God is Good (All The Time!) - Thank you Tentmakers for the last several years

[Forest]

Hi everyone  :HeartThrob:

I am a long-time member, mostly lurker, both here and in the Facebook group. I found this community in May 2018 while I was going through an extremely scary and difficult time with my mental health.  I've always come to this community for comfort and encouragement in the faith, especially during times when my mental health gets worse. Reading the inputs and the absolute love and kindness this community shows brings me so much happiness.

I know I haven't been an integral part of the community and many of you don't recognize my name - but I wanted to come by and say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your encouragement when I have spoken up over the past few years. 

I was finally diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder after my last post in September 2021 and last year I finally took the leap to go through exposure therapy for many of my presentations. I still have work to do and a long way to go, but I am feeling so much better now.

Since my last post in September 2021 we have faced many things that others would consider "hardships": last year we were preparing for a cross-country move when we had a house deal fall through after selling our first home, leaving us without housing and forcing us to scrap our moving plans and move in with my parents.  While processing that we were going to be remaining local after literally selling all of our possessions and our home, our dog that we had since the beginning of our marriage very suddenly and traumatically passed away.  It was in those moments that we felt God was preparing us for something big.  Navigating living with my parents as an adult was hard - but God (as always) had an infinitely perfect plan.  After several years of infertility, we found out in November we are expecting our first child - a beautiful baby with a very rare birth defect.  We have spent the past several weeks navigating care for our little one and planning for our baby's arrival soon - and through it all I have felt the infinite love of Jesus and His blessings in our lives.  I am so thankful that our housing deal fell through last year and that we live within 10 minutes of the majority of our close family. I am so thankful that while our baby's birth defect is rare, baby is expected to lead a very normal life. During the times of uncertainty, our family has blanketed us in support and love - the kind of which can only come from the inspiration of our loving and all-knowing Father in Heaven.

I have noticed with all of the stress, despite my true belief that God's got it, I still struggle with some obsessive themes recently. I found myself back in this community after trying to join some mainstream Christian FB groups - many of which degraded me for my long-term marriage to an unbeliever and my belief in setting aside time/ways to love myself so that I can better love others (going to therapy, getting put together each day, journal for self-esteem, etc).

I have come so far in my journey to better understand my mental health and take care of my mind - when I sought support from a community of self-professed believers, I was often met with "advice" such as, "therapy is of the enemy, you need to rely solely on God for your healing" and "medical interventions for your baby are evidence of you not trusting in the Lord for His healing." It set me into another spiral of concern over where I rank on the "good Christian" level scale and whether or not God still loved me and my family. Does He love me less because I go to therapy? Is He upset that I prayed for His plan/will to be revealed as we met with our medical team? I started spiraling and honestly just started feeling awful.

But the second I came back in to this community, I was reminded through reading the posts and discussions on here that our God is infinitely more powerful than anything. He stands above all things and He will always be with us.  Yet again, I was shown the infinite and unconditional love of Christ through this community of people who recognize that the beautiful part of believing in Jesus is that we don't have to carry any of the burden of this fallen world and the schemes of the enemy - God picks up where we cannot continue and shows His power and glory by working ALL things for His good.

Thank you so much to each and every one of you who offer encouragement, love, kindness and perspective on the posts in this forum. I am so happy to have "stumbled upon" this community almost six years ago. We all know that was a God thing and I am so, so thankful for it.

I love each and every one of you my friends in Christ ♥

Peace,
Forest

[Ross]

G'day Forest:
We do go through a lot of things, and see a variety of different ways people suggest we should handle them.
The opinions of some people are more boisterous than others.
Those experiences are,IMO ,vital to display the need for a saviour. Jesus is indeed the only way, not mans' effort.
His love never fails and is all inclusive of every aspect of our life.
Our family is a little illustration of the beautiful system of our loving Father. Jesus our awesome fellow heir. And we will be like Him in every regard.
You have come a long way on your journey.
Great how all things work together for good.

[guest6795]

Hi everyone  :HeartThrob:

I am a long-time member, mostly lurker, both here and in the Facebook group. I found this community in May 2018 while I was going through an extremely scary and difficult time with my mental health.  I've always come to this community for comfort and encouragement in the faith, especially during times when my mental health gets worse. Reading the inputs and the absolute love and kindness this community shows brings me so much happiness.

