Whom Can I Fear?

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Sadly, our little baby didn't make it.  When the kids went to the specialist, there was no heartbeat and Sarah was induced a few days later.  Their regular OB/GYN was kind and compassionate and encouraging for future children.  The nurses were wonderful and said they hoped they were on duty for the next birth that would be in much happier circumstances.  

In the midst of this, Les' aunt passed away and an uncle had heart valve replacement surgery.  My nephew graduated from high school and I'm in the throes of 'end of year' inventory and school activities.

Social media has provided a convenient way to spread information without the dread of repeated phone calls. We've posted verses for our own encouragement as well as for other hurting people.

This has been awkward and weird.  We are not used to being on the "prayed for" end of prayers.  We have been called inspirational for our faith.  We don't want to be inspirational.  We don't want to be seen as religious.  We don't want to just be posting tried and true phrases as nothing but words.

Each new day has brought a decision or a circumstance we wish our children didn't have to deal with.  And yes, they are adult children.  (I read not long ago that a parent is only as happy as their saddest child and that has certainly been true.) Because of rules that govern hospitals, they issued a birth certificate.  Jake and Sarah chose to name their daughter Faith.

And that name pretty much sums up what has sustained our family through the last couple of weeks. Faith is all we have.  

Faith is all any of us have.  People are human and weak.  Their bodies fail.  Friendships change.  Emotions make us unreliable.  Time and distance hinder real communication. 

Thankfully, God continues to give me encouragement through His word.  I told you in the last post that I have been reading "Jesus Calling" for my morning devotional.  Each entry includes verse references that I have been looking up and writing out in a journal since January.  I've read these verses before--they are familiar words.

This has just illustrated to me how important it is to be in the Word so that when trials come and you need these verses, you can clutch these well known words close to your heart and be ministered to.

Faith is all we have.  Les and I were talking about how we believe that everything is God's will but why is it that God's will can be so painful?

It's a conundrum.  A loving God, creator of the universe, concerned with the minutia of my (and your) life that allows tragedy, trials and troubles to fall upon us.

If you can accept the plausibility of a virgin birth, if you are a believer of the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, then all you can do is accept that all those promises in the Bible are true.  If you can't believe wholly and without question in the first two statements, then the wisdom and instruction found in the Bible will be probably be meaningless. (not that we can't question God--He's big enough to handle questions, anger, doubt and fears--after all, He created us and knows what we are feeling and thinking)

We don't have to understand it.  We waste our breath trying to explain it.  The best thing we can do is exercise our faith and believe.

God is always with us. (Exodus 33:14)
His grace is sufficient. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
He always works for the good of us (Romans 8:28
We can find rest in Him (Matthew 11:28-29)
We can trust Him (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)
We can always give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

We don't have to be thankful for our circumstances and we don't have to find happiness in them.

But we can be thankful that God is there with and for us in all of them. And we can find joy in the fact that He is on His throne and He is in control of all of our days.  

“For as heaven is higher than earth, 
so My ways are higher than your ways, 
and My thoughts than your thoughts."  
Isaiah 55:9

Joy in Trials

I recently finished the Beth Moore study "James--Mercy Triumphs.".  There were many life lessons to be learned and applied in this book but the theme and the verse that continued to come up in my life--on Facebook, in other Bible studies, was that of James 1:2

Consider it pure joy my brothers 

whenever you face trials of many kinds, 

because you know that the testing of your faith 

develops perseverance.

Well.  Really.  Who wants to keep hearing that?  Was it a warning, a message, or just a theme that happened to be in all the media I was being exposed to lately?

I also recently read Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts  about finding joy wherever you are, whatever you are doing, whatever circumstances you find yourself in. She describes how we must look for and can find joy in the midst of mountains of laundry, sick children, and hurting people. Take her "Joy Dare" by clicking on this link and find out how to give yourself One Thousand Gifts before the year is up.  But remember--you are giving the gifts from you because they are simple, sought after gifts from God.

Ann Voskamp emphasizes that you must hunt for joy in the midst of chaos.  James assures that we will find joy in trials.  My daily devotional from "Jesus Calling" and Bible reading has centered around relying on God step by step, one day and one moment at a time.  

Today we've been called on to put our lessons to practice.  We've been looking forward to the birth in September of our first grandchild.  Today, Sarah and Jake went to the doctor for the ultrasound to find out if we should buy pink or blue.  Turns out we still don't know.  The ultrasound showed a lot of fluid around the baby's brain, heart and liver--the doctor has given a preliminary diagnosis of fetal hydrops.  This can result in death of the newborn shortly before or after delivery.  

