The Road to Houston: Visual Reminders & Gifts

“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.” ~Hebrews 11:1 (The Voice)

Who signs a document stating that they are not renewing their lease, but they:

a) Have no idea where they are moving to

b) Don’t have the money to move

c) Have been told by God to wait on the next step

Yup.

You guessed right.

It was moi.

For those who know me, this is so uncharacteristic of me. I’m the girl who loves to dot every “i” and cross every “t”, planning each step from A to Z before I would dare even consider making a decision like that.

(Wondering what decision I am referring to?  Read the first part of this series here.)

Yet, I had a confident assurance that something big was about to happen and even though I couldn’t yet see the full picture, I knew in my heart that God would show me as long as I kept taking faith steps.

Over the last 8 years, as I have been through several wilderness experiences, it has and is still building my faith muscle. It has also proven to me that the Lord is trustworthy.

Here I was 60 days from a move that would push me further into my purpose and bring me to the land flowing with milk and honey. While it was a scary decision, it was also one that I had absolute peace about once I signed my name and submitted the paperwork to the leasing office.

Then the visual reminders and gifts began coming as faith began to take shape, grow feet and wings. I had forgotten that I personally know the best Gift Giver ever! (James 1:17)

Unexpected money and resources to help with the move began coming in without me saying anything to anyone.

I received help with packing, not from ones I expected, but from those who I will forever be grateful to because they saw a desperate need and filled it without me even having to ask.

The most unexpected and true gift from God that served as my first visual reminder took place shortly after I made my first step of faith. I had just decided I was moving to Houston after receiving 3 confirmations one Sunday morning 2 weeks after not renewing my lease. When I told my oldest sister, she volunteered to help me drive.  I had planned to drive to Texas by myself and really didn’t mind, but I was open to however God decided He wanted to do things.

This may not mean anything if you knew the state of our relationship when I first moved to Maryland 8 years prior.

We were not on speaking terms and it was just a very strained relationship at that time.

She did not know I was moving to Maryland and I did not know that she had taken a travel nursing position in Maryland for 3 months.

But God knew.

And He began the rebuilding and restoration process of our relationship for which I am eternally grateful.

When the weight of this realization of what He had been orchestrating all along hit me one night as I was driving home, I just wept. (Even now as I type, my eyes well up with tears because only He could set that up in the way that He did.) It wasn’t something I was expecting, but it was certainly an answered prayer.

It is also significant because the number 8 is a number of new beginnings and this describes that moment perfectly.

And boy did we have fun on our road trip to Houston!

Another visual reminder was something I happened to read from an old friend through Facebook’s “On This Day” the very same day my sister and I stopped overnight in Tennessee. Written 2 years prior, she said she kept hearing “Tennessee” from the Lord and was wondering when we would be visiting. How was she to know that I would be there exactly two years later?!

But God knew.

The extra blessing was, thanks to my sister’s wisdom, we decided to break the trip up into two nights instead of one, spending one night in Tennessee and another in Louisiana. ( I have no idea what I was thinking trying to do this trip in 1 day.)

In planning the stops, I randomly picked a hotel in Tennessee a few days prior to us leaving Maryland just for us to have a decent place to rest our heads for a night. Not only was the hotel stay basically free because my sister had points she could use, but we were a 7 minute drive from the Tennessee aquarium!

This was a “Just Because” gift from the Lord and I was so happy!

I have always wanted to go to the aquarium, especially after hearing such great things about it and we had a blast!

 

All these visual reminders and gifts helped me to continue taking steps in the right direction, especially one that I found was very interesting. I knew then that God’s hand was on this journey and this move to Houston.

It was the morning we got up to get ready for the aquarium. As I was ironing my clothes, I turned on the TV and started randomly watching a program on the Harry Connick Jr. show.  The segment was called, “I Got This”. He happened to be interviewing a young woman who had started an organization called, “PEARL Girls”. I listened to her story of dealing with confidence issues as a teenager, working in a school as a counselor, being certified as a life coach and her desire to empower young girls to become powerful women. I thought, “Wow, God. She is doing one of the many things I want to do.” I also am a certified life coach, started a mentoring and coaching program back in 2011 for young girls and worked in a school for a year as a school health nurse.

The icing on the cake is that the mentoring program that God gave me as part of my purpose back in 2007 is called The Potter’s P.E.A.R.L.S. It was a promise I made to the Lord that I would start it when I moved to Maryland, which I did. Unfortunately, I had to take a break from it after the demands of pursuing a dual Masters degree program, working in ministry and working full time while trying to manage the program began to take a toll on me mentally and emotionally. I always knew I wanted to start it back up once I moved again.

I nearly fell out when I found out where she was located.

If you said Texas, you’re right.

The grandest visual reminder of all came the day I arrived in Houston, TX on July 21, 2017. Check back next week as I share what it was and more about my journey to Houston.