“Words can't adequately describe what a gift we were given through this process.”

Last spring a friend of mine asked me to look at the Listen to Your Life materials with the thought that we might use them at our church. As I read through them. God gave me a clear and strong desire to first use them with my family. My husband, Bruce, and I have three daughthers and each of us was going to be facing a significant life transition. Our oldest daughter was entering seminary, our middle daughter would be finishing college, and our youngest would be starting college and for the first time in 24 years we would be without any children at home. Yikes! It seemed like we were reaching what felt to me like a vista point where it seemed wise and good to collect ourselves and our learnings before moving forward and to do this with each other and before our gracious God. What a Godincidence that we were given the perfect tool to do just that!  

Before everyone arrived home for the summer, I proposed that we would individually do a chapter a week and then gather over a homecooked meal on our deck on Wednesday evenings to share our hearts. Everyone was excited to participate so I ordered five sets of the materials. We decided upon two groundrules:
1) We were to each use our materials with the idea that they were ours alone and we could decide how much or how little we wanted to share. The emphasis here was on our freedom with our process before God. The family conversation was to be in support of that.
2) Each week we were free to state whether we wanted feedback from the family or not.

Words can't adequately describe what a gift we were given through this process. We came to know each other at a depth and in a detail that we hadn't anticipated; we were enabled to identify and heal some misunderstandings and hurts; we were given countless opportunities to encourage and celebrate each other; we came to understand how we could carry one another in prayer both through the summer and beyond; and best of all we rooted and grounded ourselves in the vast love of God at a time marked by a good deal of change and uncertainty.

I am happy to report that this has been a good year for each of us, for all of us, and I know that our Listen to Your Life experience played a significant part in this. I also know that we plan to review and continue our conversation this summer.

We truly do feel blessed beyond measure.