Thoughts from the Past Week

The past week and a half has been a bit challenging for all of us. There has been at least one person sick since before our trip. Two nights ago was the first night in over a week that the entire house slept all through the night. And since we lived with teenagers last weekend and was already sleep deprived, it has pretty much meant that Jamie and I have been the walking dead lately.

Hannah and Abbi had strep, but they are fine now. Jamie, Chloe, and I all got this cold. Chloe was up in the night, because of continual coughing, but she seems to be better now. Jamie and I are still battling this never-ending cold. Every time we get one, mine goes into my sinuses and his goes into his chest (without fail). So, our kitchen counter looks something like this. This is all the medications that the family is taking on a daily basis. Insane! Right?
Micah is the only lucky duck that has not been sick. He is sniffling a bit, but nothing that is a big deal (yet!). I guess we did pretty good though. A family of 6 that makes it to Feb. without being sick is doing pretty good, I think. Although, why it all had to hit at once is beyond me! Bring on the spring! I'm ready this year like never before! I loathe winter.

On a different note. God has really revealed some things to me this week. We were really down a couple of weeks ago about the house and began to feel ourselves falling and touching that rock at the bottom in many ways. I cried, and I cried a lot that week. I have been telling people, "I don't think I really have faith about that house selling". God kind of bonked me over the head in the midst of my sorrow and said, "Don't let your emotions dictate your faith".

This might be common sense to some people, but I needed to hear that. We can't let the warm fuzzy feelings make us feel that our walk is doing well and we can't let the hard times with a lot of raw negative emotion make is feel like we are slipping away. God is always right there with us if we have him inside. Always!

He also told me that if I didn't have faith that I would still be in Murray right now. Murray was our "comfort zone". ALL of our family is there, Jamie wasn't seeking to get out of his job (this ministry kind of came to him instead), and our home was there. We left a lot behind to come here. It would have been much easier just to shrug off this entire opportunity. So, sometimes it might feel like my faith is sinking with the sale of our house, but I have to hold onto the fact that we followed God here in the first place.

Also, as Christians, we need to understand that we don't have an answer for everything God is doing. We just don't know and many many things in life we will never know this side of heaven. It is just a fact that we live in a fallen world and life is not going to be a bowl of cherries. Sometimes people just need you to listen to them and pray for them. That's it. No need to tell them what they should be doing, thinking, or focusing on. No need to try to make it all better for them, because you can't. No need to tell them the super spiritual, "God has a plan" kind of stuff, because odds are, God is what is getting them through the hard times anyways.

So, this week, while full of sniffles and sneezes, has also been full of God's love and him hammering me over the head with things I needed. Sometimes we have to hit that rock before we can push back up (with God's help).