The Abundant Life

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Ephesians 3:20

I remember 3 years ago when I got baptized and truly gave my life to Christ hearing a message saying that when you give your heart to God, He doesn't work in just your life, but in the life of those you love and care for. I remember hearing that God would give you more than you could ever ask for more than you could ever imagine. 

Usually when we think of receiving blessings we think of receiving the things we have wanted, gaining financial blessings and reaching our personal goals. But honestly I don't think this is what God is speaking of. While yes we will receive physical blessings and extra perks in life, what God is striving for is souls. 

When I gave my life to Christ I didn't realize the impact that it would have on the lives of those around me. I didn't realize that His power is so strong that He would not only move in my life, but in the life of the ones I loved the most. 

This past weekend was one of those weekends where you realize how far things have come and just how much God has moved in your life, and where I realized how much He had moved in the lives of those around me.

2 years ago my sister was in a desperate place. She was unsuccessfully dealing with a drug addiction. She was running around wild stealing money, TVs , jewelry and anything else she could think of. But she wasn't stealing from just anyone, she was stealing from my parents. It was heartbreaking. It put my parents in a horrible position. After dealing with her behavioral issues and drug addiction for over 12 years my parents were tapped out.

Their marriage was falling apart. They could NOT agree on how to handle the situation and she was constantly coming between them. I didn't know what to do I would try to protect them and they would turn on me. I would try to warn them and they would ignore me. I hated my sister's actions. I missed the sister I had grown up with. I hated watching my parents divide. I didn't know what I could do to stop the destruction. So as a new Christian I prayed. 

God told me to keep my mouth shut, to stay out of things as best as I could and let Him do the work. As hard as it was, I learned how to keep my mouth shut and stay out of my parents dealings with my sister. Not much changed.

Then we were on a vacation in NJ a year ago. My parents had decided to let my sister stay home and watch the dogs and cats. For a few days nothing happened. Then Nick (my fiance) went over to mow the lawn and what he found was disturbing. At this point my sister was 6 months pregnant. Nick walked into the house to find TV's missing, drugs in my sisters room and her boyfriend running for his life down the street.  

This brought our vacation to an abrupt hault. My parents were forced to put my sister in jail and we headed home to see the damage. 

My sister had been struggling her whole pregnancy. She hated every minute of it. She didn't stay with the dad and felt very disconnected. She ended up having the baby in jail. Even though she was in jail for weeks before the baby was born, he was still born suffering with symptoms of withdraw. 

As depressing as this story is...God worked out an amazing miracle. Just as it says in the Bible- God works all things for the good of those that love Him.- even the ugliest of situations. My sister knew pretty early on in her pregnancy that she did not want to keep the baby, so she decided to give him up for adoption. Well it just so happened that a family friend of ours, a very close friend of my mom's had just had an adoption that didn't go through due to the mom changing her mind. So the topic came up of her adopting the baby. There were a few bumps in the road, but all in the all the adoption went without a hitch and now my sweet nephew Jeremy is in a loving home with 4 older siblings and 2 loving parents. My sister received drug counseling while in jail and giving the baby up for adoption helped her make a complete 360 and she is now clean and has been for almost a year now!

We are also blessed because we get to see Jeremy grow up on Facebook and get to see him in person now and again. This weekend was one of those miraculous weekends where we got to see him in person.  My kids got to see their cousin and play with him, my sister was there and my dad even WANTED to take a picture of all of his grandkids. (My dad is another story all together LOL, but that to me seemed huge) And my mom got to have all of her kids and grandkids under the same room for a morning. It was such a blessed day.

And as if that isn't enough, God is blessing us with yet another family member as my sister and her boyfriend are now expecting their own baby in November. She has handled this pregancy completely different. I am so proud of her and how much she has changed in just a short time. I am so proud of how she is handling herself and growing up. I am soo proud to say she is my sister. And I am sooo thankful to God to have the loving sisterly relationship we now have. 

This weekend was proof that God will not only bless you and your life. He will move in the lives of those around and restore all relationships! He will give you way more than you can even hold or carry - he will give you exceedingly and abundantly beyond.