be married and how to be parents. When people say that there isn't a handbook of how to do all of this stuff, they were both right and wrong. There are resources, sure. But there is truly nothing that can give you the reality of what you're in for when you start a family. You can get all of the advice, read all of the books, and take all of the classes, but the moment a tiny human screams after exiting the womb everything that ever was changes. Your relationship changes, your decisions change, your direction changes, all of it. Everything that you thought you knew is long gone and you're embarking on this new chapter of life entitled, "Good Luck." It's suuuuper hard. Caring for a miniature human while still trying to love and cherish your partner is wicked hard because there has to be some sense of balance that seems impossible to find when you're battling sleep deprivation and swollen breasts (that part was for me not him... although that would have been an interesting curve ball😂). We had moved out of my mom's house and moved into this little studio apartment and were just trying to figure it all out when that pastor showed up. We still had boxes that hadn't been unpacked and a sense of instability surrounding the 250 sq. ft. we were all sharing. So when a man in a suit showed up with his son and a bible, we took that moment to just be there. To listen, to pray and to be still. It was a breath of fresh air in what had been a fairly hectic few months. When we decided to seek faith, things became so much more grounded than they'd ever been leading up to that visit. There was a sense of purpose and direction that we hadn't felt before. After our first church service we both knew that it was exactly what we were looking for. It was a stability unlike anything either of us had known and we were ready to dive in. We started centering our lives around a life of faith and it became so much easier as the year went on. We recently created a family mission/vision statement for our family and our first pillar is faith. It is the lens through which we navigate every other aspect of our lives. I think that we both were trying to figure out what the foundation was for us and faith has rapidly become just that for both of us and now, for our son. It's a stability through which our son can grow and evolve from without feeling unsettled or uncertain, which was something we both knew without a shadow of a doubt that we wanted for him.
Furthermore, we both knew that we wanted our son to have a community that he grew up in that was life giving and supportive of success. We both had surrounded ourselves with a different communities growing up, and with the exception of a select few people, we've had to rid ourselves of the various communities that were more toxic than anything. They were made up of people, places, and things that only worked to bring us down, rather than build us up and really aid in our growth. We knew that raising a son in such a community was out of the question. We weren't sure how we were going to navigate this until we started going to church. We've met so many great people there and have quickly gained connections with people that are on the same mission as us with their families. There are resources and numerous people that we have found to be life giving and supportive of our success. It is a great place for our son to grow up and we know that with likeminded people he will feel safe and loved in a way that we couldn't have provided elsewhere. It is truly fabulous to know that our son can thrive in a community that wants him to grow and be the best version of himself that he can be.
Within this community, we have had so many opportunities to learn and grow in our education. It has been so neat to learn about the gospel and the history that is entangled in each of the 66 books that make up the bible. I have been able to make more connections to the gospel during service and in conversations than I'd ever thought possible and I've really grown greatly in my faith over the last year. It's been fascinating to see that education grow in my husband as well and the ways in which our faith has helped to shape our hearts on a number of worldly issues as well. There are so many topics that we can discuss now from a loving perspective than we had ever been able to do before and that directly stems from the education that we've gained over the last year. It's been an inspiring and uplifting journey to let our hearts and our minds be open to education through faith.
Overall, in the last year, I think that we've become more grounded individuals, as well as grounded in our marriage, in our family, as parents, and as members of a community. These are things that I don't believe we would have attained if it weren't for the faith anchor given to us a year ago today. That pastor knocked on our door looking to connect with at least one person in our little apartment community. Not only did he do just that, but he opened up the door for us to connect in more ways that we could have ever imagined. It has been a faith filled year and I foresee many more to come in the future. â€
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Xx,
Mama Yearley
Note: Reposted from my previous blog.
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