wLL72 aLIVE 🎧 “Not in Kansas Anymore”

Today's living lesson is entitled not in Kansas anymore. Now I know that the title is a bit odd but it would probably be more accurate, I'm not in Paradise anymore. So many of the living lessons have been recently, or several of them have been centered around the two years that I was actually living in Paradise and I was always talking about how happy I was, how contented I was, how excited I was to be His bride. But who wouldn't be happy living in paradise? I mean, really. So like our lovely, wonderful Husband loves to do, Is to show and to prove that as His bride I can be content with a lot or with little and this is the true test. Isn't that what Paul spoke about?

So even though there are so many living lessons brewing inside of me, based on all these experiences that I've had as His bride for the past several weeks, I'm going to jump right now to a living lesson which kind of started out as an alive praise that I shared with. Yvonne and Poppy. And so I just thought oh this would be a perfect one. I've got to share it as a living lesson.

So what happened is this, I am now not living in this secluded, big home that frankly I did not need but He had me there for two years.

I let go of everything, I'm just going to fast forward, let go of everything, went for a two week honeymoon with my Husband and in the midst of it I gave away 2/3 of what I own, which wasn't very much anyway. And then he sent me on another vacation, kind of a family vacation and I am here. I’m by myself with my Heavenly Husband and enjoying every single minute of it.

We nicknamed this place the Nicaragua resort, which goes with when my son and his family came back from Nicaragua due to my granddaughter’s health that they ended up staying in this resort. Tara and I were staying in another resort or at the same resort in another building and when we went to go visit them, oh my gosh It looked like they were living in Nicaragua compared to what we were living in because these are the older buildings. Well, that's where my husband wanted me to spend time and so when I looked at it, I thought, wow, it's like I'm in Nicaragua and this is the nicest place ever because that's what my son and his wife said. Oh, this is so nice after being in Nicaragua. This is plush. This is wonderful. So it's just the way we look at things and that's what my Husband said. Just look at it. You're like in Nicaragua but you're still here in the states in Orlando. And we're just going to have the best time and I have.

So here I am in this little place after this expansive 2 years of Paradise and I had just come back from having a full day with my granddaughter at Disney, exhausted. It was the day after I had lunch outside and the first thing I wanted to do is just to take a nap like I had been doing. But there is no place to even sit comfortably, let alone just lay down like I had been on two pads. I actually had two like the Princess and the pea 2 comforting pads, a sheet over it, surrounded on three sides, a fan blowing. At my feet was this private swimming pool and beyond that a lake filled with all sorts of tropical birds and leaves and trees. And here I'm outside surrounded by people and buildings and nowhere to lay down so I asked my husband. Anywhere to take a nap? I'd love to be outside and instantly I thought of a conversation that I had had with Kate and Anthony and she had asked about hey, is there a pool there at the resort? And of course there is and I thought, Well, of course there is but I don't want to be out with all these people. It's not a private pool. But what did my husband want me to do? Go on outside and go by that pool to take my nap.

So out I went with my sunglasses, my phone so I could listen to my audibles and I laid down surrounded by people, surrounded by music blaring and the Princess and the pea that I once was living in paradise. Now I'm smiling, I've got my headset on and off I go and fall asleep and it was absolutely beautiful to fall asleep there. To enjoy my Husband there and then when I woke up and asked Him, OK, darling, what's next? I turn my head to the right just as He's putting in my mind another thing that Tara said was do they have a Jacuzzi and off I go to soak in the Jacuzzi.

I am living in Paradise, now again this is semi paradise, but what He's bringing me through and all the things about getting rid of everything that I own just about. I do have my clothes, but very few. I am happy because we can be happy and It doesn't have to be the way it once was. He brings us out of that to prove that it's just about being His bride and wherever we are together we are happy.

We are thrilled. Very much like I witnessed when I see Kate and Anthony in the way that they look at each other and confirm before answering they look to one another. I'm doing that, I'm on my honeymoon and I told them so I asked them, Are you going to be celebrating your two month anniversary? And they stopped. They looked at each other and they both pretty much said the same thing. One said it, I think, and the other was nodding. We celebrate every day and I said, so do I. I'm his bride and I'm celebrating every day and I'm so glad to hear that you are too and they just beamed and I beamed.

And oh ladies, this is the way that we all should be living. So I just hope that you just settle in and close your eyes and imagine it and just trust Him to take you anywhere. Go anywhere, take you outside your comfort zone. Oh and just live paradise wherever you are.