I know I haven't been an integral part of the community and many of you don't recognize my name - but I wanted to come by and say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your encouragement when I have spoken up over the past few years. 

I was finally diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder after my last post in September 2021 and last year I finally took the leap to go through exposure therapy for many of my presentations. I still have work to do and a long way to go, but I am feeling so much better now.

Since my last post in September 2021 we have faced many things that others would consider "hardships": last year we were preparing for a cross-country move when we had a house deal fall through after selling our first home, leaving us without housing and forcing us to scrap our moving plans and move in with my parents.  While processing that we were going to be remaining local after literally selling all of our possessions and our home, our dog that we had since the beginning of our marriage very suddenly and traumatically passed away.  It was in those moments that we felt God was preparing us for something big.  Navigating living with my parents as an adult was hard - but God (as always) had an infinitely perfect plan.  After several years of infertility, we found out in November we are expecting our first child - a beautiful baby with a very rare birth defect.  We have spent the past several weeks navigating care for our little one and planning for our baby's arrival soon - and through it all I have felt the infinite love of Jesus and His blessings in our lives.  I am so thankful that our housing deal fell through last year and that we live within 10 minutes of the majority of our close family. I am so thankful that while our baby's birth defect is rare, baby is expected to lead a very normal life. During the times of uncertainty, our family has blanketed us in support and love - the kind of which can only come from the inspiration of our loving and all-knowing Father in Heaven.

I have noticed with all of the stress, despite my true belief that God's got it, I still struggle with some obsessive themes recently. I found myself back in this community after trying to join some mainstream Christian FB groups - many of which degraded me for my long-term marriage to an unbeliever and my belief in setting aside time/ways to love myself so that I can better love others (going to therapy, getting put together each day, journal for self-esteem, etc).

I have come so far in my journey to better understand my mental health and take care of my mind - when I sought support from a community of self-professed believers, I was often met with "advice" such as, "therapy is of the enemy, you need to rely solely on God for your healing" and "medical interventions for your baby are evidence of you not trusting in the Lord for His healing." It set me into another spiral of concern over where I rank on the "good Christian" level scale and whether or not God still loved me and my family. Does He love me less because I go to therapy? Is He upset that I prayed for His plan/will to be revealed as we met with our medical team? I started spiraling and honestly just started feeling awful.

But the second I came back in to this community, I was reminded through reading the posts and discussions on here that our God is infinitely more powerful than anything. He stands above all things and He will always be with us.  Yet again, I was shown the infinite and unconditional love of Christ through this community of people who recognize that the beautiful part of believing in Jesus is that we don't have to carry any of the burden of this fallen world and the schemes of the enemy - God picks up where we cannot continue and shows His power and glory by working ALL things for His good.

Thank you so much to each and every one of you who offer encouragement, love, kindness and perspective on the posts in this forum. I am so happy to have "stumbled upon" this community almost six years ago. We all know that was a God thing and I am so, so thankful for it.

I love each and every one of you my friends in Christ ♥

Peace,
Forest

Hey, I love you too.  :HeartThrob:

I believe that because we are all individuals; healing can also be often individual also.
...What works for some won't work for another. 
The proper: 'Way' of course, is to listen mostly to God and not (only) people, through your relationship with Him - which you are doing, and I've no doubt that you will go from strength to strength in your inner person as a result.

I urge you to keep the love going... That's the biggest healer of all right there and the answer to everything.

:mock:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xofDxubfWfg&ab_channel=Curlyswuk

[darryl]

G'day Forest:
We do go through a lot of things, and see a variety of different ways people suggest we should handle them.
The opinions of some people are more boisterous than others.
Those experiences are,IMO ,vital to display the need for a saviour. Jesus is indeed the only way, not mans' effort.
His love never fails and is all inclusive of every aspect of our life.
Our family is a little illustration of the beautiful system of our loving Father. Jesus our awesome fellow heir. And we will be like Him in every regard.
You have come a long way on your journey.
Great how all things work together for good.

thank you, brother...lets keep the agape love going here on this website...God Bless You !

[marie glen]

How truly wonderful to read! So true of this site and forum! And wonderful to hear how God works things for good! :gsmile:
     And yes, forums on facebook, and elsewhere I have to think, can be rather harsh and sometimes brutal. Always shocking when christians are acting that way. :sigh: