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Longing for the Past or Looking Forward to the Future? · Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith

• 1:15
  Audrey McCracken: Hello friends, welcome back to Grace From A Home.
• 1:18
  Audrey McCracken: I hope and pray that you are having a great season, that you're in the middle of a good season, that you are doing some things that you love with some people that you love, and that your joys are greater than your trials.
• 1:37
  Audrey McCracken: Right now.
• 1:37
  Audrey McCracken: And I just want to come to you today and apologize for being out of pocket.
• 1:43
  Audrey McCracken: I took an unexpected podcast break and I'm sure, as mamas, you will understand this.
• 1:51
  Audrey McCracken: We are in a time of transition and I'm just trying to figure it all out.
• 1:55
  Audrey McCracken: One of my goals for this podcast is to keep it real.
• 2:02
  Audrey McCracken: I don't want to try to pretend to be something I am not, because I feel like that puts false expectations on people.
• 2:10
  Audrey McCracken: You know, when we try to be perfect or try to come off as picture perfect, all that does is set up other people for failure, because they feel like either they'll never measure up or that somehow they have it harder than other people because those people aren't real, that they're watching and they're following.
• 2:30
  Audrey McCracken: And so for you and for my sanity and my conscience, I really do try to keep it real.
• 2:35
  Audrey McCracken: And you know, there are areas where the Lord has given me great breakthrough and he's given me grace and given me wisdom.
• 2:43
  Audrey McCracken: And there are other areas where I struggle and I'm learning.
• 2:49
  Audrey McCracken: I'm like you guys.
• 2:51
  Audrey McCracken: I am on a road with Jesus and he is showing me things along the way.
• 2:56
  Audrey McCracken: A road with Jesus and he is showing me things along the way and my goal, my greatest desire, is one day to see him at the end of the road face to face, but right now he's walking with me by the Holy Spirit and changing me and working on me.
• 3:10
  Audrey McCracken: This is a season, such a busy season.
• 3:14
  Audrey McCracken: We're all in busy seasons, I know, but I wrapped up homeschooling with my youngest son, caleb, about a busy season.
• 3:19
  Audrey McCracken: We're all in busy seasons, I know, but I wrapped up homeschooling with my youngest son, caleb, about a month ago and I didn't realize.
• 3:25
  Audrey McCracken: I didn't expect it to hit me the way it hit me.
• 3:28
  Audrey McCracken: You know our last day of homeschooling he was just thrilled, he was so glad to finally be done for the year and, you know, excited about going to public school next year.
• 3:38
  Audrey McCracken: But for me it was.
• 3:40
  Audrey McCracken: It was almost the whole season of knowing this is.
• 3:45
  Audrey McCracken: It has almost been like a death to me, and maybe that may sound silly to people who you don't homeschool.
• 3:51
  Audrey McCracken: I think people who do homeschool, or at least homeschool because they love homeschooling, can understand that I am at the end of a long journey when it comes to homeschooling my children and I have been very sad about that and because for so long that was the vision.
• 4:12
  Audrey McCracken: That was the vision that the Lord had given me for my family, because for me, homeschooling wasn't just something that I had to do, it was something that I got to do.
• 4:21
  Audrey McCracken: It was a tool that I was able to use to disciple my children as best as I knew how for Jesus, and so so much of our life was wrapped around that.
• 4:35
  Audrey McCracken: And, of course, things changed when my older kids went to public school, first my oldest son, david, and then my second son, luke.
• 4:45
  Audrey McCracken: You know, things changed when they left the nest and they haven't left the nest, they're in high school but it was different.
• 4:50
  Audrey McCracken: But I still had one homeschooler, and so I was still a homeschool mom and I still, you know, patterned my days after that and tried to make that a priority in my life.
• 5:03
  Audrey McCracken: And so, now that it's not there, I have really been struggling with what is my goal?
• 5:12
  Audrey McCracken: What are my days supposed to look like?
• 5:14
  Audrey McCracken: And I know it's summer and it would be like this, whether we were still homeschooling or not, because you know we don't do school during the summer anyway.
• 5:21
  Audrey McCracken: But just thinking ahead about next year and where God needs me, and you know what is the future for my podcast and what is the future for my home and for our coffee shop and for our ministry, has these things have really been weighing on my heart.
• 5:39
  Audrey McCracken: And I remember when the Lord first called me to homeschool, it was so clear to me, like I had a, a knowing in my, in my heart of hearts, in my, in my gut.
• 5:50
  Audrey McCracken: This is what the Lord wants me to do.
• 5:53
  Audrey McCracken: It was so strong that it pulled me through the hard days because I knew I was doing what the Lord had asked of me.
• 6:01
  Audrey McCracken: So, even when it was hard, there was a grace, there was a knowing.
• 6:05
  Audrey McCracken: Okay, it's hard, but at least I'm on the right track.
• 6:08
  Audrey McCracken: It's really hard to be, you know, on the wrong track when things are hard, because then you just want to stop.
• 6:14
  Audrey McCracken: But when you know you're on the right track and the Lord is, you know the Lord is with you and he's helping you through that.
• 6:19
  Audrey McCracken: Through it, it gives you a special grace, a special confidence, a faith that, okay, this is part of the process.
• 6:26
  Audrey McCracken: So now, as I'm looking forward and saying Lord, what next I need, that I need to know that I'm about my father's business, that I'm on assignment, that I'm doing the things that he's asked of me, and the only way to know that is to talk to him.
• 6:45
  Audrey McCracken: It's the only way, it was the only way to get an assignment from the Lord, to get a clear vision of what he has for us is to talk to him and to communicate with him, because when we talk to him, he talks to us.
• 6:59
  Audrey McCracken: When we ask him questions, he answers those questions and I believe he wants to do that.
• 7:05
  Audrey McCracken: But so many times, you know, we struggle with our own feelings and our own thoughts and our own worries and our own doubts.
• 7:13
  Audrey McCracken: Well, what if I don't pray enough?
• 7:14
  Audrey McCracken: What if I don't say the right things?
• 7:15
  Audrey McCracken: What if you know what I want isn't what he wants?
• 7:18
  Audrey McCracken: Those kinds of things.
• 7:19
  Audrey McCracken: And so we have to pray to get through those things.
• 7:24
  Audrey McCracken: We have to pray to kind of weed out those, those things and figure out Lord, you know, what is your assignment?
• 7:32
  Audrey McCracken: I'm, I'm really, I'm ready, lord, you know.
• 7:35
  Audrey McCracken: Lord, help me.
• 7:35
  Audrey McCracken: Lord.
• 7:36
  Audrey McCracken: I believe Lord, help my unbelief, and so that's where I have been and that's where I am.
• 7:45
  Audrey McCracken: So I'm in a time, right now, of seeking the Lord's direction for my life.
• 7:49
  Audrey McCracken: And I'm telling you all of this, not to you know, make it all about me, but because we all struggle.
• 7:58
  Audrey McCracken: And if you're struggling with what you're supposed to be doing, if you struggle with your purpose, with your calling, with the assignment God has for you, I just want you to know that we all do.
• 8:09
  Audrey McCracken: I think all of us that really do want to be doing what God has asked of us.
• 8:13
  Audrey McCracken: If we're honest, we struggle in those areas, and so I'm telling you this so you'll know this is normal.
• 8:20
  Audrey McCracken: We struggle in those areas, and so I'm telling you this so you'll know this is normal.
• 8:22
  Audrey McCracken: And but at the same time, I truly believe that God is going to give me clarity and speak, or I wouldn't be praying Right.
• 8:31
  Audrey McCracken: And as that happens, as that unfolds, you know I've served the Lord long enough to know that it doesn't always happen immediately.
• 8:38
  Audrey McCracken: You know, there's not always a, a sign or a vision.
• 8:41
  Audrey McCracken: You know, a lot of times it's just a.
