Proverbs 31

Well, our life has continued to change.  Through much prayer, Shaun and I have decided I'm going to stay home next year and take care of the kids and house. This has been a difficult decision as I absolutely love teaching and will miss it greatly next year but I feel God is calling me to put our family first. Madison is going to be starting kindergarten in the fall and with Shaun being gone so much right now, we wanted to make sure the home remained stable and solid for the girls and Ryan.

However, as we all know, I can't sit around and do nothing. I have to have something I'm working towards or studying. After Madison was born, I would go through old math books from high school and complete the different problems. I'm not going to do that this time, at least not at first. Instead, I have decided I want to truly study what it means to be a Proverbs 31 wife, mother and friend. I've done some research to try to find a good book to read to help me with this process, however, the reviews of the books I kept picking were very mixed.  I decided instead, what better book than the Bible itself. I hope you join me and comment on the different steps involved. I'm sure this will be a long journey, as I am hoping to go verse by verse and not race through it but instead soak it up, understand it, bring meaning to it and relate it to my life.

Sit back, enjoy and comment. :-)

And the journey continues...

We did it! (With the help of God, that is).  We had our house listed for rent for 2 days when someone came in, filled out an application and wanted to move in, in a week and a half.  AHHHHHHH (those were my thoughts!).  But we did it.  We found a house and moved in, in less than a week.  We have now moved from Virginia Beach to Norfolk so we could be closer to both of our jobs.  I am now less than a mile from school and Shaun is only a couple of miles from the naval base.  We couldn't have done this by ourselves though.  God opened all of the necessary doors and made the transition a very smooth one overall.  The girls are well adjusted to their new home and have really enjoyed being able to walk to school in the mornings.

I will get pictures posted very soon of our new house! :-)

Letting go of control

So lately, I've been reading a devotional about letting go of control and giving it back to God where it belongs.  This couldn't have come at a better time as Shaun and I are trying to move again.  We signed a 3 year lease when we moved down here to Virginia Beach but we got in over our heads.  Our gracious landlords have agreed to let us out of our lease, as long as we can find someone to re-sign it.  And this is where letting go comes in.  I have been praying and struggling with letting go of the control.  If it was up to me, someone would come in, sign a lease tomorrow and we'd be out the next day!  But we only see the small picture.  God sees the big picture.  And we have to trust that his timing is better than ours. 

God does Provide

The other night I was sitting back and looking at the patterns of my life.  It all boiled down to, the times I  was following Christ and leaning on Him to provide, things were good.  But the moment I tried to take life back into my own hands, that's when it all came crashing down.  It made me think of the Israelites and when they entered the Promised Land.  God had helped them defeat the Canaanites.  But once the Israelites had their land, they turned from God and began worshipping false idols.  They would continue this for about 20 years before they would turn back to God and say we need you. 

I guess I should be thankful that it doesn't take me 20 years to realize I need to continue to follow God and trust that He will provide all of my needs.  Matthew 6:25-27 ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

This verse has been popping into my head a lot lately.  We have begun making drastic financial changes but many of these do not happen overnight.  But as we lean on God and turn to Him for help, He does provide the money we need to pay our bills and make sure we have food on our table.  He is the great Provider and will take care of His children.  I pray Lord that I will continue to look to You for all of my needs to be met and that I don't ever forget Your wonderful powers.

Here we go...

Blogging.  Did I seriously just create a blog??  I enjoy reading others, I was never going to create my own!  I hate writing (actually I love it but I hate others reading it). :-)  Well, here it goes...stepping out of my comfort zone.  With family and friends all over the country, I'm hoping this will help you all be able to keep up with us.  Life in the Clopton household changes frequently! 

We're living in Virginia Beach now.  We moved here a few months ago when Shaun took a job as a civilian architect for the Navy.  God made our transition very smooth and easy.  At one point Shaun looked at me and said "I'm waiting for something to go wrong because this is all happening too easily."  Thankfully, nothing ever did go wrong! 

I took a job teaching first grade at Norfolk Christian.  I could not be any happier there!!  The staff is wonderful and so are the families.  Madison started pre-school this year.  Her classroom is only 2 doors down from me.  The school is attached to a church which offers daycare, so Brooke is only about 20 steps away from me in the other direction.  It's so nice being able to see both of my girls during the day and having the peace of mind that if something happens, I'm right there. 

Well, the girls are up.  Time to start another day in our house! :)  Check back and I'll do my best to keep updating what's happening.

Madison on her first day of school