A Life of Miracles: A Book Review

When I saw the description of this book I knew I needed to read it. What I didn't know was that God would use this book to speak to me and my family. Most good books I simply devour, but this one has not been the case. God has put on my heart when to read this book and when not to. I have simply been following His nudges.


Don's family is following God's calling in their lives. As a missionary preparing to leave for the field I relate so much. In the book Don says, "God puts yearnings in our hearts that we cannot always define, and He brings these longings to life in His time. But, to be honest, it can be pretty depressing and miserable as we wait." This is where we are at right now. I entirely agree with Don. Sometimes I, as he does in his book, wonder why on earth God needs me in a certain place at a certain time or why we can't just go to our Montreal mission field now, because we are ready. This book has been a great reminder of how important it is that we continue to follow and obey God every day, even when we would rather go back to a "normal" life at times.


I am not done with the book, though I am about two-thirds of the way there. I look forward to finishing it so I can share it with my husband. When I was having conversations with God about another child, he led me to a chapter with a similar story (more about this event here: http://www.morgansbubble.com/hope-for-a-child/). When I felt like no one else has ever had to struggle with moving back in with their parents, there was another chapter of this book. It has been such a blessing and encouragement to have had the chance to read this book. My hope is that God would use this book to encourage my husband and others as well.


Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

Hope for a Child

This story goes back to when Jayne was nearly 2 and leads up to God's encouragements of just moments ago. It may get a bit long, but I hope it will be worth the ride and give another woman in the world some hope and encouragement as well.

Jayne was nearly 2 and we had always wanted 2 children. Naturally, be began "trying" for another one. We waited for nearly a year when I got the same nausea and other symptoms of pregnancy that had signaled my first. For 6 weeks we waited for a positive result. It took that long to get a positive with Jayne, so nothing seemed out of the ordinary. When no positive came we went to the doctor. I was not pregnant. It was devastating. I couldn't understand how my body could play such a horrible trick on me. With the difficulties we faced trying to get pregnant we decided to be happy with our one son and give him the best only childhood we could. We were very honestly happy to have one.

Shortly after that my cycle got out of control. We had made the decision not to have more children so I agreed to go on the pill to have a regular cycle. All was well for nearly a year. We were working toward paying off our debt so I could stay home and homeschool and we found our church home.

One day, out of nowhere, I had a sudden desire to have that one more child that we had wanted. I waved it off as a passing whim. It did not go away. I didn't want to sway my husband in this because I was still happy to have one. One night I knew I had to tell him about this thought. I was surprised to find out that he had had the same thought. He didn't want to tell me because he didn't want to sway me. We discussed the pill and decided to wait a few months to stop it. We prayed about this future endeavor.

A few short weeks later I started to get withdrawals from the week off the medication each month. My doctor told me to just keep taking the hormone constantly and not worry about the periods I would be missing. We didn't feel right about that and I went off the pills. We felt that perhaps God wanted to bless us with a child earlier. We rejoiced and were so excited.

One year passed… two… more. Nearly every one of my friends were blessed with children during that time. For me it was hard, especially in the beginning. I didn't understand. I cried a lot. Maybe God didn't have a child for us. As time went by the news of newly expecting mothers hurt less. We put our efforts and prayers into our mission preparation.

Last night I prayed to God. I told Him that I have struggled with this. I told him that I trust Him in this. I asked Him to give me a child. I told Him that I would ask him for a sign of His answer to me but that I wouldn't even know what kind of sign to ask for. I went to sleep.

At 7 am the alarm went off. I said my morning prayers as I try to always do. I laid in silence for a while listening to the birds. Then, as one bird chirped, I heard Isaiah. That shocked me a bit and I thought, "what?!" Again I heard Isaiah. I rolled right over and turned to Isaiah. I found myself at Isaiah 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land. I was so encouraged but I did not know if God meant it as a child or simply that we will "eat the good things of the land."

The day went on as normal. We found out that we had missed a huge section in our online training. I worked at it over the course of the day. I figured I would work on it instead of reading the book I have for review on my other blog. Them's the breaks sometimes. As the day went on I felt more and more like I needed to finish every bit of that training so I would have no excuse not to read this book. The feeling was strange to me because I wasn't exactly enthralled in the book at this point.

