Before I came to Christ, I lived a life like the woman who was caught in adultery and dragged out in front of others, so of course I have a past and I wrote a little about it here.  I also touched on being adopted as a child and my thoughts and feelings that went with that.

After I came to Christ at age 26, I married the man that God chose for me at age 28, and you can read my not so typical love story here.  A few years later we welcomed our first born son into the world and that is when my body started to break down. 

I went through 10 long years of chronic and debilitating illnesses at the onset of motherhood.  Training, raising, and homeschooling my children were extremely difficult during those years.  You can read more of my Health Story here called, Lord, Why On Earth Would You Allow This? along with Aching Inside.

My chronic-ill health journey collided with our financial hardship story as my family and I endured a lawsuit, an IRS audit, and the loss of our home, not just once, but twice!

During all of this my faith became so weak that I could not find the Lord in any of what we were going through.  I was filled with depression, despair and then denial.  You can read about my time here called My Weakening Faith, along with Before the Rooster Crows Part 1 and Part 2.

During these storms, God was always with me as He was refining me for His glorious purpose (I didn’t know it was going to hurt so bad!)  You can read that here, called The Refiner’s Fire.  Later, as we were losing our home the first time, God was by our side reminding us that He is Bigger than Our Credit Score.  We continued on in this broken journey desiring His will for our lives and not our own (that was painful as well!)  But then I freaked out like the disciples did when they were in the boat with Jesus during the storm and of course Jesus took care of everything!

When we lost our home the first time (or so we thought) we moved into a rental and we were content there.  But then several months later we had no money for rent and hardly any for food.  The Body of Christ ministered to us in several ways.  Here is the story of How to Lose Your Dream Home Not Just Once, But Twice (Part 1) and (Part 2).

God has always provided for us and there has never been a reason why I should have been so anxious, (but I was!)

I want to live for Jesus Christ no matter how hard life gets and no matter how many people criticize me for my faith.  My time here on earth is short and I want to do what I can to build His kingdom and not my own.

I write a lot on marriage and deepening your faith with the Lord.  I hope what you find here is an encouragement in your journey.  Please stick around and be my friend in this little corner of the internet!

Live a poured out life for Christ,

Jolene Engle