Rejoice with those who Rejoice

The last couple weeks have been filled with blessings, really exciting blessings, and while my life is incredible and The Lord has continually revealed Himself to me and has been blessing my marriage, my job, and my life in general the majority of the blessings I recall are those I have seen others showered with. On March 19th my friends Sarah and Jesse Eslinger gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Verity Victoria Eslinger, if potosi me I will post her picture and you will see perfection. Last Sunday Isaiah and I were blessed to be apart of a birthday party for our friend Derrek Cardinale, and a great surprise took place when he asked Britney Kelly to be his wife, and we are so excited for their wedding when it comes!! It has been so encouraging and joyful to get to celebrate with our friends and see God bless them through their obedience and their walks with Him.

Romans 12:15 says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."
How incredible is it that The Lord gives us relationship with one another that we are able to feel their excitement and joy in an ecstatic situation or feel their pain when they are grieving?

Now friends, let me give a disclaimer to those of you who are seeing these exciting events and life changes and asking, "why not me?" Because there are some of you out there asking, why am I not married? Why can't I have children? Why won't you give me ______ job, why won't _____ date me, etc. before I share where I am now, let me share where I've been. During the year before Isaiah and I got engaged, I wanted to be engaged/ married so badly and for those of you that no me well I made it very clear that this was something I yearned for. During that year there was setbacks, roadblocks, and opposition at times that made me think it would be five years before engagement was even in the picture. It didn't help that some of my best friends got engaged during that time, making me feel as though I was behind the curve or that I was getting cheated out of something. I gave in to the lie that I wasn't enough and that God did not have an adequate plan for my life and goodness, was I wrong. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the L ord , 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Friends, this is not an empty promise nor is it only applicable for some people. God truly has a great plan for your life, this is a promise that He makes and when we walk with Him and keep relationship with Him we see this "future and a hope" unfold regardless of the hardship and trials we come to face.

Anyways, to wrap it up, it is exciting to see where The Lord has brought me in the last year and the fact that I can now see others joy and truly rejoice and celebrate with them. Seeing that He has brought my heart to a new place of gratefulness that I have to pray that He will protect from the spirit of selfishness and self-pity each day. Even looking back at that point in my life I am able to see the many blessings and times where The Lord was truly gracious and good to me, some that I didn't even recognize at the time. I pray for those of you who are reading this that you will trust that the Lords timing is perfect and know that His intention is to bless you and give you a life that will bless His kingdom and you the most.

Blessings friends. :)