I put my sweet son to bed and lay down with my book (A Life of Miracles). I finished the last paragraph of the chapter I was on because I had to put it down without finishing the night before. I turned the page and began reading the next chapter. The story might as well have been the one you have just read. From the years of waiting to the feeling that things would happen soon and then there is nothing. She had a similar message from God, with confirmation later from a speaker they were listening to that you can take God's promises to the bank. She gave this up to God and trusted in the promise He had made. Weeks later she became pregnant and they had a healthy baby boy. I prayed.

I fully believe that God has another child for me. That this is His promise for me. I don't need to wonder anymore. I don't know when but I trust my God and will wait patiently for His perfect timing. In the meantime I will continue to be willing and obedient to my Father and my Maker.

Girl at the End of the World: a Book Review

"Elizabeth Esther grew up in love with Jesus but in fear of daily spankings (to “break her will”). Trained in her family-run church to confess sins real and imagined, she knew her parents loved her and God probably hated her. Not until she was grown and married did she find the courage to attempt the unthinkable. To leave.
In her memoir, readers will recognize questions every believer faces: When is spiritual zeal a gift, and when is it a trap? What happens when a pastor holds unchecked sway over his followers? And how can we leave behind the harm inflicted in the name of God without losing God in the process?
By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Girl at the End of the World is a story of the lingering effects of spiritual abuse and the growing hope that God can still be good when His people fail."


This is such an interesting book from beginning to end. Elizabeth has a writing style that is very fluid and easy to read. I found myself relating to many of the small stories in Girls at the End of the World. I learned a lot about fundamentalism too. It is a word I hear thrown around once in a while, but I never really understood it.


The back of the book includes discussion questions which are fantastic. There are many ideas in the book that this religious group took too far, such as disciplining children and gender roles. I was concerned that the questions would be biased against those things. In actuality the questions ask you to think about the pros and cons of such topics and ask you to determine for yourself where the lines should be drawn.


There was also a great interview in the back with Elizabeth Esther. She goes into some detail about what fundamentalism is and her experience writing the book. I don't know that I would say that I enjoyed the book. It isn't the kind of story that you "enjoy". It was very much worth reading though and I do recommend it. It was well written and the bonus goodies at the end were a great addition.

• Author's Web site
• Twitter
• Facebook
• More Info
• Read Chapter One
• Author Bio

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

The Wayfinding Bible: A Book Review

I think I have a new favorite reading Bible and it is The Wayfinding Bible. This Bible is incredibly well done. I am so impressed by all it's features. The Wayfinding Bible has many reading paths for you to choose from. Each path is color coded throughout the Bible so you always know where the passages on your path start and end. You can choose from a short overview of the Bible in 54 readings, a medium length run through with 215 readings, or the scenic route which goes into more depth with 386 readings. I had such a hard time choosing and finally went with the scenic route, which covers all the important stories but leaves out quite a lot of genealogy and repetition. You can also take in the whole Bible with the reading plan in the very back of the book.

The reading plans are not all this Bible has to offer though. Throughout the book there are timelines, pictures and maps. There is information about what was happening in the world as the story is happening. There are pictures and diagrams of important structures and how they may have looked. For instance, there is a fantastic diagram of Noah's Ark, including how its size compares to other famous ships. At the beginning of each book of the Bible there is a section that shows how Jesus is connected to the story within.

This Bible does a fantastic job of pulling the reader in and helping them to be absorbed by the word of God. It is put together with the New Living Translation, which is not my favorite, but is so easy to read. It will not replace my favorite versions for deep study, but for simply reading and enjoying the word of God, it is fantastic. I am also partial to hardcover so I am not digging the softcover on my copy. Even the soft cover cannot take away my overall love of this Bible though. I will be reading and rereading it for years.

I received a free copy of this Bible to review from Tyndale House Publishers.

The Wayfinding Bible book trailer: http://goo.gl/9qpoal

Epic Grace: a Book Review

Epic Grace: Chronicles of a Recovering Idiot, I simply love the title. Kurt Bubna has a fantastically conversational writing style. Reading this book is almost like having a chat with him, a one sided chat, but a chat nonetheless.

