Love and Trust

When I became a mom I thought I could never love more.  As our family grew I found that I could indeed love more and more As my children married I found I had more to love as they found the love of their lives. However when my grandchildren began to arrive it took on a whole new meaning of love. I felt as though my heart was like a balloon floating above  and now stretched even more.

Our granddaughter Evelyn Grace has a medical need that she not only needed a physician's assessment but now has been referred to a surgical specialist. As a grandparent it affects not only that part of my heart that she has but that of her parents.

Many times people chose not to love and invest in those in their lives because of the risk of hurting that part of their heart. By giving a large portion of our heart to them when they hurt, so do we. They tend to put up barriers to protect themselves so that the hurt will never come. That is not what the scripture teaches us to love only under certain conditions. In Deuteronomy 6:5 it states, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. As in all things we take a chance in loving but this is our role.

Trusting the Lord that He will carry us through is in his promises. Trust is like that balloon full of love that I have only the trust is the insurance policy that all things are in His hands. It is like the string that we attach to the balloon to make sure it does not float away. In the book of Isaiah it states verse 26:4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.  Are you hanging on to that string?

Psalm 73:23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast hold on to me by my right hand.
Psalm 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all they works.

Bittersweet Haven Farm

In the year 2014 our family had many changes. We never anticipated that we would be relocating back to the metro area after being gone for 22 years but that is what happened. We were praying for the Lord to show us his plan and He was faithful to us and did. Deb found a new job in the Monticello area.  The youngest son Isaiah would be graduating in 2015 so we decided to complete his high school years at Pequot Lakes High School.  John completed his term on the city council and even though he had planned to run in the Mayoral race, he decided to step down. We prepared our home in Crosslake to be placed on the market. We created a list of everything we would want in our next dream home. In February we thought we had found it even though it was needing a lot of work we signed papers and John began arranging for the remodeling project to begin. Because we had decided to pursue this new venture as a farm business we had found financing through the farm agency. At the end the property appraised $80,000 below the price. We than began the search again. It was only a few days when we found a property that was brand new to the market. As we entered the home and walked the property we could feel that this was what the Lord had been preparing for us. From that moment forward every detail went smoothly and we were able to close on the property in November. After seven months of living with our daughter, Elizabeth and family Deb unpacked her suitcase. We were home and the weekends now consist of John traveling back and forth from Crosslake.

Farm name; One day Deb was walking the property with the dogs and she came across a patch of bittersweet. For years she had hoped to find this beautiful plant in all the adventures in the woods of the north but had never found any. She felt that this was what the Lord was speaking to her that this adventure has been bittersweet; leaving her friends and family in Crosslake and living apart from John and Isaiah for the past year but it was the Lords way of making this dream farm happen. She did not share this with John and they had discussed a few possibilities of names for the farm but as Christmas was approaching Elizabeth had asked what we were thinking about for the name of the farm. John replied that mom had found some bittersweet on the property and perhaps this would be a good name for the farm. This is how the name Bittersweet Blessings was born.