After a long weekend at the Motion Student Conference, Madison, Makayla, Mackenzie and I met Mandie in Atlanta for her to pick up Mackenzie. On our way there, about 40 minutes away from home, I passed a sign on I-85 that said , "Meriwether County". I have passed it many, MANY times in the last 20+ years. Each and every time I see it, my heart aches, but I push that feeling away. This time, however, I felt a tear roll down my cheek. I looked to my right to see if Madison noticed but she had her headphones on and was scrolling on her phone. I looked in the rear-view mirror to see if Makayla or Mackenzie noticed and they were doing the same. (Teenagers! 😮💨😂) In that moment, my heart ached even more and immediately following, I heard the Lord say, "Something beautiful always comes out of the pain if you just trust me." You see, when I was 16, I was living in Northeast Georgia. I was homeschooled and worked full time, where I met Scott. Scott (18) was my first boyf...
While my kids began their day utilizing their Atlanta CityPass, I went to Dollar Tree to pass the time until my best friend of 27 years arrived. The item I needed wasn't available at that specific location, so I decided to go a few miles away to another location. I recognized some landmarks on my way there and many memories rushed in. When the bad memories flooded my good ones, it began to physically hurt my heart. Around the time I experienced these unexpected emotions, I drove up on a roundabout that didn't use to be there. The chiropractor I used to see was now a different business altogether and all the places I recognized didn't seem so recognizable anymore. The new bridges, on and off ramps, and new exit numbers were foreign to me. In that moment, God showed me that my life has changed even more than the roads in Atlanta. He showed me that when I repented of my sins, my life did a roundabout and I shouldn't recognize anything from my past because everything has be...