Twenty-eight years ago, Keith and I were renting a home in the northwest part of Houston hoping to buy something we could raise our family in. Neither of us had sophisticated taste nor did we particularly trust those who did. I write those words with a grin. My grandmother never trusted people of means. She had endured the Great Depression and was just certain (inaccurately, of course) that anyone who lived this side of it with money most assuredly possessed ill-gotten gain. A permanent, living fixture in my home of origin throughout my childhood, you can imagine that my beloved grandmother, Minnie Ola Rountree, had a great influence on me and, bless God, in so many positive ways. She did, however, leave my thinking somewhat distorted regarding possessions. It has taken most of my adulthood to shake the bone-deep belief that having anything beyond the merest essentials roused the terrible displeasure of God. And, since we Westerners all have more than the merest essentials, I’ve spent much of my life confessing what I possessed as sinful (and, make no mistake, appropriately at times). Of course, there’s balance in all of that and few of us would argue that the prosperity gospel so prevalent among us in this era isn’t cause for earnest repentance.  But that’s a discussion for another time and another post and, come to think of it, one we have in fair depth in James: Mercy Triumphs.
In 1983, Keith and I were mostly a one-income family unless you call the pocket change I made teaching aerobics at my church a viable profession. My man was a residential plumber and a pretty new one at that. We had a four year-old and a one year-old that I utterly adored and so desired to stay home with that, prior to my hire at the church gym, I took on a paper route for a whole day. We very much liked the house we were renting but it wasn’t for sale. One day driving around a suburban neighborhood, we passed a French Provincial up for sale that nearly put us in a spell. It was beyond our means and well beyond our personalities. Still, we were mesmerized. Keith said, “Baby, I can get this house for you but only by the skin of my teeth. We won’t be able to buy a single new piece of furniture for it. Are you good with that?” I promised that I was and we put money down on it. We were beside ourselves. A few weeks later, just before we were to close on it, Keith walked in our rent house and sat me down at our kitchen table. “Honey, I withdrew our offer on the house.”
“What?? But we put money down on it!”
“Yep, we did. Money we couldn’t spare and won’t get back but we’d have had to spend nearly that same amount of money every single month on a house payment. It’s beyond us. It’s not our house.”
I cried for about 45 seconds and then was so relieved I could have done a freedom dance. I knew he was right and I was pained but so very thankful he pulled the plug. A number of months later as the bottom dropped out of the oil industry, leaving Houston in one of the biggest buyer’s markets of its history, we came upon a house going into foreclosure. It was still a lot for us to spend but we bought it.
And lived in it, fought in it, made up in it, prayed in it, swore in it, ate in it, sobbed in it, laughed in it and tucked children into bed in it for the next 27 years. We were deliriously happy in it. We were woefully miserable in it. You don’t live that long anywhere just one way. Long life happened there, meaning that those walls saw all manner of good, bad, and really ugly. But it snuggled us and hid us and harbored us for nearly thirty years. I hung my children’s baby pictures on those walls, then their school pictures with no front teeth. Then pictures with mouths full of braces, then pictures in their volleyball uniforms, then, be still my heart, their wedding portraits. Then I hung frames on those brittle walls with grandbabies’ pictures captured within.
For years I planted petunias in the flowerbeds in late Spring and, when I needed an emotional outlet, pulled up weeds with a fiery vengeance. Keith or I one dragged big ugly trashcans to the end of the driveway every Monday and Thursday then back to the garage when they were empty.
I parked a brown and beige station wagon on the broken concrete beside that house when we moved in and didn’t replace it until the wheels and doors threatened to come off.
And I loved it. It was home. As one who has nursed a lifelong aversion to change, I declared over and over again that I would never leave that house and that, when I died, Keith would have to dig a hole in the small back yard and bury me in it. At that very front curb, I waited for the school bus to pick up my girls in the morning and bring them home in the afternoon. At that very curb, my daughters’ boyfriends drove up to get them and a few hours later kissed them goodnight with me peeking through the mini-blinds. At that very curb, the postman dropped decades of utility bills – many overdue – and credit card bills that Keith Moore insisted we pay off in full every month no matter how little we had left. And now I’m so glad but then it seemed a tad restrictive for a mom who loved to take her girls to the mall.
