SIDE NOTE- I wrote this the day before Thanksgiving this past year and intended for it to be made public then. Since that didn’t happen, I thought I would still post it. I hope you enjoy it!

At this time of year, it’s “easy” to start listing all the people and things that we are thankful for.  Christians say that you need to have an attitude of gratitude. While that is true and it has a catchy ring to it, having an attitude of gratitude is sometimes a hard thing to have.

Three years ago this month our family packed up from Fairview, Montana and moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. Why? The simple answer is God. The complex answer is…God. Let me start at some sort of a beginning.

On June 20, 2012 my mom, Dorothy Marie Roberts, passed from this earthly life into the heavenly life. She lived in Lansing, Michigan and I was in Fairview. One month later on July 20, I was back in Lansing for my parents’ memorial service. Both of my parents were cremated when they passed so that once both had gone they would be buried together with my dad’s veteran honors for 20 years in the USAF. While in Lansing, I felt an overwhelming peace with everything that was going on. Don’t get me wrong, I missed my mom and losing her “reopened” the grief wound of losing my dad, William James Roberts, in 2009, but somehow, I felt a peace and a comfort that is beyond words. I felt as if I was caught up on a cloud but my feet were firmly planted on the earth. I felt like a sponge, in that I was absorbing everything around me that was happening, and being said. For me, peace was like an emotion- there was calmness within me, but it was much greater than just being calm. That peace and that comfort can only come from one place- God.

On the way back to Montana I noticed an uneasiness and irritability that wasn’t just with me, but it seemed to consume our whole entire vehicle and everyone in it. The long two day drive (while it was still only a two day drive) under those circumstances was even longer, or so it seemed. I did much praying during this time. I sang praise songs in my head while there was turmoil all around me. Figuring the environment was because of everything that went on during our visit and then the long drive back, I thought we would get back to “normal” in a day or two after being home. Wrong! Oh was I so wrong. Days later our family was still at odds and grumpy. This is not typical of our family- we all have our moments, but we are not an angry, grumpy kind of family. My husband, Eric, came up to me and said, “We need to talk.” I agreed, however in my mood, I really didn’t want to, but I followed him back into the house-at a much slower pace. Think of a child being sent to the principal’s office.

We went into our office and he sat at his desk and me at mine. He asked me what I thought God was telling us about where we were supposed to move. Up until this moment, Eric and I believed that we were being called to move about 30 miles away into Williston, North Dakota. I answered Eric by telling him about the unbelievable peace that I had in Michigan. I told him that I took it as a gift from God because of having to bury my parents and that I had closure. I ended the conversation by saying that I wanted to live wherever God wanted us to go. I even remember saying, “If God wants us to sell everything and move to a third world country with no plumbing or electricity (gulp), then I will do it. It’ll be hard, but I will do it because I know that He will go before us and it will be all right.” After my long-winded answer to Eric, he said, “Ok. Well I came in here to look at houses and I was praying about where God wanted us, this is where I was led.” He turned his laptop around that was on his desk and when he did, the screen showed a website of rental property in Battle Creek (and surrounding areas) in Michigan.

As Eric and I continued to talk and pray over the next couple of weeks, I dared to not even hope that God was calling us to Michigan.  See, I was born at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in northern Michigan. I grew up in Oscoda, Michigan, and graduated from Oscoda High School. I am a Michigander through and through. But, when Eric and I got married, I left Michigan in my rearview mirror and wasn’t sure that I would live there again. But, when God calls you somewhere, you go-period. We had confirmation that God was calling us to Michigan. The next few months were a whirlwind of activity. Moving back to Michigan changed many things about our upcoming move. What would have been many, multiple 30-ish minute trips to Williston, North Dakota, was now a two day drive. You know something, it’s funny. God closed every single door in Williston. There was no rhyme, nor reason, except God. But, the door that He opened in Battle Creek is the door that stayed open. You want to know something else? The house that God opened the door for us to buy is the house that was the first house Eric looked at when he was directed by God to look at houses in this area just over 3 years ago and it was also the same house that was on the screen of his laptop when he turned it to show me that day in our office. I wish I could say that this is a movie and that we all lived happily ever after as the screen fades to black and an upbeat, happy song plays on the screen as the credits roll. Wrong again. Fast forward 3 years-

We are still remodeling the house-it is/was a HUGE fixer-upper.  The house is not the only thing that has been under “renovation” since the move. Eric and I are not the same people we were 3 years ago when we moved here. God has taken us through many trials and grown us in ways we hadn’t experienced before.

My husband is a contractor by trade and I believe truly gifted by God to do what he does. You can see some of his work on our website www.inhishandsrc.com. So, buying a house that needed such an overhaul was not really such a crazy idea to us. We knew what we were getting ourselves into (or at least we thought we did). But, little by little, rooms are getting done and I would say our house is probably close to 70% done. Of course, if you asked “Eric the contractor”, he would probably give a much different number. While Eric and I embarked on this journey that God had for us with zeal (much like that of the apostle Peter) 3 years ago, we have lost hope a number of times over the years. God moved us from family and friends and we closed a successful construction business to go where God wanted us to go. When we opened up a business here, we both thought it would take a little while, but that eventually we would be booking future customers before no time. Again, we were wrong. We had customers here and there. But mostly our “job” was working on the house. We learned to budget in a completely new way, since our “old” way of budgeting no longer worked without income (enter your chuckles here). I won’t go into all the details, but one thing I can say, when you name your business ‘In His Hands Remodeling and Construction”  and you use the Scripture reference of Psalm 66:9 “Our lives are in His hands”, God will take you through some stuff. So while I could list all the stuff that has been trying in the past few years, I do know that things could always be worse. To say “money is tight” is an understatement. But, we have our family, we have our health, we have a roof over our head, and we have food in the fridge and cupboards. We may be poor in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God we are rich. And we are only rich because of Him, not because of anything that we’ve done.

Our family has learned a new definition to the word “sacrifice”. Lately I have been shown something from God about a well-known verse. This is how I have been reflecting on this Scripture lately. I’ll close with that. “For God loved the world so much, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have ever-lasting life.” John 3:16

Happy Thanksgiving!