Timelines and Inheritances

Hi everyone! This is Shay thinking out loud and writing as I think. Suzanne has been sharing some things she can't stop thinking about and I'm right there with her. I have lots of things that are hanging out in my mind concerning our study of Joshua. So much to think about! But I'll just share about a couple of big things for me: (1)our timeline and (2) the potential inheritance that I can leave my children concerning my land. The timeline was from one of our lessons (Joshua 4) and the inheritance concept was from a recent lecture Suzanne did on Wednesday morning. (Joshua 11:23)

I have already shared about my timeline with some of you and I loved hearing about yours. We were asked to put those stones of remembrance into each decade of our lives on a written timeline. I was overcome with emotion as I started to see how God had graciously equipped me in my 30s in preparation for the testings of my faith in my 40s. It's not like I'm saying that my 40s were so horrible! But I did experience and face huge obstacles and hard times in my 40s like I had never faced before. There would have been NO way that I could have come through this time if God had not laid a spiritual foundation of equipping in my 30s. I truly can say that I didn't come through all the tests with flying colors. But I did try to draw on the resources of my 30s to help me depend more, in my 40s, on the strength of the Lord and His love for me.

The second thing I'm thinking about is the word inheritance. I need to go back and count the number of times that word is in Joshua! Suzanne talked about this word in her lecture from Joshua 11. She said just as God gave the land as an inheritance to Israel, OUR land can be an inheritance to our children. Wow! Never considered that. When our family of 4 was called to the Budapest, Hungary, mission field in 2004, I never thought that the physical land of Budapest could one day be an inheritance to my two daughters, Olivia and Meredith. Remember, Suzanne has said that our "new land" could be an actual physical place. Those years in Hungary were full of joy but also full of struggles and hardships. Could God actually use those times as "an inheritance" to pass on to my children? Apparently so. Today, both my girls view their time on the mission field as a time of great importance in their life. As their mom, I'm seeing how that season in Hungary is continuing to shape their thinking and the paths they are choosing to take. So, as I cross into new land in my life, I want to pray more about how that new land could affect my children and the generations to come as an inheritance. "So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel...."Joshua 11:23

The two pictures in this blog are from our early days in Budapest. Thought you might enjoy seeing them but don't laugh at my awful hair!!!