That same house could tell terrible tales on me. Oh, what grace God has lavished on us. What mercy and forgiveness! But, amid the roller coaster that has always been Keith and me, and the tears and regrets, oh my word, the prayers that have been prayed in that house are too many to estimate. And certainly not just my own. Many of my girlfriends remember the years when we had monthly prayer breakfasts in that simple home. We’d all meet first in the den where I’d share a devotional then we’d break up in small groups and invade every room in the house and intercede for our loved ones and pray for our own needy hearts, all too often crushed by this or that hurt. I am convinced down to my marrow that God used prayer to spare my marriage and family. Keith believes it, too. I was a wreck in so many ways – still am in certain respects – but Jesus had convinced me early on in my adulthood that I’d have to have Him to survive with any sanity or life satisfaction. Any victim of early childhood abuse at the hand of a trusted family member will either have copious doses of Jesus or defeat. Plain and simple. No gray for folks like me.
I held stacks of journals in my lap two weeks ago and flipped through some of them and found a number of entries so painful that I could not even read them. I tore out numerous pages and wept before the Lord and thanked Him for His faithfulness and repented again, but wouldn’t have needed to, for such waves of stupidity and faithlessness. I also reminded myself to buy a shredder. Grin. Tucked into many of those journals were pages that also made me smile. Sometimes even laugh out loud. And then I’d cry again for the pure joy of Him.
Jesus has carried me in His own two everlasting arms. Me. Keith Moore. Amanda Moore Jones. Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick. He has carried us and His rock-solid biceps often took the form of brick, mortar and wood there on Blazey Drive in Houston, Texas. We’d think we’d come against something we couldn’t overcome, then He’d scoop us up and carry us kicking and screaming to the next season. Not fast enough to suit us, mind you, but eventually. Keith and I would look up and another year had come and gone and we were still married. Only once can I remember us coming to an anniversary where we did not so much as speak. And it was such a short time ago that you’d find it shocking. But, once again, Jesus took a needle and thread and sewed us loop by painful loop back together again. We’re so glad He did.
Then three years ago, I asked Keith if I could tell him something just once and he’d never remind me of it again because I was sure I’d change my mind. He said yes but he lied and we both knew it.
“I might someday consider moving.”
Keith’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline and he grinned ear to ear. He’d wanted to get off that busy highway near us for years.
“I said I might. But probably not.”
There were a number of things that brought me to that willingness. Keith had retired from the plumbing business and the ministry had moved to the very north edge of Houston. Our house was no longer close to our places of work. Our center had shifted. The biggest thing that changed was something unexplainable and almost irrational that finally just unraveled. The less sappy of you will need to skip to the next paragraph. Or maybe just end your reading right here. Goodness knows it’s gone on long enough. For those of you enduring this epitaph, I had this thing deep inside of me that insisted we stay in the same house so that the boy we’d had for seven years could find his way home and we’d all live happily ever after and all that confusion would be explained. Please understand that I knew it was unrealistic at the time but I couldn’t shake the idealism that it had to all work out some way – my way – and that we’d have to get a second chance so we could do a better job.
I’m so happy to tell you that I am in touch with that young man. He is darling just like he was the first time I laid eyes on him. But the fog began to clear several years ago and I was finally able to accept that the picture I had in my head was pretend. It was from a storybook etched in the mind of a romantic. Not real life. He was an adult and God had different plans for him and for us. Plans that I have to believe are for the good. We see him on occasion and I’m so thankful for the open door but we seem not to be meant to reestablish those same exact bonds.
Keith took that one tiny confession – “I might someday consider moving” – and jumped on it with both size 13 wides. It would be several years before we’d get his parents settled in the country and make arrangements to join them.
On December 14th – just 12 days ago – a moving van pulled up to my house of 27 years. Amanda, Annabeth, Melissa and I watched them empty those busy, busy rooms one box at a time. By the time that abode was back to the hollow shell we’d seen all those years ago when we first walked through it, Amanda had gone home to pick up Jackson from school and only Melissa and I were left. It was the breakfast room that got us. We stared at the spot where our dining table used to be and both burst into tears. Then each of us (crying audibly, mind you) went around the house and closed the shutters one by one and then we turned out the lights. Melissa walked on out the front door and I lagged behind for just a moment and got on that floor one last time. Face down. For the 15 thousandth time.