Our hearts are broken for our children.  We have relatives with serious illnesses.  We have friends who struggle with health and family issues.  You probably have things in your life that Satan is using to attempt to steal your joy and hide the fact that God is always there by our side in whatever situations we find ourselves in.

Will you please join us in prayer as we strive to find joy in our circumstances?  

Thank you. 

From the Wind

The calendar says its Spring but the weather is not convincing me. We had snow and ice, rain and hail, thunder and lightning and were under a winter weather watch and a severe storm warning all on the same day!

The wind blew down some treasures. A delightfully preserved oak leaf and some dried up sycamore seed pods were on our driveway this evening. They reminded me a bit of shrunken heads.

Snow Days

We have had three days off from school now.  The snow storms have started with rain, which freezes, then gets covered with snow so it's kinda difficult to drive.  Today it's true blizzard conditions with still lots more white stuff to come--The wind is wild and all the roads are closed round these parts.

It has snowed quite a bit more since this picture was taken.  My butterfly bush behind the birdbath is completely flattened now.  The crepe myrtles are dipping into the pond.  It's not terribly cold so the snow is wet and heavy.  Les and I went and knocked some snow off a large evergreen bush which usually houses a bunch of birds in bad weather.  The top was all sprawled out and there were no birds inside.  I love this bush because it blocks our 'town' view somewhat and makes our backyard feel more secluded.

There's a roast on and lots of firewood.  All the electronics are charged and so far the tv has stayed on mostly.  Les had to go clean it off twice and he sprayed it with Pam the second time and that seemed to do the trick.

Our baby Molly (married and 20 years old) is stuck with her husband at their house with no electricity.  They can't get the wall heater lit but they do have hot water.  It's an old house so the amount of insulation is dubious.  I feel bad that I didn't encourage them to come here last night and stay.  But then they would not get to experience the fun and excitement of pioneer living!  They can talk about the Blizzard of 2013 someday to their grandchildren!

If you need a simple little craft to distract your mind for a bit from blowing snow, here's a little activity for you:

Tattoo a banana!  Of course you will need some bananas....our stores are closed and they are cleaned out anyway when people were preparing for the Snowpocolypse.  

But anyways, just take any kind of blunt but pointy object--and trace your letters or picture or whatever you like on the banana skin!  Within a few minutes it will start to darken and your secret message will appear!  It just darkens the skin, not the fruit, so the banana is still yummy and edible.

Go on--try it!  You know you want to! 

Television? Why?

Not the news.  Definitely not the News.  I can get all the depressing information I need from the headlines of Yahoo, and MSN.

Lifetime?  No.  I once watched a movie on there.  Or perhaps three.  But anyway, I determined from that vast amount of research that all Lifetime Movies are about pregnant teens, abused wives, murderous mistresses, cheating husbands, and tragic lives. Oh and kidnapped children and people with diseases of which they will soon die.

Sports.  You've got to be kidding me.  We have a plethora of ESPN type channels, a barage of hockey channels, an inundation of football channels.  Plus all the sports on the regular channels.  I like Olympic sports--some things.  Like Ribbon dancing.  Which is probably not a sport.  I like Olympic Gymnastics.  I like Thunder Basketball.  But I hardly ever schedule anything around a sport unless it is to avoid it.  Except for Thunder Basketball playoffs and I'm not sure what happened there but I got a little manic and crazy about it.

I used to like Glee.  Then they got all about sex on every single show.  I still like the music part with the musical theater staging of the songs.  Just not the story lines. I work with teens.  I'm not living in a hole.  I know that teens are sexually involved with each other and such.  And it's wrong.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  They have enough problems just growing up and adjusting to the real issues of life without adding sex to the mix. And sex has become way to casual--They (many of the real live teens I know) don't have any qualms about hooking up with someone right away.  It's kind of like sharing a coke or something.  Or so it appears to me.  But how will this casual use of each others bodies eventually affect them?

So, not tv shows with teen characters.

The Travel channel--seriously, who can afford those vacations?

Cooking shows--nope, nope, nope. They make me cook. and shop for food. And especially food with cream and butter and sugar and chocolate. And sometimes Nutella.

HGTV--I'm dissatisfied with my house, my yard and my fireplace surround. And don't get me started on those yucky tiles in our bathroom.

So I can't watch tv shows with food or home decorating.

I guess I'll just stick with books. There's this one series by Sarah Graves called Home Repair Homicide. And I like those culinary mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson. There's recipes in the back! And last month I read a terrific football novel called Pop by Gordan Korman. I used to really love Harlequin Romances (back when they were romances, not how to novels) and my favorites were set in Foreign countries.

Oh, the irony, the irony.