My past is my past

Today we have a guest writer! Andrea is out sick with the flu, please keep her in your prayers!

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I am so blessed to be sharing with everyone here today!  My name is Kelly and I blog @ The Houtz House Party where I talk about my life as a wife, my life with 4 littles under age 4, some randomness and quite a bit about my faith in Jesus.  God has put on my heart a longing to encourage women right where they are in life and to be a safe place to find love and acceptance.  I long for each woman to find that strength through Him to achieve their dreams in this life.

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I am so blessed to have met some wonderful women at church.  I so enjoy the REALNESS of these girls during our weekly bible study and they have no idea how much they've impacted my life.  I truly value each of them.

Recently, we were discussing who in our lives was our Hosea.  You see Hosea never gave up on his wife even though she left him, publicly embarrassed herself and him over and over.  He NEVER gave up.  He NEVER ever stopped loving.

Who saved me?  Who has always been there unwavering even when I didn't deserve it?

A couple of the girls spoke up about their husbands.  I just kept nodding in agreement and couldn't help but hold back my tears…and I am not really the crying at bible study type.  Crying in public makes me a little uncomfortable for some reason.  Anyway, I digress…

I feel 100% that my husband is my Hosea.  I've joked to people at times since J and I got married that I don’t know what God was doing when J and I got together.  Perhaps he was sleeping?  I don’t deserve J in the least.  Not one bit.  Somehow God saw fit to give him to me as my husband and I am so grateful.  Our first year was rough.  You can read about that here.

Honestly my past was a “past”…

I went through that party girl phase.

I was self-absorbed.

I only cared about what I was doing, accomplishing, etc.

I wasn't very nice.

J was pretty much perfect.  I was a mess.  I liked to think I was good at hiding it.

I regret that person for the way I treated people I love.  I don’t regret that time though, because I firmly believe that made me who I am and am blessed to share my story in even some small way. 

God redeems.  God loves UNCONDITIONALLY, although I think that much love is almost impossible to fathom. 

I pray to share with my kids one day in a way that teaches so they don’t have to have the rough road to hoe.  Although, to be perfectly honest I've always tended to do things the hard way so I pray.  I pray again & I pray some more that they don’t have that gene. 

I pray their Hosea to find them one day.

You can find me on my blog, shop, facebook, twitter & Instagram.