And I thanked God.
He did not abandon us there. Not for one minute.
We are happy out here in the country. This morning two deer were in our back yard…and lived to boast about it. Keith has promised not to kill anything here but roaches and rodents and I intend to hold him to it even though we did find wild hog tracks not far from our front door. That husband of mine has labored with all his might for months on end to make this a home for his wife. He is not a man who finds it easy to express his love with words. He expresses his love through works. And I receive this new season of our lives together with joy and with tears drying. But the thing is, I didn’t want to rush right in and start jabbering to you about the new. Not until I paid proper tribute to the old. It wouldn’t have been fitting. It deserves the dignity of a decent good-bye. It cradled a half-crazy family for nearly thirty years like it was happy to have us. Thank you for offering me the space and patience to pen so long a so long. I needed it in the worst way.
By the way, I’ve already told Keith that this is the last time I’m ever moving and that he might as well dig his boots in this dirt. After all, I’m no math-wizard, but in 27 more years I’ll be, let’s see, 81 years old. That is, if the Lord has withheld me a glimpse of His face.
And I’ll let you know how I feel about moving then.
By way of benediction, and just in case somebody’s heart needs to hear it, this place doesn’t completely do it for me any more than the one I drove away from on December 14th. One of my new appliances is already broken and the dogs get ticks out here. It’s so wonderful out in these sticks but it’s a long shot from perfect. I have a longing for something I still haven’t found. My guess is that you do, too.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.
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Hebrews 11:13-16
Thanks for sharing, Beth. I’ve moved 7 times in 15 years, and just around the block each time. It is a long story!
In one of those moves, I was estranged from my father. It made it harder to go because I was afraid he wouldn’t find me, if he tried to look. But it was in that next home that God moved hard and deep in the magnificent healing of my heart, kicking it off with a massive flood in our basement and showing me that His living water was birthing new life. Wow! His promise proved true in the next two years, and then we moved again.
Here, in this home perfectly made for our family, I live so healed in His sanctuary dwelling within me. And, my earthly father found me. After four years of silence, I received an email in early October and we reunited in November. God is faithful. He knows our journey better than we do, and carries our heart in the waiting.
Praying for God’s faithfulness to go before you and find you right in the center of His will!
In Christ,
Lisa
Beth, thank you for sharing. God spoke to my heart so much through your words. We are on the edge of a move and I so needed to hear this! Wherever He leads us, He never leaves us. My home is in Him and I am so thankful that His Presence will go with me! Enjoy your new home and thanks again for sharing 🙂
With tears in my eyes, I am so happy for you. We are about to begin a new journey ourselves after 32 years of marriage. I hope our journey is as soulful as yours.
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Beth,
This truly touched my heart! I know moving is hard!! I moved from a huge city in California to a tiny town in Oklahoma a week before my freshman year of high school. I am now almost a senior in college and I def don’t regret it. I have come to have an amazing relationship with God and the best church family ever! Something I could only dream of where I use to live. I am glad to hear your move went so well!! 🙂
Amanda
I often feel the same way…longing for a place I have not found. Is that me simply longing for heaven?
I believe that it is. I believe the Bible suggests that it is.
“[Our house] had a heart, and a soul, and eyes to see us with; and approvals, and solicitudes, and deep sympathies; it was of us and we were in its confidence, and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction… we could not enter it unmoved. — Mark Twain
Oh, Gina. That is beautiful. I need to copy that down. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing Mama Beth!! I pray God’s blessing over you and hubby Keith!! See you January 20th 🙂
Enjoyed reading every word. Get some tick repellant. Ha.
Dear Beth,
I loved this post and found myself tearing up. Between residential and professional I have moved 28 different times. The longest I have lived in one house is 5 years. My tears come from all the goodbyes I didn’t say to those places. Bless you for your honesty and emotion about something some would say, ” is only a house/building.”.
God bless you and Keith on this new adventure and season. I can only imagine the stories you will have to share.
Kris
Kris! 28 times! I cannot fathom it!