I related so well with this book. We all make so many mistakes in our lives and it is nice to see that someone else is right there in my shoes. One part that touched me the most is the story of how he became a pastor. He didn't think he would ever be a pastor and never wanted to be. Yet, God called him to be a pastor, and now he is. I certainly never thought I would be a missionary. It was not even on my radar. Now here we are preparing our family to leave the country on mission. It is simply amazing to see where God guides your life and how He uses your mistakes. Thank the Lord that His grace is abounding because I don't know what I would ever do if it wasn't.

This is a lovely, touching book. The cover is beautiful and very soft to touch. I definitely recommend reading it.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2nzOhRtsvA        

Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book to review. 

For Every Season: a Book Review

For Every Season

I was so excited to have a chance to review For Every Season by Cindy Woodsmall. A while back I did a review for the first book in this series, A Season For Tending. I had such a hard time getting into the first one. About three-quarters of the way through I was finally hooked. I got the second book at the library and loved it. When I had the chance to review the next book, I knew I had to take it.

The Amish Vines and Orchards series has been great. There are so many characters to follow, but my mind was always focused on the story of Samuel, Jacob, and Rhoda. Through out the whole book I have been rooting for Rhoda and hoping that Cindy wouldn't have her stay with who I felt was the wrong brother. Without ruining the ending, I was very happy with how she rounded out this book. Things simmer down to the point where more could be fun but I am satisfied with the ending for Rhoda...then I kept turning through the apple recipes and found the ad for book 4! I don't know how I am going to wait till April to read more, but I guess I will have to.

I read this on my Kindle and I was very pleased with it. Last time there were some issues with the formatting. This third book had very good formatting. All the pretty frills are gone, but they are also not messing up the layout of the page and that makes for much easier reading.

I received a free copy of this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing to review.

You Can't Make Me: Book Review

I have been reading You Can't Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded), Revised and Updated Edition by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias. I was excited to get it, as my little guy is quite the "strong willed child" much of the time. I got about half way through and I was sort of feeling iffy about the stories written and advise given. Then I got to a section where a man tells the author that Bible tells us to be obedient to God and our parents. What I took away from her response was that God made most people strong willed and so He most likely doesn't want us to go against our nature. A red flag popped up for me right there. Strong will is a matter of trying to exert your dominance over someone else and not let them win no matter what. Determination and drive are valuable, but I agree with the man, God doesn't want us to be willful and stubborn. We are born as sinners and many things, such as strong will, are passed off as "the way we were born" and we are told to embrace it. God clearly says in His word that they are being tempted by a sinful nature and need to turn to him for guidance and correction.

The following section is titled Rules are basically guidelines, in which she gives this example:

"If I drive into the school parking lot for an evening PTA meeting and the closest parking places are marked "Bus Zone - No Parking," I interpret that sign to mean, "if the buses need those spaces, you can't park here. However, if the busses don't need them, you can park here." It's a guideline! On the other hand, you won't find a stronger advocate than I am when it comes to making sure "Handicapped Only" parking is strictly enforced twenty-four hours a day."

I have a huge problem with the thinking behind this.  If I park in that bus zone it shows my kids that we only need to follow the rules when someone is watching. How am I to know that there isn't a sporting event that is out and will need that space in the evening. Picking and choosing what rules to follow is part of the reason that so many followers of Christ are confused about what the Bible teaches. It is a slippery slope to slide down and it is where I stopped reading the book.

If you want to raise your children in a Biblical way, I do not recommend this book. If you want a quick fix to "tolerate" your strong willed child, then this will help. It will not however, get you to the root of their will and help them to grow to maturity as Godly young men and women.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Author's Web Site

More Info

Read Chapter One

Author Bio

Fate of the Blog

Our new blog is up! you can find it at morgansbubble.com. This new site will be our new blog home. I am leaving this blog up for those of you that want to see some of the older posts and also to share book reviews as I want to keep that separate from our missions themed blog.

The Update That Took 7 Months to Write

Really, this is the update that took 7 months to happen. It all started with a crazy question to the Reach Global missions organization In mid-December...but you can check out all those updates in the Living Faith tab. Today we are starting with last night.

