Trusting My God

The news these days is filled with doom and gloom.  If it's not warnings about terrorist threats, or another mass shooting, it's the fiscal cliff, and how our economy is on the brink of collapse.  Then, for each of these things, there are the conspiracy theories telling how the government is orchestrating all of these things to get us to become their mindless robots.  Or some such thing...

I would just like to say this - My God has promised to do what is best for me.  No man can take my life, except my God allow it.  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and has promised to meet all of my needs.  My treasure is in Heaven, unable to be touched by the fiscal cliff.

I think that the four years I spent longing and praying for a child, coming to the point of understanding and agreeing that whatever God had in store for me was best, helped to prepare me for this time of seeming uncertainty.  I am absolutely convinced that my God will do what is best.  It is exciting to me to wait and see what that best is!

What are some ways you've seen God working to prepare you for hardships?

Blessings

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, we are told "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, concerning you".  Sometimes it is hard to give thanks for the situations we find ourselves in.  Sometimes it seems quite impossible.  However, we have the promise that "All things work together for good to them that love God", and we know that our Heavenly Father can see all things, yet still commanded us to give thanks in all things.  Not just in the pleasant things, but in all things.  It is hard, yet the simple act of giving thanks when we find ourselves in an unpleasant situation helps us to gain a new perspective, and, quite frankly, often changes our attitude about it, so that it's a lot more bearable. 

For instance, just recently I have been dealing with a very painful ingrown toenail.  Each time I started complaining about how much it hurt, I was reminded of this verse, and thanked God for my toe.  It's funny how you can't be thankful for something and grumping about it at the same time!  A wise man has said many times, "The definition of ingratitude is complaining that your leg hurts, but forgetting to thank God for your leg!" 

Let's not forget to thank God for our legs - no matter how much they hurt!  Let's remember the many blessings we've been given every day, and search for more blessings, even in the midst of uncomfortable situations. 

Have you ever had a time that you all of a sudden realised your attitude was rotten?  Where you just found yourself thinking that you wouldn't want to be around yourself, if you were someone else?  I had one of those moments today.  It struck my heart hard.  All of a sudden, I just knew that I needed to ask God's forgiveness for my bad attitude, and ask His help in dealing with it, as I also knew that I couldn't change it on my own. 

How glad I am that my God is faithful, and answered that prayer, reminding me of the steps I needed to take to get out of myself, and fix my bad attitude.  What a blessing to be able to see God working in my life, that it didn't take someone else to show me my sinfulness this time, only the Holy Spirit working in me. 

Decisions

I've been debating what to do here.  I don't want my blog to be full of how wonderful it is to be a mother - I started this to minister to those who were unable or unlikely to have children.  However, I cannot deny this aspect of my life.  So, I have been rather undecided on how to proceed. 

Then, I remembered Hannah.  She too struggled with her inability to concieve, but the end of her story is joy.  It dawned on me that I shouldn't deny the blessings God has given me in my children, I should rejoice in them.  However, I can do that in such a way that it is not overbearing for those who are hurting at the lack of blessing.  I do want to weep with you in your sorrow, but also rejoice with you when the time comes for rejoicing.  I ask that you do the same with me. 

So, I will continue onward, trying to minister to those in need, sharing my trials and blessings along the way.  Please stick with me as we go along, and share your trials and blessings so that I may share in them with you.

A Long Overdue Update

Yikes!  I just realised that it's been almost a year since my last post on this blog!  I certainly didn't mean to ignore it, and will try to do better in the future. 

The last year has held some pretty big ups and downs for us. 
In May, my Grandma lost her 2 year long battle with liver cancer - but not before I had the chance to talk with her about the Lord.  She claimed Salvation, which thrilled my heart! 
Shortly after that, a friend discovered she was pregnant - with twins!  Then she had the devastating loss of those babies. 
Another friend also became pregnant, lost her twins, and discovered she needed a hysterectomy. 
In July, our church called my beloved as their assistant pastor.  We are so glad to have to opportunity to serve Christ here!
In August, my Dad came out for a visit, had a stroke, and spent the next 8 months here with us.  He's now recovered well enough that he's just moved into an apartment on his own. 
The weekend of Dad's stroke, my oldest brother asked his sweeet girlfriend to marry him.  I'm so excited to add her to my family!
In December, after a rocky pregnancy that started with major uncertainties, and ended with c-section, my little sister had an adorable, tiny little boy.  It's so neat to see her growing up and maturing into a wonderful wife and mother. 
And, just after Thanksgiving, we discovered another big thing to be thankful for.  We have another tiny life that will be joining our family on July 17th.  We found out on March 6th that our little one is a girl!  We are looking forward to meeting her, and getting to know her as she grows and develops into a young lady. 

We are glad to have come through these trials, and to have been prayer support for those trials that didn't directly affect us.  We're grateful for the many blessings, and rejoice with those who have been blessed so abundantly.  Now we look forward to seeing what the future holds for us.  It's exciting to see where our Lord takes us!

Sometimes It's No.

Sometimes when we pray, we get the answer we're wanting - "yes". Sometimes it's "wait". Not fun, but doable. But sometimes the answer is "no". Am I willing to submit my will to God's, and accept the "no"s? Am I going to do things my way to get what I want anyway? Should I then be upset when He steps in and reminds me His answer was "no"? Let's think about this for a minute. Imagine a young child asking for a cookie. Their mother says no. We see the child go into the kitchen, rearrange chairs to enable them to climb up onto the counter, get a cookie from the cookie jar, and just start to take a bite when their mother comes in and takes the cookie from them with the words, "I said 'no'!" Would we berate that mother for being unfair? Would we comfort the child in the fact that they didn't deserve to have that cookie taken from them, tell them how much they deserved that cookie, and how sure we are that their mother will give them another cookie? Why then, do we do the same things with our loving Heavenly Father? And why do we then call it trusting God? Am I really trusting God today? Or am I expecting Him to be my genie in a bottle, ready to fulfill my every wish?

Another year

March 19th came and went without me realising it this year. March 19, 2007 was my very first due date. Each year it has come and gone with a little bit less of a reminder, and this year, I was vaugely aware that there was something about that day. It wasn't until the next day that I realised what it was. For you ladies who have been through a loss, there is hope. It is true that time eases the pain and the burden. I will never forget that there is a little one waiting for me in Heaven, but the burden of that knowledge grows a little lighter every year.

For those of you who have not yet even gotten to the point of pregnancy, and are grieving and struggling over that, there is hope for you too. I have heard of many couples now who went years without getting pregnant, then, when all hope was gone, found themselves with a baby on the way. I was one of those. Although I'd gotten pregnant my 3rd month of marriage, I lost that baby right away, and it was almost exactly 4 more years before I got pregnant again. One lady told me that she'd been married for 14 years before she got pregnant. One friend of my mom's had one son, then waited 15 years before she was able to have another. A friend of my husband had been married for almost 5 years before their first child was born.

Back in 2007, I was so upset that I was still not pregnant. I had those who would ask me every time they saw me if I was yet. I had those who thought they were being funny asking when my turn was when hearing another woman announce her pregnancy. I couldn't understand why it wasn't right at that point! Now I can see that God's timing is perfect, and if we just rest in Him, He will make all things good in their time. I'm not saying that He will give you children. It may be that He has other plans for you, I cannot know. All I know is that if you give this area of your life to Him, truly trusting Him to do what is best - not easiest, not most fun, but BEST - you will find the sweet peace that comes from resting on His everlasting arms.