What a touching story for me. I am knee deep in the season of raising little ones in a small house that was our “starter” home. While we may be bursting at the seams of this house, we have no plans to move for awhile simply because i just don’t want to. I look forward all the memories and sharing with my precious family with in the coziness of these walls. I loved getting to read about yours.
Congratulations on the new home, Beth! Moving is such a mixed bag of emotions. One of the most precious and comforting things the Lord said to me before our last move was that He wasn’t going to stay behind; He would be going with me and, in fact, would go ahead of me. It’s been two years and I occasionally still need reminders that I heard Him right and followed right. God is so sweet as He kindly let’s me know we’re where He led us. I love Him for that.
May He pour out blessing upon blessing as the adventure continues. Much love to you and yours, Beth.
It struck me as I was reading the last stanza of your very touching story… it is not our home here. I am always utterly confused by so many that are not satisfied with their current abodes, my husband included. He as an unbeliever never is satisfied with our home and is always looking for the next place. I just realized the longing that he doesn’t understand is for an eternal home. How perplexing it is to watch my husband struggle with this but now I am conforted that this too is all a part of His divine plan. Thanks for another Beth Bit that I love to chew on. Blessings on your new “temporary” casa! Happy New Year!
My heart thrilled when I read the verses you put at the bottom of your post! Amen! Hallelujah!
We are currently working towards moving into a different house and even though, there are many things about our old house that aren’t ideal, it has been home!
Beth, I love the post and read every word. I needed, needed, needed to hear the part about longing for something that you haven’t found. That explains me so much. I have everything. I have a wonderful life. It is so not perfect, but I long for Jesus and my eternal home with Him. Thanks for this sweet writing.
We just did the exact same thing 6 months (can hardly believe that) ago! The country is perfect for us and we haven’t looked back a single time! 23 years at the same address before making this move. Bless you both! You will LOVE it!
Beth,
Thank you for sharing such a personal transition in your life and marriage with us! As I read your words about the home you have shared for so many years, and all the pictures that you hung on those walls, my heart was saddened with yours. But I rejoice that you have a new home and can’t wait to hear about what God does in those 4 walls! Merry Christmas to you!
I understand completely. Happy for you.
Thank you for making me cry. Seriously. I needed it.
My husband & I both graduated from seminary last weekend & are moving out of campus housing with no home of our own to go to. We celebrate our 7th anniversary in a few days & this will be our 14th move. I should be used to it by now. I’m not. I long for a place to feel at home, but I suppose that’s just not meant to be. At least not this side of eternity. The verse you posted gave me a much needed reminder. I thank you for that, as well.
Happy New Year! God bless!
Well, I bawled.
My non-changing heart loves yours, so much. In the first nine years of our marriage, we moved seven times. When we finally moved into the little house we have now, I told my husband that I will never, ever move again. We’ve stayed put now for six years, and there I’ll be, until Christ. And anyway, when I get teased about my resistance to change, I just say I’m immutable, like God. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your life and faith and family with us. We know Him better, because of you.
Blessings on the next 27 years! He is so faithful.
Girl. Also in my new house. Not loving it yet (after 6 months — not sure I will). Came here due to job change. Had my happy face on since I was dragging unwilling teenagers with me. Now I want to pout and cry and go back to where it’s easy. But it’s awesome to hear that we are all making it through our life changes, longing for our eternal home. Thank you so much for this.
I love this post Beth. My heart is so full just imagining the tales our home could tell. Love how you painted the picture of our homes being a place God uses to cradle our hearts and our stories. Thank you so much for letting us be part of yours!!!
Thank you so much for reminding us that we will never be fully fulfilled here on this earth. Two weeks ago, we went to the hospital and watched our adoptive daughter Maggie being born. Two days later we took her home from the hospital and 10 hours after that we had to return her to her birth mom. It wasn’t the 7 years you had with your son…I am not sure how you survived that. I had her for 10 hours and we are still trying to put the pieces back together. I am so thankful that one day God will make all things new and that it’s ok that I am not fully satisfied here. I found great comfort in your story, you are a blessing to me.
Oh, Sharee. I am so sorry. Good grief. How painful.