Adam and I headed to Apple Valley where we met the lead of the Montreal team. He was visiting MN to teach at a missions training week. It was wonderful getting to know him. We talked for 3 hours about so many subjects. We chatted a bit about our faith and what works we are currently doing for the Lord. There was a little bit of budget talk and he asked about our technology needs and apartment needs. He also gave us some wonderful advise about the work we have to do ahead.

In the end the important things we came away with were that he is very encouraged about the works that we are currently doing and feels that we will be a great fit in Montreal. That he wants us to come for 15 months instead of 12 so we can do language training for those additional months. The immersion training that he wants us to do would involve our living in someone else's home for 6 or so weeks. The people in this home would not speak any English and we would be learning in survival mode. It sounds quite intense, but God would not put us into something he did not think we could do and so, with Him, we will make it through. Plus he is planning to have the team up there really train us on being missionaries so we won't be tossed out to the sharks alone, thank God for that.

We also learned that not all missionaries have the gift of faith. The gift of faith is the highest gift for both Adam and I and I can't imagine how difficult it must be to go into missions without it. The lead got to see a glimpse of this faith in us and he was really amazed, so far as to say he could learn a lot from us (commence blushing).

It was after 11pm when we finally made it home and I always check my messages before bed. There was a pile of junk mail, the lead's e-mail to us and our rep detailing our night's conversation, and a surprise for the lead and us...

I am very pleased to let you know that we are accepting you for an 12-15 month term to serve with ReachGlobal in Montreal!

What an exciting way to end the night! Let's just say it was hard to get to sleep and poor Adam worked at 5am this morning.

It is time for the 2 of us to get to work as the ideal leave time for us would be April. There is a lot to pull together, letters to write, people to connect with, and everyday life needs to be in there too. We wanted to share all of this exciting news with all of you. You have been a fantastic support team so far and we look forward to having you all continue in this journey with us!

Vacation

Last time I mention our vacation. We didn't take a moment to relax, but we had tons of fun and here is a photo montage of our trip...

Como Zoo in St. Paul on Monday

Driving School at Como Town (next to Como Zoo)

Science Museum on Tuesday

Mall of America on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. A certain little mister of our has become a fan of roller coasters with his favorite being the log flume...go figure.

Half the News

We came back from a 3 day vacation on Wednesday and the house and our routine are mostly back in order. The highlight of our stay in the Twin Cities was visiting the EFCA headquarters in Bloomington where we were able to meet our ReachGlobal rep in person. Yes, the Como Zoo and science museum were fun, but this was a big deal.

These past 6 months we have done all of our communications through phone or computer so getting to see our rep face to face was great. The most exciting, of course, was finally getting to talk to him about our acceptance. It was the reason we went to visit him after all. I will stop stalling now and get to all the nitty gritty.

ReachGlobal is very excited to have us on board and wants to send us out on a 1 year mission trip. The position that we are going into the field for is quite new and 1 year gives everyone a chance to feel out how it will work. There will be a possibility of a 1 year extension which we can apply for toward the end of our stay, any longer and we will be looking at making the transition from short term to long term missionaries.

We do not have our "official" acceptance yet. For that we need our location to be finalized. That is taking a little longer as Jay, the Montreal lead is just getting back from Haiti...possibly helping to translate for our own church's mission trip. How crazy would that small world connection be. We are meeting with Jay on Wednesday to chat and just start building a relationship with him. It is also a time for him and us to see if we will mesh well on the same team.

There is a lot on our minds right now. We are planning a trip back to the headquarters in August for orientation and training. With our trip being only 1 year we have to make a decision about what to do with the house. In the coming weeks we will be determining a shop closing plan for The Crazy Elephant, how and when to get our wordpress blog up and running, what technology needs we will need filled, and a plan of attack for how determine what to bring, leave, or get rid of as far as stuff in our house goes.

It is all a bit overwhelming right now to look at all there is to do and plan. We will be turning to the Lord to help us in all of this. It is a comfort to know that He will be guiding us in this journey. We want to thank everyone for your prayers over these months. Please continue to pray for us as we begin making huge life changes in preparation for our trip. We look forward to seeing how God uses us to change the lives of those we will be serving and those who will be serving with us.