• 8:43
  Audrey McCracken: You know, one step at a time.
• 8:45
  Audrey McCracken: Oh, I feel like God's asked me to do this.
• 8:47
  Audrey McCracken: Well, I have peace with doing that, or?
• 8:49
  Audrey McCracken: Or, you know, I don't think this was what I was supposed to be doing, and so that's what I've been trying to filter through and hear and be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
• 9:00
  Audrey McCracken: You know, one of the major things that I've been praying about is this podcast and just growing in this ministry to moms and to women and how that is supposed to look.
• 9:13
  Audrey McCracken: And my prayer is Lord, show me what you want me to do, because even a good thing, if it's not a God thing, you don't want to be doing it.
• 9:23
  Audrey McCracken: But I feel a certain peace that the Lord has opened this door.
• 9:29
  Audrey McCracken: It has been an outlet for me, it has been a blessing for me, it has been a wonderful way for me being at home, to connect with other people and I don't even have to leave my home right.
• 9:41
  Audrey McCracken: So I really do believe and I pray that the Lord would show me how you know what direction to go in with the podcast.
• 9:51
  Audrey McCracken: And then, of course, I have the coffee shop, which I love, but I don't feel like that's my high calling.
• 9:57
  Audrey McCracken: I don't feel like that's something that I'm going to pour all of myself into.
• 10:03
  Audrey McCracken: I love it.
• 10:04
  Audrey McCracken: It's taken a lot to get it open.
• 10:06
  Audrey McCracken: It was like a birthing and it's been open a year.
• 10:09
  Audrey McCracken: Now.
• 10:09
  Audrey McCracken: We've been open for a year and I will tell you that our coffee shop is doing great.
• 10:14
  Audrey McCracken: We just hired two new people who are not connected with our church, which is the first two people that we've hired that had not come from inside our own congregation, and that was thrilling and scary at the same time, because you want the people who you work with and those who two young girls who have our heart and that we're able to bring on and show the ropes.
• 10:37
  Audrey McCracken: And they have been a huge blessing to me and my sister because they've given us some time during the summer to spend with our family and also, as a lot of our other workers are on vacation and doing other things, it's kind of taken some of the load that would be on us otherwise.
• 11:01
  Audrey McCracken: So I thank the Lord for that.
• 11:02
  Audrey McCracken: But, like I said, I don't feel like the coffee shop is my high calling.
• 11:06
  Audrey McCracken: I feel like it's a ministry and something the Lord has given me and I enjoy doing.
• 11:11
  Audrey McCracken: But I know that my heart is towards ministry and it always has been, and at the same time, I want to make sure I'm still taking care of my family, because, even though I may not be at the same time, I want to make sure I'm still taking care of my family because, even though I may not be homeschooling them, I'm certainly still a mom and I'm a mom of teenagers, and that's a whole other realm.
• 11:28
  Audrey McCracken: I'm trying to figure that out as I go.
• 11:31
  Audrey McCracken: Also, you know our ministry.
• 11:34
  Audrey McCracken: We moved our church not too long ago.
• 11:36
  Audrey McCracken: You guys who listen to my podcast know that and transitions are always hard, and when you're trying to bring people along with you on a transition, that's even harder because you're struggling and dealing with things and questions and being uncomfortable.
• 11:52
  Audrey McCracken: But you've got a whole lot of people who are right behind you, who are going through the same things, and so you have to communicate and you have to pray together and seek the will of the Lord in community, and so that's what we're doing with our church and that could be a full-time job in itself.
• 12:08
  Audrey McCracken: So, anyway, I say all of that to say I'm back and I appreciate you guys who are still with me and who have been patient with me.
• 12:20
  Audrey McCracken: You guys who are still with me and who have been patient with me and um, and I, like I said, I do truly feel that this is an opportunity from the Lord to share with those that I would not come into contact with on an everyday basis but that I can encourage, because my heart is to encourage moms.
• 12:37
  Audrey McCracken: Being a mom is the most amazing job I've ever had.