Beth,
Been waiting on this post. Saw on Amanda’s blog that yall were moving and could not believe it. Then saw some of your tweets about it. Thank you so much for sharing your goodbye with us. I can’t wait to hear the hello to the new house! I am in the same time of life as you. My sister and I just celebrated Christmas for the 40th time in the house that my parents bought in 1971. My husband, our three girls and I bought it from them in 1990. Just before we opened presents yesterday I talked to all of our family about the “laughter in the walls.” SO many wonderful memories that I am so thankful for…of course there are also tears but much more laughter than tears and I am also thankful for the tears…God has been faithful through them both!!
Also glad to hear the update on Michael…thank you for telling us. Those of us who have been “with” you from almost the very beginning think of him often.
Happy Happy New Year to you and your sweet family and may God continue to bless you all as you serve Him by serving us!
Much love,
Martha in MS
I know you wrote this because you moved. And let me tell you, it was a beautiful tribute. However, what I took from this, what covers a hurt in my heart right now is the trails of your marriage. I come from a relatively single parent household. I was raised by a Christian woman, who loves Jesus, and loves me, but momma was on her third marriage by the time I was 15. I haven’t seen a healthy marriage – or much of any marriage – and today as I carried dining room tables out to the curb to replace them with new ones I realized how much of my life I spent with the reality of not needing a man. I don’t often seek my husband when doing things, and rarely ask him for his help. We have been married four years, and I sometimes feel that we have been through more than 4 years should see. We are going through a trying season, and while I believe it’s a season, it’s hard. Thank you for being candid and discussing that I’m not the only one who has troubles, and reminding me that holding onto God through all of the hurt a the laughs will help us see our own 27+ years.
Thanks for sharing such a tender story. Blessings to you and Keith in your new home.
Twila! It’s Dawn Moon! Ha! How cool to find you here!
First of all, I am so thrilled for you, in this new place.
And I have to say that I needed to read your post so badly. Because there are days, more than I would care to admit, that I fear my kids won’t remember the good and just the bad that this house holds. Those days of married life when you just don’t know how else to hold on. . .and not know how to pay every bill. It is so encouraging to know that through the ashes God brought incredible beauty that is the Moore family. Thank you for sharing your path and your story.
Dear Beth,
My heart goes out to you! I know how hard it is to leave a treasured home, but I have no doubt that God will bless you tremendously in your new dwelling where He is present with you and your hubby! Happy New Year to you and yours.
~Brenda
Good grief! Just what I needed, a good, audible, wet, snot flying cry and a laugh! I’m so glad you were finally to the point where you could let your dream for your boy change. I know that could not have been easy. Letting go of dreams, even though the future may be promising, is heart wrenching. It does help if you have someone with whom to go through it and, of course, we always do. I hope that you and Keith enjoy the next 27+ years at your new home place. Just a hint, my Dad decided they couldn’t move when he walked through his backyard full of blueberry bushes and grape vines and they have now been in their home 54 years. Get Keith to plant!
I thank you for always being so painstaking truthful in ur sharing. In feb God led me to prepare leaving the house I’ve single parented my special needs son for the last 10 yrs. we are possibly moving to tx depending on when He sells r house here. May I ask what has happened with the home u moved from. We may b in the mkt. 🙂 we will b leaving a church community that has loved me through similar healing as u. We will be moving further than a days drive from any family. But God has made it clear that what He has in store for us is so much better. I can’t imagine anything better but have learned too often the hard way what disobedience gets me so I will go where He asks. To think only a few short yrs ago I couldn’t trust anyone or anything only proves the healing He has accomplished in my life. Now to think I can trust something that we can not see with r natural eyes or or touch in my natural but I experience every time I watch my son worship and others see every time we r involved in leading worship. He is truly a God of grace and mercy when I think of the ways of life He’s brought me from & imagine just what He might have planned for my life. I praise God for how He has used ur ministry in my life & ask for ur prayers as I lead my first conference over a weekend in feb. There is no telling all He has in store for that weekend but it’ll be good because He will be present. Thank you in advance.
Sweet Beth….thank you. I LOVE your honestly, your emotion and your passion for our Lord. You are an inspiration to me.
