Our dreams—God’s plans

By Jennie Atkins

As you read this, my hubby and I are putting the last of our belongings into POD storage and heading home. Four years ago, I took on a new position that moved us twenty-four hundred miles away from where we both lived since we were born. It had been our dream to move west, to experience the Wild West, and to blaze a different trail rather than slip into retirement without accomplishing some of the items on our bucket list.

Many things have happened to us this year, testing our faith, and our decision to move so far away from our kids. The last being the loss of the job I came to Nevada to take on. Although low gas prices are a boon to the consumer, they are a nightmare to businesses who provide technology to oil and gas businesses. And as result I found myself without a job and in a spot where we are relying on God’s wisdom for “the rest of our lives.”

The most logical decision, albeit hard, is to move back near family. But through it all I can see God’s hand moving. We put our house up for sale and as a fleece of sorts, we priced it higher than normal.

We half expected the process to take several months.  It didn’t—our house sold in just under two weeks with a second bid in the wings. 

We expected someone to come in and under bid our price.  But they didn’t. They came in at full value.

We then anticipated the bank to balk at the high price when they did the appraisal.  They didn’t.

People…this is NOT fiction. It is God’s hand guiding us.  I have no idea where we’ll find employment and our final destination is unknown. But, I’m okay with that. Everything has been stripped away and I am trusting God’s plans for our future.  And, I can honestly say that I am looking forward to the rest of the journey! Especially if it even comes close to what we’ve experienced so far.

Although I won’t be able to answer your comments today because more than likely I’ll be somewhere on route 70 driving east, I’ll leave you with this quote:

“God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, nor sun without rain, but he did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.” (Author Unknown)