Restaurant Love

Welcome to the blog hop! If you are just joining in you can find the starting line here: http://www.supporting-artists.com/. Get the whole code and you will win a set of Supporting Artists designed recipe cards. Keep reading to find out my letter in the code and where to go next...

I love going out to eat! We don't do it very often but we just came back from vacation and got to go a lot. We went to one of my favorite places, Rainforest Cafe.

Normally I prefer not to hit a chain restaurant but there is just something about Rainforest. They have got the most fun atmosphere. The thunderstoms while you eat, the moving animals, the aquariums, they just make it so memorable. Plus with our 5 year old, there is never a dull moment and the Cafe keeps him well entertained.

On this visit my husband, Adam, and I shared the Honey Mahi Mahi and Shrimp. Oh, yum! It was big enough to share and was fantastic. It was made up of bite size chunks of fish and shrimp battered and glazed with a sweet honey sauce. To be honest, the mahi mahi was kind of strange with the sweet sauce. The shrimp on the other hand was absolutely delectable. It may be one of my new favorite foods. The dish it pretty pricey ($20.99) and is on their special menu right now, but is so worth trying if you find yourself there.

Now that you are hungry, lets keep you moving along on this food themed blog hop...

My letter is: U

Now head on over to http://ourchildrensearth.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/edible-eco-friendly-play-dough/ to get the next clue in the code. Have fun and here is a peek at the card I designed for the package.

Still Waiting

Here we are 4 weeks since our missions interview and we are still waiting. We even got an e-mail this afternoon from our rep apologizing for not calling us while ON VACATION! What ever he has to tell us must be of great importance. Perhaps it is a yes, perhaps something else is going on.

A week ago the wait, and missed phone call, was eating away at me. I was going crazy knowing that we could have had our answer had we simply been home. God used that time to show me a thing or two. First of all he reminded me that this is HIS plan, not mine. God will see to all of the details, I simply need to come along for the ride and be a willing vessel for Him.

He showed us the peace we can have in waiting. We have really enjoyed this quiet week knowing the chances of our rep calling us while on vacation are slim. We have not thought much at all of our mission trip this week. Instead we devoted our time to bible study and family togetherness. I think God much preferred that, as did we.

He also laid out more of his design for us. God is already placing the support net on his plan for us to be missionaries. It is quite incredible to watch! With out any solicitation, we now have 3 churches and a fantastic business woman who want to talk to us about partnership when the time comes. While I am not willing to take that as a guaranteed yes. till I actually get one, I can see that this is God's work preparing us in advance for the next step.

There is a good chance we will have another week to wait. We decided a short vacation was in order after all these months of hard work. So we will be taking a mini trip to have some much needed fun and recharge our batteries. Then we can come back, get our answer, and get to work. In the meantime, I will enjoy the quiet stillness of the wait...and try desperately not to itch my bug bites any more (a result from outdoors family togetherness).

Extra Interview

It has been 2 weeks since our interview and we heard from our rep yesterday (2 weeks to the day). Sadly, it wasn't the definitive answer we were hoping for. Cue awesome facebook graphic...

https://www.facebook.com/busyhomeschoolmom?hc_location=stream

This morning we had yet another interview. This one was all about our family life. We discussed how we discipline, touched shortly on homeschooling, and talked about how we connect together as a family. It went very well! The rep was laughing and having a good time with us which put us at ease and made it so much easier to chat.

She said at the end that we are very wise parents for our young age (complimentary in so many ways). We said that we are always praying that God would make us wise in our parenting. It was wonderful to hear because most of the time we feel like we are total failures as parents. I guess it is like standardized testing for school. You don't know if you are doing well or not based on your own guesses on the matter.

We also learned that the highest number of missionaries leaving the field are families. It is the reason that they really want to make sure a family is right for the job. It does make sense as the position we originally applied for became open because the man currently doing it left when he got married.

She said that our rep would get back to us with an answer quickly (early next week) because they realize that this process has taken especially long for us. It has felt long, but has gone by quickly. We have been going through the application process for 6 months! It was nice to hear that they also think it has been drawn out and not just that we are impatient.

So, we still don't have an answer but have gotten some great affirmation. God answered our prayers of the Reach Global team continuing to be punctual in their communications even if the communications were not what we expected them to be.

