I could never.

I think we all fall into that trap at times.

I could never “Oh I could never...”

We have all uttered these words. At some point we’ve felt discouraged in our minds about something placed before us.

“I could never do that…  I could never move there, I could never homeschool my kids, I could never leave my family…”

Have you ever found yourself caught in the land of ‘nevers’? It’s getting stuck in a rut of fear, that masks it self as self protection. When in honesty, it’s a lack of faith and uncertainty, causing you to take a firm stance on what you can and can’t do and what you would and would never do?

I think we all fall into that trap at times.

But as believers, we don’t need to carry the weight of these words, because we serve a God that is far greater than what our “nevers” could imagine. Everything we think we can’t do, He contradicts by a thousand fold by exceeding our expectations of whatever is in front of us.

These words are our first line of defense for self protection and a barrier blocking the Holy Spirit from working in us. He’s already dwelling inside of us, but we hinder the work He’s doing by not allowing Him to work in us and through us.

Why do we put such human limitations on a God that is limitless with power?

He can walk on water. Make the blind see. Heal the lame. He changes the hearts of men and women everyday. Look at Paul. Once persecuting others for following God, turned into one of the greatest evangelists of all time.

Our desire is to grow in our walk with Him and to have spiritual growth. But “God doesn’t just pour out spiritual maturity and stability in to us. He works it in us through our cooperation with His will.” David Guzik.

2 Thessalonians 3:3-5 says “But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” ‭‭ The Lord directs our paths and with confidence we can go forward in obedience and accomplish anything He sets before us. This removes our burden of fear when we go get after things. And through our obedience we grow in our faith, we mature in our walk and we walk in stability with Him.

If my answer was always ‘no’ when the Lord was gently nudging me, I would have never tried and failed. And through the failures I found hope in Him and that’s where we grow. I would have never tried and succeeded. The success of overcoming something that’s difficult, new or scary, gives a confidence in the next endeavor that’s set before us. We get to boldly take the next step in obedience with God. We get to be invited into this amazing walk alongside the Lord. Doing life with Him. But He needs our yes.

L I F E

September was wild and beautiful. No one expected what came September 10 with the death of Charlie Kirk. It rocked our world and the ripple effect hasn’t stopped and I really don’t see it slowing down. It awoke the sleepy Christian, it opened people’s eyes to the evil that prowls around the earth, created controversy over political agendas and even created mass persecution for the believer that spoke up. All I can say is, “well done good and faithful servant.” I wouldn’t change a thing and it only makes me want to proclaim the gospel louder. What an honor to be slandered, ridiculed and mocked for the truth. Just as Jesus was.

Through all of this, we were able to give away 4,000 bibles based off requests we received. The incredible thing is, we actually received more than that and had to put a pause to it for the moment while we catch up and send out all the Bible’s. So incredible to see God using all of us to spread the gospel. Dino and I are praying about how we can continue to have that be apart of our ministry in a more streamlined process. We’d love your prayers on that as well.

Stay bold and keep your eyes up. Spiritual warfare is real and very alive right now. Protect your minds from reading things that would cause you to stress or stray. Hold your thoughts captive, stay connected with your spouse, read God’s Word, have your humility and cling to the truth.

We celebrated 19 years of marriage this month, so thankful to be married to Dino. He’s an incredible father, husband and partner in life.

We finished our garden build and held our first worship night inside of it. It was incredible and so cool to see the Lord using this space for Him. We moved our chickens out into the coop and are starting on our home remodel. We want to stay on site, so we’re considering living in the basement or renting an RV and doing the trailer life again. Kinda crazy to be here when I really think about it. It’s been almost 10 years since I started this account and we moved into the trailer. We’ve moved a lot since then, if you’ve followed along for that, you know God has been in the moves with us. It’s never been our desire to move all the time and it doesn’t come from a place of just wanting something new. What it does come from though, is being completely open handed to what the Lord wants. He’s used us in each place we’ve lived in, grown us in each and they’ve all had a purpose and season. He created us all so uniquely and I think it’s amazing to watch how He uses each one of us.

Finally getting to this Tennessee home, it feels like a final chapter in some ways. We’ve felt the most peace and at home here then we’ve ever felt anywhere. This place feels like a home my grand babies will come back to. There’s something about it that I just feel He’s telling me “it’s not just for you…prepare the rooms.” So that’s what we’re doing. Just another ‘yes’ in our walk with the Lord. I think some people have a hard time with that, because we start asking so may questions when we get “vague directions”. But we don’t need to know all the details. I know I don’t, when I needed it, the Lord gave me a vision and excitement for what the kitchen was gonna look like. When I needed it and was ready He showed me what to do with the garden… I have a deep desire to stay here forever. (I’m also getting tired 😜, settling somewhere sounds lovely). But we live with hands open, on a mission to live for the Lord and not for us. He’s given to us abundantly, but tomorrow it could be gone and He has us on another path.

We don’t need to know everything, we just need to be available to say yes and then experience the most amazing life living for Christ.

Christmas dropped at The Fox Mercantile! We have our exclusive Christmas mugs dropping soon...And if you missed it, we have two Santa mug designs this year and another one specifically for our Foxi Boxi subscribers! This is our last box of the year and is so festive and fun! We have just a few spots left!

Dino and I head to Florida on Friday to hang with staff and decorate the store for the holidays! Come say hi, if you’re in town!

xx, Ash