Love,
Angela
Loved the post, got my mind off myself for a few minutes! I just left the town I lived in my whole life, I’m 53, and moved to the coast (today)to please my husband. The Lord said “follow him” and I obediently am. But my heart is broken, I left behind my daughter and 2 grandsons, 4 years and 4 months. They are only 2 hours from me but I am TORN in two. I have to learn a new city, find a new church, and hopefully find JOY again. I am in week 2 of James and am looking forward to how it will be just what I need in this season. Thank you Beth for all you contribute to my life!
Praise God, I’ve been waiting for this post, because I happened to mosey over to Baby Bangs a few days ago and your daughter told of you and Keith moving from your home of so many years! Right here at holiday time, I marvelled at your resolve…I knew it would be quite a story, and you did not disappoint! LOL!
I am so happy for you and the new beginnings such a move always signifies. My man and I have lived in our humble abode almost 32 years, so your words brought so much recognition and emotion. Seasons change…and Father knows best! I myself always wondered why God did not see fit to bless us with a big house to entertain in and minister from. Now that we are empty nesters, our 1300 sq. ft. house is perfect, cozy and secure, and our “Big Boy” Coach sits proudly on the full hookup pad hubby had built for it. Just so happens, we are one of two houses in our whole track that could support such a Big Boy pad! Again, Father knows best. Adventure has called and we have ventured out 22,000 miles since purchasing our “Home away from home…”
I’m so excited for you and Keith and all that a new move entails. Thanks for sharing your heart and hoping you will share more pics please! New adventures await you.
God is good!
Let me dry my own tears to write this…..oh how I am the same way…I get attached so easily to houses…cars…… I literally bawled out the car salesman when he made fun of my old station wagon we were trading in when he couldn’t get it started to move it off his lot! I reminded him of it’s faithfulness to us on all the field trips…soccer games…road trips with the dog…etc and when we moved I could not drive by or down the street for a looooong time. God is so faithful…reminding us that this is not our home and we are just sojourners; therefore….I think it is good to not become so deeply rooted here….just the older I get….the harder it is to muster the strength to pull those roots! Oh what memories are in store for the Moore family!
So sweet about the station wagon, Julie. Amanda bawled her head off years ago when we gave up ours.
As I read this, I am curled up in my childhood bed in my parents’ home of 25 years…home for Christmas with my hubby in tow. Countless times over the years I have made them promise never to move. ;). I know that one day they may decide to move, and if they do I will feel much the same way that you did. Our home, like yours, has seen its share of smiles and tears, but I do believe that if our walls could talk, they would extol the goodness of the Savior who has seen us through it all! Love to your family!
Beth, God’s best to you and Keith both. What a new season this is! And thank you for being so transparent about your home…not your house, but your home. My man and I are crazy about each other, but man do we DRIVE each other crazy. I needed to hear tonight that yes, other couples have roller coaster existences. A perfect description of us…20 years of marriage has not seemed to change that! But no one else on earth will do. He’s God’s chosen for me…bless his heart.
Enjoy your piece of Texas and God’s terra….
Amy
Made me cry. There is always hope in your words. And warmth. Thank you for that. I pray God uses you in that home even past the day you go home to Him.
P.S. an addendum: I want to give God all the praise and glory, I shared with Siestaville on a recent post about having skin cancer surgery and my Jewish Dr. accepting Yeshua as his Jewish Messiah. Also asked for prayer concerning results of biopsy. On Christmas Eve, I got the call from the office, “No malignancy! It is clean!” I give all the praise and glory to our Living God, our “With-us” Emmanuel. Glorious blessings for 2012 to beloved Siestaville…this community of faith has meant more to me than I can ever express! Thank you again and again Beth for your leadership and transparency.
Praise God!!!
Praise His name, Siesta. Love u
Deb
ElDorado AR
Oh Beth, I’m so happy for you! Thanks for sharing. You’ll create such new memories in you’re new home. A new season of life and a new season of making those memories! Many blessings to you and you’re family!
Love,
Rhonda
Sweet Beth, I am praying for you right now. I can only imagine how bittersweet this has been. As a military wife, I’ve barely lived in the same house for 2 years, let alone 27. Still, I’ve had my own issues letting go, and your wisdom here is balm for my soul. Infinite thanks ~ you are a hundred kinds of wonderful! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!
Thank you again Beth for your heartfelt, honest words that are such an encouragement to me.
