HOPE, Today we did church a little differently

This morning when we woke up, the girls still had there colds and Brad was sick, so we decided to stay in and not attend church. I fed the girls and we were all sitting around in our PJs and I jumped on my blog. One of my blog friends, Katie from Katie and Ben  had an update that said series on hope. I have a blog button on the side of my page that you can click through as well. I follow her blog daily as it talks about the miracles and struggles that her and her husband Ben are having, after a horrible car accident a year and a half ago. I love to read about all the miracles that they are seeing in front of their eyes. Go and check it out. Read the story it's, shocking, funny, unimaginable, uplifting, but most of all it's inspiring. 

When i clicked on her link this morning she was letting us all know she was going back to her old church Living Waters in WA and giving a sermon (playing again at 1:00 CST) on HOPE. She was telling her story of Ben and how her faith has carried her through the darkest of hours. I decided this is our church today! Brad and i put the girls down for a nap a little earlier then normal and we snuggled up on the couch and watched, live. It was inspiring. Katie is beautiful and speaks from the heart. She told her story, she talked about Bens  recovery and how one extra step a day was a miracle in itself. She talked about the pain of not hearing Ben talk for 1 whole year (i couldn't imagine). How she wasn't really able to be loved the way us women like to be loved by our men. She had to take care of him. Ben said to Katie one time she was the best wife ever. I agree, she is a shining light! 

One thing that really caught my attention was when Katie was talking about her time line. Her 1,5 and 10 year plans. What she wanted to be doing at this point, and it was not sitting in a hospital bed with her handsome husband relearning the things we all take for granted everyday. She was thrown into a life pit (Beth Moore helped her with a book she wrote about life pits) that she had to dig her way out of. Katie wanted to have kids at this point, be working as a nurse and living in a beautiful house in North Carolina. God had other plans. It's interesting how we all have our "own" plans and never take into consideration Gods plans for us. We get mad at him and have a sense of entitlement when he doesn't answer our prayers when we thing we deserve them. He untimely knows the end result. We need to have more faith that he knows the right time for everything. Katie talked about how it's all Gods plan and you can't change a thing he has on your timeline. Katie says she now has a basket and has thrown all her wants and aspiration into this basket and God can pick it out when the time is right and place it in her timeline. No one chooses to be in situations that are unbearable, sad, hard or life changing. God has a purpose for these events though. For Katie she has really been able to talk to God and hear his answers through prayer, people and Ben. 

Never take one minute for granted was part of her closing. All Katie and Ben were doing that night was going out to dinner and the next thing they know their life had changed forever. The pastor pointed out that her unending faith in Christ is what has helped her through this difficult situation. She already had the building blocks underway, she had a relationship with Christ and he has never abandoned her or Ben. He is guiding them to places they could never have imagined they would be (Katie said she couldn't believe she was public speaking in font of hundreds of people and talking about Christ, it was not her personality) and inspiring people they could have never imagined they would, all over the world. Thank you Katie and Ben for inspiring us and for sharing your story! Church was so refreshing this morning and we didn't even have to get out of our PJs:) 

"Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! His faithful love endures forever. Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise Him enough? Ps 106:1,2