Until otherwise notified by God

When are you guys moving home?

This is easily our most asked question when talking with family and friends, both in Ontario and here in Whati. Our answer:

“We're staying in Whati until otherwise notified by God.”

We regularly discuss what is best for our family, pray for wisdom, and read scripture for instruction and encouragement. For now, this is where we are. We have a cabin in Ontario to retreat to in the summer and maybe one day use as our permanent home. But we have no plans for when that might be.

As per usual, Josh summed up our thinking very succinctly earlier this year when I was having one of my "what-the-heck-are-we-doing" moments. He simply said,

"We have to be careful what we want for."

Joshua and I are both Christians and have chosen to commit our lives to serving God and following Jesus. We have first-hand experienced the true joy that is felt when you hand your own desires and dreams to God and choose to obey His will. It is not easy and it is a daily choice. We are bombarded with ideas of how a young family should be living and what should be markers of success for our family. A lot of things in our current culture and society tell us that Josh and I should not be doing what we're doing with our young family.

What has become strikingly apparent over the years (yet I still need daily reminders) is that if we approach each decision we make for our family with the following question, we will experience peace, joy, and have all our needs met. We ask ourselves:

“Are we acting on God’s will?”

And so here we are. It is hard. Do we second guess ourselves sometimes? Yes (me more than Josh). We are by no means good at surrendering our lives to God and we question our decisions. But like I said, we have experienced (many times) the inexplicable peace that comes over us as we experience something difficult as a family up here, or the joy we experience as a family that surpasses all the worldly markers of success and normalcy we seem to lack.

Our family is in community. Our family has a church community. Our children are learning who God is and about His love for them. They are learning what it means to serve and sacrifice for our Lord. They are witnessing and experiencing true joy and peace that can only come from God.

So, until we are otherwise notified by God, you will find our little family trekking along up here in the great North.

Rebecca