Arise

We watched Robin Hood last night, not the Disney one, but the newest one with Russell Crowe. It was good, very powerful, and one part was extremely poignant to me.

My husband and I are facing an incredible trial right now. We’re living in another state while we try to sell our first house in North Carolina. It’s hard because we’ve only had about four showings in four months. Rough. 

We just signed a contract to also put the house For Rent. Talk about a HUGE decision, one that Oswald and I didn’t take too lightly. 

“Are you sure this is what you want to do? What if the renters mess up the house we worked so hard to make look nice?” I asked each time we talked about renting it.

The house was in Foreclosure when we purchased it four years ago. We painted every single wall in the house, re-purposed the kitchen cabinets, put in new countertops, and new carpet. We spent hours fixing that house, so it has been very difficult for us to see no one even interested in going in the front door.

This is not the first financial trial Oswald and I have faced. When we first moved to NC, he was working in Real Estate and making peanuts. 

After he finished his bachelor’s degree at UNCG, he was without a job. I don’t know how we survived those months between graduation and his first job. 

I will never forget one experience we had. We were two months behind on our mortgage payment, and had no money left to our name. 

I had been praying and praying that the Lord would see fit to bless us. I had read in the Ensign one month that a sister paid her tithing, but didn’t have enough money to buy the food she needed for her family. She came home from work one evening, and there was a bag of groceries on her doorstep. Inside, was everything that was on her grocery list she was unable to buy herself. Miracle.

That day Oswald had spent the entire day working with his dad. I didn’t know when he would come home and what we would do if we didn’t get any money immediately!

I was coiling the cord around the vacuum when Oswald walked in.

He didn’t say anything to me, but put a check in my hand.

I looked down at it. It was for $900. Enough to pay our mortgage. Miracle.

I looked at him and with tears in my eyes said, “Are you serious? This is for us? How did you get this?” I proceeded to melt into a huge puddle of tears. I couldn’t stop crying. I got down on my knees immediately and said a prayer of thanksgiving.

So here we are now one year later, facing yet another financial trial. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with Robin Hood. Well, I’ll tell ya.

On a sword Robin is given is the quote, “Arise and arise again, until lambs become lions.” 

That’s what I’m trying to do right now. I’m trying to arise and arise again…until I become a lion. There is something Oswald and I need to learn in this trial. The Lord is testing us again to make sure we will arise. He’s making lions out of lambs, and I will never stop rising because in this world we need all the lions we can find.

***updated to add: our house has been rented. We're no longer behind on our mortgage and life has a way of fixing things. The Lord always blesses us when we need it. In his own way. In his own time.***

How have you been made a lion? What have you had to endure more than once in order to become the lion you are today?