We are looking forward to what God has planned for us this summer. It could be a very busy one. Over the past 6 months of application time we have had several people tell us that they believe our fundraising will take 6 months. If we get our approval right away next week that could mean leaving in November. That is by no means our goal, but it will be very exciting to see God put this all together and to see when exactly He has decided we should go.

This Week

God has definitely prepared our hearts for this wait and the upcoming answer we have been waiting months to hear. This last week since our Missions interview has been filled with peace and calm, over the impending decision any way.

We have been busily spring cleaning the house, something we had planned on anyway. The rooms of our home are getting a deep cleaning. I am talking scrubbed walls, floors, doors, ect. We have cleaned out a lot of clutter as well. There have been several bags of garbage, baskets sent to the thrift store and boxes to be donated. Some things are going back to their original homes and some are going to new homes to bless other families with things we are no longer using. This all makes great prep work if we are going to be selling our house and leaving and if we aren't then it means a beautiful clean home to live in.

We have also started fleshing out some of our plans for our potential trip. This weekend we are talking a lot about what items would be on our prayer list and what our first missions newsletter will be like. I have also been visualizing our new blog. Should we get a yes, we will be switching to wordpress as it will be our missions hub and we want our updates and projects to be easy to access.

Today I am prepping for the new homeschool year. Since we have chosen to school year round, our school year starts in 1 week. It is a good reminder that even in the midst of big life changes we need to keep our everyday routine going. It also reminds me how wonderful it is to homeschool. Should we move, school will not change and we can get back into our routine gradually if needed. God has certainly blessed us and we pray He is blessing all of you as well!

Gourmet Pizza at Home

This pizza looked beautiful coming out of the oven! I couldn't resist sharing it. Here are the layers in order:

Crust

Pesto sauce

Light coating of Parmesan cheese

Quartered grape tomatoes and dollops of cream cheese

Shredded cheeses (odds and ends of several bags)

If you have never had a pizza with cream cheese on it, you are really missing out. This is my new favorite pizza and the whole family loved it. We will absolutely make this again!

Mission Interview

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for us this week.We went into our interview today with calm and peace. 3 hours on the phone is a very long time, but we filled the entire time.

The first 2.5 hours we discussed our entire lives. That includes our past and current sins/temptations, our marriage, our ministry work, and most importantly our walks with Christ. We did our best and with help from God Almighty, we didn't fumble over our words and were able to speak clearly and decisively.

In the last half hour we talked about what will be happening should we be green lighted and move ahead in this process, training, funds, timeline, ect. We found our chat during this time to be very optimistic. Our rep is planning on putting together our mission description and budget during the 2 weeks we will be waiting for our answer. Since mission description and budget are supposed to be the next step after we are approved, we are feeling pretty strongly that we will be approved. Until we get a definitive answer, we will continue life as usual.

Life as usual means taking the next 2 weeks to do major and deep spring cleaning. Our house needs it and it is great ground work for putting our house on the market this summer. I am going to enjoy the peace of these next 2 weeks. Should we be approved 2 weeks from now, we are going to have a lot to do!

Bean Plant Experiment Finale

What did we learn? Sun and water give the best affect, of course. We also saw that water and sun are not equally important to plants. A plant can still grow and produce beans without water, albeit stunted. No sun and  the bean plant is doomed to death. Plants 1 and 2 both have bean pods growing now.

Tasty Menu for Outsmarting Diabetes

Ever since having gestational diabetes I have diabetic meal planning in the back of my mind. It really caught me off guard when I got that diagnosis and someday it could happen again and I don't want to go into it with no knowledge of what to eat. I found some fantastic information on prevention.com and it had a fantastic menu. We have tried many of the meals listed and they have been a hit for the whole family! I especially love that the ingredients needed are available at my normal grocery store.

This is one of my favorites from the menu. It really surprised me! I did baby spinach and it has chicken, honey mustard, and sliced grapes.

Am Nervous, Please Pray

I have got a serious case of nervousness! The next 2 days could completely change our lives FOREVER! I think a good dose of psalms and prayer could help braven me up a bit.

Please pray for us as we speak to the missions lead in Montreal tomorrow and have our 3 hour phone interview on Thursday. We need it. We want to follow God's plan and He is not asking us to take the easy path. But with Him we can do it!