Hello all, Amanda here. I am excited to share with you all what has been going on so we are going to dive right in!

 I shared a post not too long ago about the throne of my husband's heart. How I audibly heard God tell me to be prepared for Him to take that seat, and the changes that would take place in my husband and in our lives as a family. Well, for a while nothing new happened. Things have been going along pretty normally and I had really stopped thinking about that moment so much. It seemed to spring up hope in me, and I was afraid that hope would lead to disappointment. So I put it on the back burner of my mind and got on with life.

 Then last Sunday something else happened. After church service an older lady I greatly respect came up to me and said, "I just want you to know God has put it on my heart to pray for your husband. So I want you to know I will be praying for him.". I almost started sobbing on the spot! Haha! I had not talked about my husband in a long time, and this woman and I are not super close. So it was very surprising for her to bring him up out of the blue like that.

Again, hope started to grow... God is something about to happen?!

Fast forward to this past Friday. I was grocery shopping with our kids and discovered one of my kids had stolen something! It was a very small, cheap thing, but stealing is stealing! I promptly took them back to the store and made them apologize and return it. When my husband came home that evening I told him the whole story, one of his responses was, "Did you tell them not stealing is one of the ten commandments?". WHAT?!?! You could have knocked me over with a feather in that moment! Haha! My "atheist" husband bringing up the commandments in a respectful way??? I sat there like a deer in headlights for a moment before I could respond!

Something must be happening...God, what are you telling me?

The cherry on top of this whole thing came this Sunday morning. One of the verses my pastor preached on was Romans 12:12 "Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer" (CSB). Once again, I felt God shouting in my head, this time saying to REJOICE IN HOPE!

 My dearest SUMites, we cannot have faith without hope. It is vital to our survival, to our thriving and our growing. We MUST hope! We must have our eyes so very focused on the hope Jesus offers that even if the world around us is burning down we still have hope in HIM! Wild, reckless, consuming hope! Hold on to that hope during afflictions, it will help you to be patient. Believe in His hope during prayer, it will make you more persistent! Hope is key!

There may be times when we fail. When we lose hope and just cannot seem to find it again. If this is where you are it is okay, we have all been there. It will not last forever. I have found when this happens one of the best things we can do is reach out! Share with a trusted, Godly friend how you are feeling and ask for their prayers. Another thing we can do, the best thing, is GET IN THE WORD! The truth is, if we have time to be on our phones, we have time to read a few verses and pray for a minute or two. Just that happen alone can change the atmosphere of an entire household. Trust me on that one :)

I pray this post inspires hope in you my friends. I would love to hear how you keep your hope alive. What promises are you standing on? Let me know in the comments!