In December of 2015 my husband and I felt God was leading our family in a new direction. We had lived in the same house in a small town for 9 years, but we felt God wanted us to move to a bigger city 2 ½ hours away. During this time I remember telling God all the reasons moving didn’t make sense, and honestly, I did not want to move. We loved our house, our kids had a fantastic place to play, and to practice music, and we loved our church. Also, the thought of packing and moving seemed impossible with 6 kids under the age of 10. Not to mention the extra cost of moving and living in a much more expensive city. I remember one night the whisper of the Holy Spirit saying to my heart, ” I will bless your obedience.” In that moment I realized it all came down to one thing – obedience. Would I choose to obey God when I didn’t understand and when it didn’t make sense? That night I chose obedience.
It didn’t take long to see God honor our decision to obey.
Two days after settling the matter in my heart, my youngest child (a 2 year old who had never walked on his own without assistance) began walking independently. Prior to that day, we had become discouraged by the lack of progress he was making. I knew that my child’s new ability to walk was directly related to our obedience. We decided to obey and move, and then God strengthened our son to physically move.
God was not done using my youngest son’s delayed milestones to teach us spiritual truths, and again my obedience would be a key to unlock a miracle. My son was now walking everywhere, yet he still would only say a few words. We had tried everything including speech therapy, but there was nothing we could do to get him to talk.
One day I opened an email about an upcoming conference for writers. The conference looked amazing and I knew in my heart I was to attend. This seemed as absurd as moving had earlier because I wasn’t a writer in any sense of the word. Thinking the conference was probably in a big city across the country, which would make it incredibly difficult to attend, I was shocked to see it was only 20 minutes from our rental house! By moving, God had positioned me in the perfect place to attend the writing conference. As I pulled up to the conference that night in my husband’s truck, I remember thinking, “What in the world am I doing here?” I had received an email prior to the conference that talked about how to network the event. I laughed. I am just a mom of 6 who has written no books, or blogs, and has recorded no podcasts. How was I going to network? However, as I left the last session of the conference that weekend I knew God was leading me to write. As when moving to the city earlier, there was an internal wrestling with God. Why put my life out there for everyone to see? Isn’t this dangerous and unwise? This doesn’t make sense. I am not a writer. However, I resolved in my heart to obey, and within a day of my decision to begin sharing my voice through writing, my son (who had previously only said a few words) began talking. The next week his developmental therapist was amazed by his new vocabulary. We still had a long way to go, but now our son was saying 4,5,6 new words a day!
A year has now passed since we moved into our rental house. I just recently started my new blog and “officially” began writing. These days I vacillate between the deepest sense of peace I have ever known and anxiety over what is next. However, every time I see my son walk or hear him speak, I am reminded of God’s goodness and how he takes care of those who love Him and obey His voice.
Deuteronomy 28 is a chapter full of promises for those who obey, and full of curses for those who don’t.
Deutornomy 28:1 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.
Unfortunately in today’s culture, many want to claim the blessings of God
without their obedience to God.
True obedience requires dying to self and obeying even when you don’t understand. True obedience brings rewards that can only come from God. God used my son to personally illustrate this to me. As my husband pointed out one day – nothing in our lives occurs by chance, including the fact that our son’s name is William – we call him “Will.” He is a reminder that as I submit my “will” unto God, things can happen that I could never make happen on my own. God truly blesses those who obey.
Elle says
I was literally about to email you to write on transition with children. Because I feel like we are being so attacked with moving to Liberty’s campus. So this is a great reminder about just being obedient and we will receive the blessings of the Lord.
Kim@kimborders.com says
I will write more on this subject for sure. It is one we have been living out and is rich with thoughts! Praying your transition gets easier!
Carrie McKeel says
Great Blog Kim. I ALWAYS knew Little Man would walk. ALWAYS
Kim@kimborders.com says
You are right Carrie! You always believed and prayed, I am so thankful for your prayers!
Katrina says
Kim, I’m so excited for you and can not wait to hear more about what God is laying on your heart. I loved hearing you minister to the girls in the juvenile court ministry we participated in so long ago and know you will be an inspiration to the online community.
Kim@kimborders.com says
Katrina! I am so happy to hear from you. Thank you so much for your encouraging words! They mean a lot!