Happy 1st week of school from our family to yours. I hope that your transition into a new school year has been a smooth one, but in all honesty there has more than likely been a lot of anxiousness and fear surfacing with so much change. Why do we resist change so much? Why do we like for things to remain constant and unchanging? Over the past four years I have been in a place of change in my life. In the beginning I resisted the change and would grumble that I simply wanted things to be the same. I would even pray for Him to rescue my family from the trials, so we could go back to the way things were. We were never meant to remain the same. We are on a constant journey in growing closer and closer into the image of our Lord, the ONE and ONLY that remains the same yesterday, today and forever more (Hebrews 13:8).

My girls have been on this journey of change right along side of my husband and me. We moved to a new community two years ago. Everything and everyone was new. We had new jobs, new schools, new friends, new grocery stores, new gas stations, new everything. What we once knew as familiar and comfortable had changed, and we had the choice to embrace it or resist. The Lord has been so faithful to us and through His faithfulness He has shown us how to embrace the change. We have all grown closer to Him in the process. PRAISE THE LORD!

My prayer has changed over these years. I no longer pray out of a desperate call for rescue but rather than asking for his blessings, for Him to continue to expand my territory and for Him to be with me as He protects me from evil and harm. I am not the first person to pray this prayer. A man by the name of Jabez prayed it first. He is remembered for this prayer. I have it printed in a frame in my house, so I can remember it often. I hope in sharing this with you today that it would encourage you to pray it too. “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.  And God granted his request. 1 Chronicles 4:10

Friends, let’s pray this prayer boldly. Let’s ask Him to enlarge our territory.  I have met so many more people that have blessed me in ways that I would have never known had I stayed in the same comfortable place. I have had the opportunity to love so many more and to share His light. It overwhelms me to think about the places that I have been and the places that are still yet to come. Let’s stop resisting and start embracing. He really does have GREAT PLANS to prosper us, not to harm us, give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). 

To my beautiful friend, Judi, I love you! I am so grateful that in His expansion of my territory He brought you into my life. Now, he is expanding yours. It’s time for you to spread your wings and fly. You are so loved and we are so happy for you. We know you are going to go and be a beacon of His light wherever you go!  Be blessed as you have been a blessing. Your friend always, Gen