Give Thanks

    Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name;
        make known his deeds among the peoples!
    Sing to him, sing praises to him;
        tell of all his wondrous works!
    Glory in his holy name;
        let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
(Psalm 105:1-3 ESV)

We have way too much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!  God is good and has showered us with blessings!  One thing that I am particularly grateful for this year is that God has always been faithful to bless us for following his will for our lives.  He has asked us to do some things that don't always make the most logical sense.  He has also shown us each time how doing his will makes plenty of eternal sense!

The Lord led Sean and I to get married at a younger age than most of the world gets married these days.  After getting engaged, many people suggested that we wait to get married at least until we had both finished college.  This advice still makes a lot of logical sense.  If we waited until we were finished college we would have been far less busy as a newly married couple.  We also would have had the opportunity to have jobs that were supported by our degrees and we would have therefore been much more financially secure.  Somehow we just knew that waiting was not right for us.  We have now been married for 6+ years.  These six years haven't been easy but the Lord has begun to teach us how to love each other in a way that honors and glorifies Him and at the same time allows each of us to feel more satisfied and secure in our love for each other.  This has been a huge, challenging blessing to learn and pursue.  I am so grateful that God has taught us this and that we know have so much more time to learn and grow in our love for the Lord and each other!

God also led us to start a family at a much younger age than most of the world starts a family these days.  We were once again advised by many people to wait til we had a chance to work and pay off debt and be more financially stable before we started this next phase of life.  This advice also made a lot of logical sense.  But again we felt that this just wouldn't be right for us.  I felt so blessed to welcome my twin boys into the world at the young age of 22!  It has not been easy to do this so young.  Many of my friends still haven't started having babies and we are now on Carroll Baby number 4!  We have been overjoyed to pursue raising our kids in a way that honors and glorifies God.  We have much to learn but we keep pursuing this lesson as well.

2 years ago the Lord led us to take our 18 months old twins on a missions trip to Peru with us.  Many people didn't understand why we would want to bring our children to a third world country with us.  It didn't make a lot of logical sense.  But by the Lord's grace we were able to bring them with us and have felt so blessed by that time serving in missions together.  We had unique opportunities there to  connect with the people we meant.  It wasn't easy.  There were definite bumps in the road.  But the Lord blessed us for responding to His call with an enthusiastic yes!  

There are many more adventures in store for this Carroll Family.  We have been practicing listening to the Lord and doing what he says.  I don't know where he will lead us next but I pray that we will again respond with an enthusiastic yes to whatever the Lord would call us to do and wherever the Lord would call us to go!

So, this thanksgiving, I am grateful for my wonderful husband who has been by my side learning each lesson along the way, for my beautiful children who are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of another sibling with us, for the new baby that God is knitting together in my belly, and for the eternal perspective that God has given me to seek first his kingdom even if it doesn't make the most logical or worldly sense.  Thank you Lord!