• 12:42
  Audrey McCracken: It's the hardest job I've ever had, but it's the most rewarding and it's the most soul-wrenching, heart-wrenching job ever, because you so love those that you serve.
• 12:54
  Audrey McCracken: So I want to encourage you in that ministry.
• 12:58
  Audrey McCracken: Being a mom is one of the greatest ministries that the Lord has given me, along with being a wife and, of course, being his daughter, which is the highest calling, is loving him and serving him, and so I just appreciate you coming in, tuning in, listening.
• 13:58
  Audrey McCracken: My prayer is that I would say something that would be a blessing to you, maybe lift a burden for you, maybe help you see things in a different light.
• 14:06
  Audrey McCracken: And so there you go.
• 14:09
  Audrey McCracken: So today, one of the things I want to share with you, or the thing that I want to share with you, and there'll be no mystery of where it came from, after all, I've just, I've just poured out from my heart to you.
• 14:23
  Audrey McCracken: I want to talk with you about moving forward and what the Lord has been talking with me about when it comes to moving forward.
• 14:30
  Audrey McCracken: You know, in my quiet time I am trying to press in and hear from the Lord, and one of the things that he gave me this, I guess the last two weeks, but I've been meditating on it is Lot's wife and many of you who are listening.
• 14:47
  Audrey McCracken: You know the story of Lot and Lot was Abraham's nephew and it's in Genesis 19.
• 14:53
  Audrey McCracken: If you don't know the story, I encourage you to go to read that.
• 14:56
  Audrey McCracken: But God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah to go to read that.
• 15:00
  Audrey McCracken: But God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because Sodom and Gomorrah, they were full of evil, they were full of sin and God was going to destroy them.
• 15:14
  Audrey McCracken: And God shared this with Abraham because Abraham was his friend and Abraham's nephew, lot, lived in Sodom and God and he asked the Lord Lord, are you, what if there are 50 people in Sodom, in Gomorrah, that are righteous?
• 15:33
  Audrey McCracken: Will you save the city for the for them?
• 15:35
  Audrey McCracken: And the Lord said yes, but he couldn't find that many.
• 15:38
  Audrey McCracken: And as the story goes on, he keeps saying well, what if there's 40?
• 15:41
  Audrey McCracken: No, what if there's 20?
• 15:43
  Audrey McCracken: What if there's just 10?
• 15:44
  Audrey McCracken: And there were not enough people in that city for the Lord not to destroy the city.
• 15:51
  Audrey McCracken: There were not enough righteous people.
• 15:52
  Audrey McCracken: And so God did tell Abraham he would save Lot, that he would not allow the righteous to be destroyed with the wicked.
• 16:02
  Audrey McCracken: And so God sent his angels into the city as men to bring Lot and his family out.
• 16:11
  Audrey McCracken: Well, lot's son-in-laws did not believe it.
• 16:14
  Audrey McCracken: So the Lord, before he rained down fire and brimstone and destruction on that city, he sent in angels to rescue Lot and his wife and his two daughters.
• 16:24
  Audrey McCracken: But he gave them specific instructions run out of the city, run to the hills, do not look back.
• 16:32
  Audrey McCracken: But Lot's wife looked back and she was frozen into a pillar of salt.
• 16:39
  Audrey McCracken: And Lot and his two daughters, they had to keep on running.
• 16:43
  Audrey McCracken: They couldn't stop.
• 16:44
  Audrey McCracken: They had to keep on running even though their wife, their mother, would no longer be with them.
• 16:50
  Audrey McCracken: And so it was hard for them.
• 16:55
  Audrey McCracken: Jesus, in the New Testament, in the book of Luke it was in Luke 17, 32.
• 17:00
  Audrey McCracken: Jesus says remember Lot's wife.
• 17:03
  Audrey McCracken: That's all he says about her.
• 17:09
  Audrey McCracken: But he was telling his disciples about the end time and what it was going to be like when he returns, or right before he returns.
