Great is Your Faithfulness!

Over these past few days, weeks & months, I've been privy to a lot of people's pain, worry about the future, and confusion about God's plan for them. I've even been one of those people...but God's Word can always offer encouraging words for right where we are at! A friend shared these verses taken from The Message and each morning they have encouraged me!

Lamentations 3:21-23

I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there's one other thing I remember,
and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

God's loyal love couldn't have run out,
His merciful love couldn't have dried up.
They're created new every morning.
How great Your faithfulness!
I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over).
He's all I've got left.

On the Map

Yesterday was started out as a typical homeschooling day, you know - where all my children sit quietly at the kitchen table, heads bent studiously over their work, keeping their hands to themselves, quiet as a mouse. NOT!!! We had just finished our History read aloud and then chaos ensued....kids went off in different directions to set to work, while they tease and play with one another. I was sitting on the couch with Ben working with him on a Language assignment, while Jake was supposedly doing Math in the kitchen. All of a sudden, Isaiah said, "There's a state police car in our driveway." (I must say these are not words that make me comforted, instead fear sets in as I imagine being told I'm not teaching my kids enough, getting arrested and hauled off to jail, while they take my kids away.) We all stood up and peered out the window at the policeman sitting in his car, not moving. Then I thought, "Act natural - keep doing what you were doing." (as if he hadn't seen us all peering out the window) So we tried to act natural, until I saw him get out of his car. So I went on the porch to go meet my trouble, rather than wait for it to come to me....

As I stepped outside and approached him, the police officer asked, "Is there any trouble here m'am?"

"No," I replied. "Why?"

"We received a 911 hangup call from this residence," he said as his eyes scanned over the house to see any unusual activity. Immediately I explained that one of my children must've been playing with the phone. He followed me into the house as I questioned the kids and of course, no one did it! He said they had tried to do a call back but no one answered. We had gotten a couple of repeated calls from Lansing City.... and I had looked at the caller id and thought, "Someone trying to sell me a State Journal or Fireman's Union trying to get a donation' and hadn't picked up.

The officer was very nice and noted how many children I had there and I explained we homeschool. As soon as he walked out the door, I immediately went into the kitchen and narrowed in on Jake, who, as he sits at the computer doing his math, loves to play with the phone and the answering machine (that's why we always have such unique messages). He had been doing it that morning, but he emphatically denied that he had dialed 911. He said, "I was just dialing random numbers over and over and at one point heard a wierd voice and hung up." "But no one else was playing with the phone Jake. It must've been you!" "I didn't do it!" (Can't you just hear this 12 year old's denial???

Then we heard Isaiah's voice again, "There's another police car pulling in the driveway." So outside I went again and this police officer asked me who maintains our road. I explained that we do it ourselves and he said that would explain why it wasn't on any map or in any system they had. He said, "It's really a good thing that this happened and it wasn't a true emergency because we had to drive around Ingham Township to find Crocus Trail. Now we know where you are and can input information in our system."

Blessing in disguise - right? A day later, once all my fear has subsided, I can say without any hesitation, "Thank you Jake for goofing around, dialing 911, and getting us on the map."

God's Whisper....

I just love God's whisper....I hear it in my quiet times in the morning, I hear it when I'm at BSF (Bible Study Fellowship), I hear it when I look at my children during our school time, I hear it when a friend is unburdening her heart and needing encouragement and God gives me the words to speak, I hear it when burdened thoughts swirl in my head about the church, the body of Christ. There is so much in our lives, in my life, that wants to drown out God's whisper. Sometimes those things are not bad things, just busyiness. Yet God is ever faithful, because even in these past few weeks when I've felt TOTALLY overwhelmed with all the hats I wear and the responsibilities I have (like teaching my children, being there for my husband and meeting his needs, co-leading a worship team and preparing things in advance so my procrastination doesn't affect those working with me, planning the future of children ministry and trying to share the vision I feel God's given me for the body, running Jake to drama practices and taking pictures, along with laundry, meals, cleaning), I have still been able to hear God's whispers.

He has been teaching me that I too often loose my focus - I take my eyes off of Him and who He has proven Himself to be from the beginning of this world, and I focus on the obstacles and difficulties in my life. Just like the Israelites did when they spied out the Promised Land - they chose to focus on the obstacles and not on God. They chose not to believe. So many times in my life I've chosen to not believe, but these past few weeks I've made a different choice. Belief! God is still the same God who cares about the details of our lives, just like He did for Israelites. God is able to do immeasureably more than I can ever imagine! Sometimes the route God has us take to get somewhere is a round-about way, just like the Israelites in Numbers 20, but His way is perfect. And God always equips us with just what we NEED (not necessarily want) to get thru a situation.

I choose this day to believe that the church will become more and more a reflection of Him, I choose to believe that my friend's finances, future, and faith are firmly in the center of His hands, I choose to believe that tho' I grow weary from running, God will sustain me and equip me with every minute I need to accomplish things, I choose to believe that my children's education is exactly what they need for their future and that the moments we sit together on the couch and talk about where we aren't "fully" obedient, like Moses, is exactly what God wants for them, I choose to believe that God has called me to serve my church in worship and children's ministry because He is trying to teach me something and maybe along the way teach those I'm with, and I choose to believe that God will change my heart, my priorities as I surrender myself to Him and He teaches me how to love my husband better.

This saying has stuck in my head and I love the visual image it gives me of challenges and rocks we carry.....
The obstacles and rocks I see in my life and in the church will be broken, they won't be carried forever, and each time one falls - you'll see me stepping my way closer to Him!