By Darius Ardoin

   My family has always been in church and we’ve always been believers. However, God hasn’t always been the center of our family’s life.

   For a long time, I’ve prayed for my family to grow closer to God, that He would be the foundation of our family. Honestly, through the years, it hasn’t been my most consistent prayer. However, it has always been one of my heart’s deepest desires.

   As a family, we’ve been through so much together. We’ve been through each other’s personal struggles, and our struggles together as a family. Nevertheless, through the struggles, God has always been faithful to see us through.

   As time went on, I began to see my family submit and devote our lives to God. And let me tell you this: It didn’t happen overnight. It was a journey. Through all that we had been through, God was changing our hearts the entire time. Even we couldn’t see it in ourselves. I remember when we were all together standing at the altar at church asking them to pray for us as we begin making Him the head of our family. It was then that things began to change.

   The moment we decided to make God the head of our family’s life, he immediately went to work. I know that my mom and step-dad always worked hard and they both had good jobs, however when Jesus got involved, my mom got hurt on her job and she wasn’t getting paid for it. Also, my step-dad got laid off of his job for at least a month. All of this happened once we finally decided to put our trust in Him and make him the head of our lives.

   At this point I’m asking God the same question you may be asking as you read this: WHY!? It didn’t make sense to me. I’ve been praying for this for a long time, and I know that this is something that not only I wanted, but something he always wanted as well. It took us a long time to get to this place and now this? Everything seemed to be going in reverse. Why is it that the first thing he does is take away the one thing that was our family’s security and comfort?

   Through much prayer, the answer became clear. If we wanted God to be the center and the foundation of our family, He would have to strip us of the old foundation that was in place before him. Honestly, hearing that from him gave me peace about what was going on, but going through that with him was nothing short of a challenge. But challenge is good. Challenging our faith and our dependency upon God strengthens us. We had to trust that though the rug was being pulled from under us, God was going to be faithful and replace it with Him. Our solid rock and our strong foundation. Faithful He is and faithful He has shown us to be. Because through it all, we never lacked. Bills were paid, needs were met, and above all else we were growing closer to God. Often times the painful parts of our journey with God are shaping up to be the most beautiful part of our journey.

   So let the posture of our hearts be the same when God is taking away as it is when God is giving. Because there’s no greater ‘thing’ that we’re asking for that is greater than what God has wrapped up within himself to give to us.

   “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” -Matthew 7:24-25