• 17:13
  Audrey McCracken: He said as it was in the day of Lot, so it will be in the return, in the time of my return.
• 17:19
  Audrey McCracken: Then he ends that with remember Lot's wife.
• 17:24
  Audrey McCracken: See, there are things that are going to happen and we have to put our eyes on where God told us to go.
• 17:35
  Audrey McCracken: And we have to do that.
• 17:38
  Audrey McCracken: We have to put our eyes not where we've been, not where we're coming from, but where God has asked us to go.
• 17:46
  Audrey McCracken: And he is telling us put your eyes to the place where I've called you, where I am delivering you to, because we have a tendency to look back and if we look back we will miss it.
• 18:03
  Audrey McCracken: Now I'm not saying you can't look back at memories.
• 18:07
  Audrey McCracken: I'm not saying you can't look back and think, oh, we had such a good time then or we had such a good time here.
• 18:15
  Audrey McCracken: The word that is used in the Hebrew in that context, where it said don't look back, was a look of longing, was a look of.
• 18:27
  Audrey McCracken: " I'm longing so much that I want to go back.
• 18:30
  Audrey McCracken: My heart is back there.
• 18:33
  Audrey McCracken: My heart is not towards God or towards what God has asked of me my heart is in my past.
• 18:40
  Audrey McCracken: And when we do that, when we refuse to let go of the past so we can walk into our future, then we forfeit our future and we can't really go back into the past anyway.
• 18:51
  Audrey McCracken: You know, the past is just that it's past, it's over.
• 18:54
  Audrey McCracken: So we have to, you know, be thankful for the things, the good things.
• 18:59
  Audrey McCracken: We have to, you know, repent and get rid of the bad things.
• 19:04
  Audrey McCracken: You know we have to deal with the things of the past, but then we've got to turn our heads towards the future and say that is my future.
• 19:11
  Audrey McCracken: I'm going there.
• 19:12
  Audrey McCracken: I'm going where God has told me to go, which is why it's so important for us to have a vision, which is why it's so important for us to hear from God and say Lord, what's next?
• 19:21
  Audrey McCracken: What is my assignment?
• 19:22
  Audrey McCracken: So I can be about your business.
• 19:24
  Audrey McCracken: That's my heart is to be about your business and not my own business or somebody else's business.
• 19:29
  Audrey McCracken: Father, I want to be about your business.
• 19:33
  Audrey McCracken: See, there are people in your future that if you don't get out of your past and move into your future, they're not going to fulfill what God has called them to fulfill, not to the same level because you're not there.
• 19:51
  Audrey McCracken: You know, lot survived and his two daughters survived.
• 19:55
  Audrey McCracken: They survived, but it was harder than it should have been because his wife wasn't there.
• 20:02
  Audrey McCracken: And what did she have?
• 20:04
  Audrey McCracken: She had wisdom, she had understanding, she had love.
• 20:08
  Audrey McCracken: She had the things that make a family, that make a family a family.
• 20:12
  Audrey McCracken: That's what we mamas do.
• 20:13
  Audrey McCracken: You know.
• 20:14
  Audrey McCracken: We have things.
• 20:16
  Audrey McCracken: God has given us gifts and talents and responsibilities and purpose and roles that he needs, that he needs us to carry on, not just in our family, but in our churches and our communities.
• 20:30
  Audrey McCracken: And there are people in your future that need you to move forward Now.
• 20:35
  Audrey McCracken: Will they survive?
• 20:36
  Audrey McCracken: Probably, but will they thrive?
• 20:40
  Audrey McCracken: Will they do all that God has asked of them?
• 20:43
  Audrey McCracken: Maybe, but I believe that without us it will be harder than it was supposed to be for them.
• 20:50
  Audrey McCracken: And you know there are people in the future that need you.
• 20:55
  Audrey McCracken: You haven't yet met them, but something you say, the encouragement you give them, the example that you are as you stand before them.
• 21:04
  Audrey McCracken: They need to see you make it.
