A Living Sacrifice for Him

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." --Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)

I found this verse on a challenge thread on 2peas http://twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&thread_id=1691806 After reading it, it was amazing to me how much this sums up our lives over the past 2 years. Nathan and I have always tried to live out our marriage according to what the will of God is. When you read the verse above, to the unbeliver/new in faith, it seems as if you must put everything away fun or good of the world away to please God. Basically how boring is that? I on the other hand see this verse as kind of a road map as to how to receive God's abundant blessings in your life. Nathan and I have learned through experience that when you put away the wants/expectations of the world/flesh.....God so richly blesses you beyond imagination. Our first lesson in this was with the birth of our 1st child. We were brand new married and both in college, so the obvious thing was to wait for a baby. Well, we began praying before we were married that God would plan out our lives, including future children to be in HIS timing. Well that timing brought Maddelyn on our 10 month wedding anniversary. At first I was scared a bit and kind of questioning God's timing. I mean we were in school and finances? But god proceeded to show us that when we put away the worries and expectations of the world He will bless us. He sis. We sat back in amazement as things just came together. I don't think we paid a singe penny for anything for Maddelyn until she was several month sold. Everything including maternity clothes, baby items, and even medical bills were just "taken care of." by God it was truly amazing.

the next lesson was Dear Emma. We found out that we were expecting Emma 2 days after we learned that Nathan was being deployed for 18 months to Iraq. The first thought was....GOD???? I thought you had things worked out and we were surrendering it ALL to you? Now we're pregnant? I would have to say that Emma's pregnancy and having her around was such a blessing during the deployment. Instead of throwing a pity party for myself about how long Nathan had been gone, It gave me something to look forward to. It was more of a "well I'm 24 weeks pregnant now!" Not a "well he's been gone 2 months now." Basically God gave me something to be positive about.

Our next lesson was the deployment in a whole. I would have to say this was the biggest lesson in surrendering it all to him. The week before Nathan was to leave, he was offered a slot in Officer candidate School (OCS). This is something that he had applied to over a year and a half before but they had not had any openings yet. When the officer told Nathan of the opportunity, he said that if Nathan chose to go, then he would not be able to join his unit in Iraq. He would remain stateside with us. So, OBVIOUS human choice was OCS for the wife! Iraq...or home with me??? hmm? Well, that was not God's plan for us, so after many prayers, we as a couple decided to follow God's lead and to turn down the position in OCS. It was tough to have blind faith like that, but it brought a complete peace once we had told the officer of our decision. It is amazing what peace following God's will brings!

So, Nathan went to Iraq and as I knew he would, God brought him home safe and sound. It was the toughest faith lesson we have ever had to learn, but we made it through. As we saw it, It was not some random call of the government that brought Nathan to Iraq, but rather God's will being played out to complete some master plan. Talk about peace! At the time we did not know why god thought it best for Nathan to be miss his elder daughter's 1st two birthdays, most of his 2nd daughter's pregnancy as well as 1st year of life, but He saw fit. So with blind faith we surrendered to God and Nathan left for Iraq. We didn't know why he had to go, but we had peace in knowing that he was supposed to go. So an entire year and a half goes by and Nathan returns, still not knowing why he went. Now being April (almost 2 years later) we see exactly why Nathan went to Iraq. the campaign he is currently running has brought him to an entire new perspective because of what he viewed in Iraq. Nathan has always had a heart for politics, but we ever thought we would be running for congress in '06! While in Iraq, Nathan was totally fascinated by how in touch the people of Iraq were with their new government. They not only wanted to be involved into eh forming of it, but they wanted to know details of the hows and whys it was ran the way it was ran. They were seeking out a TRUE democracy! Then he looked back on his own country and realized how distant the average American is from their own government. The average person does not even know who their elected officials are, let alone can explain how a constitutional referendum works. America was founded by the people, but is sadly not run that way anymore. So, he decided (after being that our congressman was retiring) to run for office and do his very best to give the local Americans a voice in their government. Bring things back to the way they were designed to be, and hopefully instill a true conservative value system to our country once again. It is funny to look back and think that if we had not sought out God and His will for our lives....we wouldn't have Maddelyn...Nathan would not have gone over seas.........and He wouldn't be running for congress now! Yes, the decision to run was DEFINITELY coated with prayer!

This all just kinda makes you think...what could your life be missing for not surrendering all to Him?

Another one of my favorite scriptures, as well as our family's dcripture, shows how blessed we will be for surrendering to his will:

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, ...plans to give you hope and a future...You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart."
-Jeremiah 29:11