Being a Risk-Taker

     I love adventure,  the thought of stepping out and not really knowing where I'm going thrills me. However, as a sensible mother I am not so keen on taking risks that effect my children's lives in large ways. I am afraid my family is approaching a very  serious crossroad and I am not exactly sure where this road is going to end up. I spoke awhile back about how 2014 was our year of obedience and I am wondering if that is also going to apply to 2016. Unfortunately, 2016 may be the year where we give up everything to obey and I'm wondering how it's going to look, because I'm pretty sure I know it's not going to feel too good at first.
     I find myself telling our youngest numerous times each day "I am looking for obedience and when only half of your body obeys it's not really obeying at all." I think that advice may apply to my current situation, I know which way is right and I *want* to obey, but I know there is going to be a lot of pain and misunderstanding from these decisions. I am a mother, and I try to be intentional about my job, so I find myself constantly assessing how decisions my husband and I make will influence our children's worldview. Expanding their experiences has been in the front of my mind lately. I want them to know there is more than this small town life. I want them to know that there are people that are not exactly like us and it's okay because we all need Jesus.
     It's really hard to uproot them in some ways to show them all of these things, but sometimes the end product is worth the pain of getting there.

Being Heartbroken

      When I used to think of heartbreak it always had to do with my own disappointment of some kind. My family is getting ready to embark in a type of heartbreak that we are choosing to, in some degree, put ourselves through. We are struggling to understand how we will do this when we know it will hurt many people. A passage of scripture I recently read gave me chills it is Mark 10:28-30,
      "Peter began to speak to him, 'Look, we have left everything to follow you!' Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive in this age a hundred times as much- homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions -and in the age to come, eternal life." 
     I just can't help but wonder, if I obey then will God be able to use my family in new ways that are better than we've ever experienced before?

I need to know that this pain is going to be worth it.