• 21:06
  Audrey McCracken: They need to see somebody in your position, somebody with your trials, with your struggles, with your past.
• 21:13
  Audrey McCracken: They need to see you make it.
• 21:15
  Audrey McCracken: They need to see you going forward after Jesus, and if you're stuck in your past, you won't be there for them, and you're part of God's plan to encourage them, to help them, to show them the way.
• 21:30
  Audrey McCracken: Your future is always, always, always failed looking forward, not looking back.
• 21:38
  Audrey McCracken: Now there are some things that we have to deal with in the past, and I'm not saying you know that we don't ever think about the past or we don't ever deal with the past.
• 21:47
  Audrey McCracken: But when we deal with things in the past, it's so we can go forward, not so we can go back.
• 21:53
  Audrey McCracken: It's so we can let go of the past, not so that we can hold on to the past.
• 21:59
  Audrey McCracken: One of those is forgiveness.
• 22:03
  Audrey McCracken: If we do not forgive, the Bible says that we will not be forgiven.
• 22:09
  Audrey McCracken: Our Father cannot forgive us.
• 22:11
  Audrey McCracken: God wants us to forgive others because when we forgive others, it sets us free.
• 22:19
  Audrey McCracken: When we forgive others, it sets us free, and when we are set free, when we're out of that prison of unforgiveness, then we are free to go forward into our future.
• 22:30
  Audrey McCracken: So sometimes we have to look back into the past because we have issues in our heart that we've not dealt with.
• 22:35
  Audrey McCracken: Sometimes we have to recognize patterns that have followed us.
• 22:40
  Audrey McCracken: You know that's good to look into the past and say why do I keep ending up in this place where I don't want to be?
• 22:44
  Audrey McCracken: Well, sometimes we can look back and we can see the patterns, but we're not looking back so that we can go back.
• 22:50
  Audrey McCracken: We're looking back so we can break, and we can recognize and break the patterns that are holding us back from the future, from doing those things that we've been called to do.
• 23:00
  Audrey McCracken: Also, sometimes we have to look back so we can repent.
• 23:05
  Audrey McCracken: You know there are things that we need to repent of, and repentance it doesn't mean just sobbing and crying and saying, oh, I'm so sorry.
• 23:14
  Audrey McCracken: I mean there might be times that we do that.
• 23:17
  Audrey McCracken: That's not a bad thing.
• 23:18
  Audrey McCracken: But to repent means to turn around and go the other way.
• 23:23
  Audrey McCracken: That's what repentance means.
• 23:25
  Audrey McCracken: It means to recognize I'm going the wrong way and sometimes we have to look in the past to see where have I been going wrong?
• 23:33
  Audrey McCracken: You know what have I been doing?
• 23:35
  Audrey McCracken: That is the direct opposite of what God has asked of me.
• 23:39
  Audrey McCracken: And when we recognize that and we repent, we turn around and we say God, no more, I'm not going to do that anymore.
• 23:46
  Audrey McCracken: That's not the way you've called me to walk.
• 23:48
  Audrey McCracken: That's not the direction you've told me to go in.
• 23:49
  Audrey McCracken: I'm going the opposite direction of that.
• 23:52
  Audrey McCracken: I'm going away from those things that you've told me not to do.
• 23:55
  Audrey McCracken: That I have to recognize it by looking at the past and seeing what I have done and letting the Holy Spirit convict me and show me.
• 24:03
  Audrey McCracken: But then I turn around and I go the opposite way.
• 24:06
  Audrey McCracken: I'm going to my future and I'm leaving that thing in the past, where it belongs, and that's a good thing.
• 24:13
  Audrey McCracken: So, yes, there are times we look in the past and we say, oh, those were great times, those were good memories.
• 24:19
  Audrey McCracken: It's good to remember good days, but not with a longing that those days are so much better than what I have now.
• 24:26
  Audrey McCracken: Those things are so much better than what my future is going to be.
