Choices

Well, right now I am really humbled. As I sit and reflect upon the events of the past few weeks, I feel so blessed. After months of struggling and pleading with the Lord for some kind of relief, some kind of direction, and some kind of answer... there has been light. For the past couple of weeks, Jason has had several drywall jobs - actual houses - which he has been able to hang. We are so grateful and feel so blessed for this small miracle in our lives. At last, we are able to pay some bills and attempt to climb back out of the hole!

Aside from his drywall jobs, he has received numerous job opportunities - especially in the past two weeks. Wow! Talk about a flood of blessings and answer to prayers. At a time when we have spent our tax return, the money from selling our 4-wheeler, our stimulus payment, and what little Jason has been scabbing from side jobs, all the sudden Jason has had enough drywall work to get us to the next month - which is quite pivotal for us. So, we feel so blessed to have these opportunities to provide us with the income that we need to make a transition.

Jason's brother has moved up here, allowing him to work more hours at taking care of him, and getting paid - though it pays very little, it is still income. But, he has received four job opportunities that all have different pros/cons to them. WHAT A BLESSING! He has been dying to get out of drywall for a couple of years now, and has been going to school for almost seven years - in a feeble attempt to start a new career (which he had hoped would be nursing). However, moving up here has made it more difficult for him to finish, let alone continue his schooling. So, which job opportunity is right for us?

That is the ultimate choice. It is amazing when you are faced with opportunity - with it knocking on your door. We feel so blessed that there are people who desire him to work for them because they have great confidence in his abilities as an employee. He truly is a hard-worker, is loyal and honest, and has great charisma. He could sell ice to eskimos, and he could talk to any stranger on the street. So, our biggest challenge right now is to know what our Heavenly Father wants him to do - to provide for our family - and exactly what route to go.

I do know the first route will be to our knees... and then to the temple. We love it here so much. We feel so blessed and grateful to be here. I really couldn't say it enough. I want to remember the feelings that I have felt in moving up here. Life is so much more simple and there is less to clog your time and family life. We have truly experienced a time of refinement-a time of cutting back-a time of living with less- a time of reflection- a time of reevaluation- a time of humbleness- a time of spiritual growth- and a time of family bonding and togetherness. How inspired was our great bishop to know that we needed to be up here - not just to help the people in our ward, but the Lord needed us to change - he wanted to mold us. We truly feel that happening and it feels so great.

If there is one thing that I have learned through all this is that we try to make life harder than it is sometimes. We clutter our lives with things we think we need, and overload our time with too many good things, and even some better things, but not always the BEST things. We don't take the time to enjoy what really matters most-the gospel and family. They just go together. We forget to remember the Lord in all that we do and all that we have - and thank Him for it - DAILY! All that we have isn't ours anyway - it's just a loan from our Heavenly Father. If HE choses to remove it from our lives because He needs us to know His will, so that He may use us as His instruments - than so be it. We are ready to give all. We have had to cut back quite a bit - sell the truck, sell the 4-wheeler, sell the car, and a sell a few small things. But, I am grateful for what I have. My family is healthy. We are all alive. We have the gospel. We will be together for eternity. What more is there to want?

Ultimately we feel so blessed that ALL of these opportunities are local - each and every one will give us the opportunity to continue to live in this wonderful place! Which, again, is a great blessing. We know that we are supposed to be here - we were called here - and we followed that call. We just hope that the Lord will allow us to linger here for a long time - because we do love it! But... if He asked us to move tomorrow, we might try to dig our heels in a little... but we would do it. But for right now, we are here, and we are faced with many choices - good choices! The Lord is amazing! He knows who we are - I bear testimony of that.