"Terrible Too's"

I love writing, so the fact that I haven't written anything on here lately surprises even me. I certainly haven't been lacking for things to say. The only thing I can figure is that the kids and I have been so busy that I've just shut down in some areas. When we're at home with nothing to do, like that happens very often, I just seem to sit in front of the t.v. to catch up on shows I've missed. If not that, I'm on the addicting website that everyone knows all to well, facebook. So anyhow, by the end of the day when the kids are finally tucked into bed I'm usually heading that way myself. Throughout the day I'm thinking of things to write, but by the end of the day when I have free time, my mind seems to shut down. Tonight however, I've started enforcing the dreaded school year bedtime. I now have a little time to myself in the evenings so maybe I'll start blogging a little more.

We had a guest speaker at church this morning and I'm really glad that my daughter made such a fuss about making sure we didn't miss church. The only reason we would have missed was because Tristan wasn't feeling well and I didn't really want to leave him here alone. I told that to Shay and she got tears in her eyes and started crying. She cries a lot in these emotion pre teen years so that was no surprise. Because of the reason for her tears though, I just couldn't make her stay home. Who wouldn't be over the top about having a child who would actually cry about missing church. Tristan was still sleeping and I knew he would most of the early afternoon after not sleeping all night so I knew he'd be fine. He could always call if he started feeling worse or if it was more of an emergency, we have many neighbors we can turn to.

Pastor Bruce Ho was our guest speaker today. His message was rather simple, "Trust God"! Sounds simple enough, that is until some crazy outlandish circumstance jumps in front of you and stares you down. Something that well known facts could totally prove wrong. He used the story of Elijah and the widow found in 1 Kings 8-16. God told Elijah to go to Zarephath where he had commanded a widow to give him food. This widow had a small child and not much else. She had only enough flour and oil to make on more meal of bread for herself and her child. She was ready to give up and die knowing that they would be out of food as soon as they ate this last meal. However, Elijah did as God told him and went to her and asked her to make him a cake of bread. Regardless of the facts, she had only enough to make one last meal for her and her son, she followed God and did as Elijah asked. In the end, God provided this widow with enough flour and oil to continue feeding herself, her child, and Elijah. Her bowl of flour was never emptied and her jar of oil never ran dry. For the full story you'll have to open your bible and read the reference above. The point of this story is that by simply trusting God everything will work out in our favor. Even if the facts point to other things, God can make it happen. He can lift us up above any fact to bless our life and to provide for us. All we have to do is look past the facts and trust in God!

He also talked about how we can rise above any circumstance in our life by trusting in God. His wife sang the song, don't know the exact name but it says, "God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you". I love that song by the way. After she sang, they told the story of how they met. I won't go into detail, but after breaking off an engagement, and 10 years of waiting to find that perfect guy that God had promised her, she finally met Bruce. She broke off the engagement because God was leading her down a different path and she heard Him tell her that he had a husband for her. She trusted what God had told her and waited 10 long years for her promise from God to become her reality. She never lost faith and even when she questioned why she hadn't met him yet, she continued to trust in what God had told her. Just three weeks ago, God followed through with his promise and they were married. She went through hard times and had many broken roads, but by trusting in God, everything worked out in their favor.

I love how Bruce said that we all go through the "terrible too's" when God is trying to tell us what he wants us to do. I know I'm a big culprit of that. We're always too tired, or too busy, or too broke, or too rich, or too this or too that. In reality, if God says to do something we aren't too anything. Nothing is too big for God. If He says it, He will do it. His word never changes, not the words in His Bible nor the words he whispers in our ears. When we do what he says, regardless of facts or circumstances, the results will be so much more than we could have ever imagined.

The message as a whole brought me back to this deployment we're going through. It reminded me that no matter how long some of our days may seem, there's a bigger purpose behind the entire circumstance. God has a purpose for taking my husband to another country for a while. He has a purpose for separating our family. If we just embrace the fact that God knows best, that He will get us through this storm in our lives, we will come out in the end as stronger individuals and as a stronger family. We just have to trust God with everything that we have and with everything that we are.

After church the girls and I made a quick stop at Wal-Mart, mainly for coffee filters because I'm almost out and can't live without my coffee, and came home to check on Tristan. He was feeling a little better and was ready to try to eat something. Since I completely forgot to get bread for toast, he decided on ramen noodles. Throughout the day he felt better and better. Tonight his throat is sore, but he'll be back to normal in no time. My kids hardly ever get sick so they don't know what to do with themselves when they are. Many times I really don't think it's quite as bad as they let on either, but I just go along with it.

This evening, Syd and I decided to go for a walk. It was more like a skate/run, but that's even better. I'll tell you what, keeping up with her on the skateboard wore me out. Going downhill was the worst. She would just stand on the board and let the wheels do the work. I, on the other hand, had to run twice as fast to keep up with her. I need to take her with me all the time. She mentioned tonight that she wants to go every night that we're not busy. Sounds like a good idea to me. Not only do we get exercise, but we get to spend time together too.

My husband called in the middle of my writing so it's getting pretty late now. I think I'll sign out and get myself to bed. Good night!