• 24:29
  Audrey McCracken: Oh, I wish, I wish no good is going to come out of that.
• 24:33
  Audrey McCracken: We have to put our eyes on the future and say, lord, thank you for the past, thank you for the good, thank you for the past, thank you for the good, thank you for the bad.
• 24:41
  Audrey McCracken: It made me who I am.
• 24:42
  Audrey McCracken: I'm going forward.
• 24:46
  Audrey McCracken: I believe that my future is better than my past.
• 24:50
  Audrey McCracken: That's what it comes down to is we have to believe that God has more for us in the future than he had for us in the past.
• 24:58
  Audrey McCracken: And when there are really really good things in the past, sometimes that's harder for me to let go of.
• 25:04
  Audrey McCracken: You know, when I came to the Lord, I came to the Lord out of a sinful lifestyle and there were things in my past that I wanted to get rid of, like I wanted the Lord to take them away.
• 25:16
  Audrey McCracken: I wanted to run from them.
• 25:18
  Audrey McCracken: So it was easy at that time for me to run away from my past into the loving arms of Jesus, because I believed that my future was going to be a lot better than my past.
• 25:30
  Audrey McCracken: But when you've walked with the Lord for a while and you've built some really good things, some really good memories, and you've seen God do some awesome things and you've seen God set you free from some awful things, and you think, oh, I'm in a good place.
• 25:47
  Audrey McCracken: But now the Lord's saying it's time to move on from this good place that he set you in.
• 25:53
  Audrey McCracken: That I have found that's harder for me, because I like where I am, I like how it's been, I have enjoyed my time here, and the Lord is saying okay, honey, let's go, I got something better for you.
• 26:08
  Audrey McCracken: And so it really does come down to believing that God means what he says, that my future is brighter than my past, even when I really like my past, or even when I really like things back there, that I can enjoy them, I can be thankful for them.
• 26:25
  Audrey McCracken: But I'm going forward because that's where Jesus is.
• 26:28
  Audrey McCracken: He's walking forward, he's going on, and if I'm going to stay with him on the path, I'm going to have to follow him because I don't want him to leave me, because I don't know the way without him.
• 26:36
  Audrey McCracken: And he loves us and he wants the best for us.
• 26:46
  Audrey McCracken: So many times we think we know what's best for us and we don't have a clue.
• 26:48
  Audrey McCracken: If we knew that we'd be God.
• 26:49
  Audrey McCracken: We don't see the future.
• 26:50
  Audrey McCracken: He's the only one who knows what the future holds, so we have to trust that it's better with him.
• 26:55
  Audrey McCracken: Amen.
• 26:57
  Audrey McCracken: I hope this has been an encouragement to you today.
• 26:59
  Audrey McCracken: Like I said in the beginning, I so thank you for being patient with me and hanging on.
• 27:06
  Audrey McCracken: I am no longer a homeschool mom.
• 27:08
  Audrey McCracken: There's a grieving process in that, but I know that in the future he's got good things and thank you for being a part of my future.
• 27:21
  Audrey McCracken: Thank you for being here and um and being a part of what you know, letting me encourage you as a mom.
• 27:28
  Audrey McCracken: That's a blessing to me and it gives me a reason to think oh Lord, what good things do you have ahead?
• 27:35
  Audrey McCracken: You know, and he loves you, so he loves me, so he's so good to us.
• 27:41
  Audrey McCracken: Father, we just thank you that you never leave us and you never forsake us.
• 27:45
  Audrey McCracken: That, lord, you are faithful to the end, and one day, when we get to the end of this road, we are going to see you face to face and we can ask you all those questions and you will give us real answers.
• 27:56
  Audrey McCracken: But until that day, we trust you.
• 27:59
  Audrey McCracken: We trust you with our future, we trust you with our past and, lord, we look forward.
• 28:05
  Audrey McCracken: We remember Lot's wife and we look forward to you and to the future that you have for us and for the good things there, and we say yes and amen to them and to you, in Jesus name, amen.