My heart is warmed by the reminder that this is not our home, and hearing that you, being such a woman of the Word, still struggle with feeling out of place and longing for your true Home.
Thank you for being my Titus 2 woman, teaching me and inspiring me to love my Savior with more and more abandon in the everyday things and the big moves in life.
I have tears streaming down my face. Absolutely wonderful post!!! My parents moved out of their house 3 years ago after 32 years. SO many memories in that home. I still can’t drive by it without getting emotional. Their new home is great, too, and many more memories have been made and will be made. It’s not perfect, either. Can’t wait for heaven when we’ll really be home.
Awe Beth, you made me cry Hapy tears of big girl joy over you and your family! God bless and well said…I love you!
Kelei Iowa Park
God’s timing is just so absolutely perfect! This past year has been a time of monumental growth for me – a time of surviving the bottom of the pit and finding new heights. Recently, God has been “asking” me to lay my heart open in forgiveness to a couple of people. In many ways, I feel like I am moving away from a home that I have lived in for many,many years (spiritually speaking). I can relate so well to the thoughts and feeling you have expressed here.
However, the other amazing part is that I had just finished listening to the last lesson of the Revelation Here and Now study where you speak about the yearning we have to be home. It certainly provoked many thoughts about hat I am doing and where I am going. To hear the same message and scripture in this blog is certainly much needed confirmation!
One thing that has made moving on easier for me is your reminder: “God does notmake all new things, but all things new.”. Enjoy the next 27 years of making memories!
Beth,
I’ve thought about you alot over the past couple of weeks when you first tweeted to us you were moving. Thank you for sharing the post.
We just finished the James Study tonight Beth. I have had the privelage to facilitate several of your studies over the last 7 years and I have to say it is one of your best. We will all be forever changed by it. We enjoyed the new format and loved Melissa’s sections.
Thank you for loving us!
Pam
Pam! You are the first person I’ve heard from who has gone all the way through the study and finished it! I’m so thrilled to hear from you! When a book or study rolls off the press, you (or I, rather) just never know how it’s going to be and whether or not it will translate into other lives. It really is intimidating. There is an appropriate total dependency on God and a resignation to whatever He wants to do with it. Only His Holy Spirit can make it all mesh. I am so thankful it ministered to you. That is to God’s glory and credit alone. Praise His Name!
What a beautiful tribute to a home that served you well. May the Lord fill your new one with just as many priceless memories. 🙂
Hi Beth,
Thank you so much for sharing. . . I feel like I can identify. We too gave up a son after 7 years of thinking he was with us for permanent and we have been back in touch. Not at all to the “idealistic” dreams I had, but to the degree that works for now:) We are also back in touch with 2 girls we had for 5 and 6 years and are so blessed by their desire to remain connected. And letting go of my expectation of being a “happy family” again has released me to enjoy the journey the Lord is leading us on now!!!
We also moved (in September!) from the home where we raised our family, into town and into another old house of slightly different issues (also “far from perfect”!!) and are working at making it home and appreciate the “new”. God has been so amazingly faithful and with us all the way!!! But I totally appreciated your “tribute to the old” and feel like I always need to do that when someone asks anything about our “new” place.
Thank you so much for sharing and may God bless you in 2012 way beyond what you could have dreamt!!
Our ladies are planning to do the James study in the new year!! So looking forward to it and a great big thanks for your faithfulness in this, as well as a huge thanks to Melissa!! We all love you!!
I thought something might be up since we hadn’t heard from you on here. I’m so glad it was “just” a move! I love and appreciate you, dear Beth Moore. Thanks for ALL you add to lives, especially mine!
Thought of you dear lady this Christmas & your generous contribution to better us. God Bless!
Beth
You make me laugh, you make me cry….but you always draw me closer to Jesus.
Thank you for your willingness to spill it all…and leave us feeling closer to you and closer to our Lord and precious Savior sweet Jesus.
I saw Amanda’s blog that noted your move, and I’d been dying to hear all about it.
Speaking of change, this won’t seem nearly as big, but I’ve been belly dancing for almost nine years, and my teacher is quitting. Which means the classes that have been a haven for me will be gone. I cried the better part of two days last week over it. Change is hard. We do long for something we can’t quite have.