With Easter and the Lent season (barely) behind us, my heart feels renewed and ready for Spring’s beauty. Spring brings restoration to winter’s barren trees and flowers, along with renewal to my heart as I look forward to things to come under the warm Summer sun. When I think about restoration, I also can’t help but think about my friend Elizabeth’s story. In each and every area of her life, God has restored and remodeled from the inside out. Let me explain.
Elizabeth’s story starts young, as a seventeen year old, junior in high school. She fell hard for a boy she had known for many years and their dating relationship got very serious very quickly when she found herself pregnant. Jacob, her boyfriend, was supportive and determined to grow up very quickly along with her, as they committed to stay together and raise their child. They had the baby, moved from regular high school to alternative school and earned their high school diplomas—all while living back and forth between their parents’ homes.
Armed with diplomas, passion, and high hopes, they married at the age of eighteen and got their first apartment. However, they soon learned that a marriage takes a lot of hard work and maturity. Their road became rocky. Over the next decade, Jacob and Elizabeth stayed together, but barely hanging on by a thread. Their relationship faced some of the biggest obstacles any couple could imagine including infidelity and an abortion.
Elizabeth explains that because she didn’t know Christ personally, she knew no other way than to stuff all the terrible experiences further down, until she could stuff no more. In a dramatic turn of events, when their marriage was literally ending, God separately drew Elizabeth and Jacob to His Son, moving them to each pledge to follow Him and stay in their marriage.
“If we are willing, He takes our ugliest places and shines His beautiful and redemptive grace on them, making all things new. ”
It was anything but easy, however God has restored each and every part of their lives: their faith, their marriage, their parenting and even their finances. As God was remodeling their whole way of living, He called Jacob and Elizabeth to start their own company, a home restoration and remodeling company. If that doesn’t have the beautiful, redemptive work of Jesus all over it, I don’t know what does!
Friends, this is classic God! If we are willing, He takes our ugliest places and shines His beautiful and redemptive grace on them, making all things new. He restores and remodels each place, until, like the spring flowers pushing through the dirt, beauty emerges.
To hear the entire interview with Elizabeth—posting on April 5th—go to the Uniquely Beautiful Stories Podcast and subscribe. To check out their family restoration business, visit the Restored design + remodeling page on Facebook.
Meet the Author!
Heather McAnear is a wife, mom, author and speaker with a passion for sharing God's truth to help women understand their uniquely beautiful design and how to use it for God's glory! She loves teaching young married couples with her husband, homeschooling their three children, traveling the world, enjoying good chocolate and long conversations in coffee shops. CRBC has been her church home for two decades and she is thrilled to be part of the Women's Ministry team, helping women connect with each other and grow in their walk with Jesus!