My devotional for today was about praying with impact. Which got me thinking about how I pray. It led me to this text message devotional that I sent out a few years ago. When the future seems uncertain, fear can take hold of us and drag us into a downward spiral. Take those who are still struggling to bring some sort of normalcy from the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. I imagine the uncertainty of when things will start to normalize weighs heavily on them. We can’t help it. It is part of who we are. We all experience fear in our lives at times and at different levels.
Praying you are encouraged and blessed by God’s truths over your life.
Hurricane Helene left a wake of devastation as it roared through the Southeast. People were caught off guard by the intensity even though we knew it would be serious as it made landfall. People prepared, but it went through places no one expected. Through it we learned where our strength comes from. The LORD indeed is our strength. Give thanks to Him for all He has, is, and will do in your life. Lift Him up and shout it from the mountain tops. Have a wonderfully blessed day.
Have you ever felt that tug, you know the one, where you felt like it was time to move on but you weren’t sure where you were supposed to go to? I know I have and when the tug starts I get a restlessness and I know that God is getting ready to do something in my life. I loved being in ministry, I had been in ministry for over ten years when I felt the restlessness. I was burned out and knew it was time for a change. It wasn’t long before God opened a door. We had been through cancer with my husband and in 2016 we had lost my mom to thyroid cancer. Looking back, I think God was preparing me for what would be a roller coaster of a ride. He opened a door for me to work at the same place as my husband. I worked there for about a year when another door opened and I went to work for a lab. God was preparing me for ministry once more. In 2019 I went back to work at the church I had previously worked at and it was such a blessing. I thought I would be working out the rest of my work days at the church. Little did I know that life would be changing once again. Because of all the construction taking place on the island where I worked, it was getting difficult to make the trip 6 days a week. What used to be a 30 minute drive was turning into a nightmare of not knowing how long it would take to get to work. I was getting restless for sure but like I stated earlier, I hadn’t planned on moving again.
You know how we only see a portion of the picture, while God sees the big picture and He knows what is up ahead. No wonder He tells us not to worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough of its own worries. God knew there was a time coming in which I would need to be closer to home, closer to reaching my husband in minutes and not 45 minutes to an hour or more. He opened a door. This time I was going back to work in the same place I had worked at before which was where my husband worked. Before I knew it, God opened my eyes to see why He had brought me back to a place I never thought I would work at again. At first my husband needed to have gall bladder surgery. Then after two years of not getting COVID, our whole family came down with it. Praise God we only had minor symptoms and we were able to quarantine together at home. The time was coming when my husband would need me to be seconds away as opposed to the long drive across the causeway.
My husband has graciously allowed me to share his story. You see, in the fall of 2022 my husband had a major meltdown at work and had to be hospitalized for a season. It was without a doubt one of the hardest times for not only him but for all of us. He was out of state and the only way to communicate was via snail mail and the occasional calls. I grew to dread the calls because honestly, they weren’t pleasant. He begged me to let him come home because the place he was at wasn’t quite what we thought it would be. We thought it was a faith based place and it was but it wasn’t. Yes, it was what he needed at the time but it was hard. I had to be the tough one and say “no” every time he asked me to bring him home. I received his letters out of the order he had written them but not out of the order God intended them to arrive. Twenty-one days and let me tell you they were a long twenty-one days.
Some of the letters reflected the negatives and others were a little more upbeat and hopeful. Whew the negative letters-well it definitely wasn’t my husband. He did meet some Christians there also needing to get help and they sort of hung out together when possible. There were church services on Wednesdays & Sunday afternoons and a few people did attend. On one such occasion my husband witnessed someone accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior. He witnessed another rededicating their life to Christ. He was able to share a Bible study and had someone asking him to teach them how to read the Bible. But still it was hard being apart.
I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
Psalm 118:17
My husband’s life verse Psalm 118:17 –
Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:10b
My life verse Nehemiah 8:10b
“For where His joy is there my strength lies and my sorrows are no more. You can’t have sorrow when you have His joy for sorrow can’t exist next to His joy.“
Jean Marie
Maybe you have a similar story whether you or someone you know. I would encourage you not to give up. As a caregiver it is probably the hardest job in the world when it is someone you love. As the one who needs a caregiver, it is the hardest thing to let go and let someone else help you. Especially when you can still function on your own for the most part. There is help out there for you both whether through seeking professional assistance or through (and to me the best and most effective help) prayer warriors and your church family. Maybe you don’t have a church family or people to pray for you. I can say this if there is one person in your life who is a Christian, trust me, they are praying for you. I am a living testimony to that. I had family praying for me after I left home and I never knew it until years later after I reconnected with my faith.
It’s late and as I sit in front of my laptop typing I can’t believe how long it has been since I’ve posted anything. 😮 When I stepped away from ministry a few years ago I hadn’t planned on stepping away from blogging as well. But life happens and sometimes things don’t work out the way we plan. A lot has happened since then which I will be sharing over the next few months or so. But today I want to touch on patience.
The main road by our neighborhood is getting a facelift. A major facelift. Our little two lane road is becoming a four lane road. While it is an improvement for the flow of traffic it’s also a little sad to see. In order to accomplish the goal of widening the road, so many trees that once lined the sides of the road, had to come down. Talk about shocking. Where once there was a coziness (if that is possible for a stretch of road) suddenly there is starkness. I imagine once it is complete it won’t be so bad but in the meantime you just have to be a little more considerate with the traffic and be prepared to stop and wait. Who wants to do that when they are in a hurry to get someplace? I am blessed to live close enough to work that I am able to go home for lunch every day. When the traffic comes to a stop due to the road work, I have watched more drivers turn around and go back the way they came because they couldn’t wait just a few more minutes for traffic to flow again. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I’ve thought the same thing. I’ll just turn around and not bother trying to go home. What I have learned though is with a little patience it doesn’t take long for the traffic to flow again.
Patience. Have you ever heard people say “pray for patience”? I have but the flip side of praying for patience is “trials”. How can one expect to gain patience without going through trials?
Now I know that waiting in traffic isn’t a major crisis but it can produce some hotheads. If you find yourself sitting in traffic and you feel yourself becoming frustrated, turn it around. I mean why give the devil the pleasure of watching a play by play of people getting angry and frustrated over things like traffic? Or the person who takes the last box of your favorite food item just as you reach for it? I find myself trying to look at things differently. After all when you are stopped and can’t move forward, it gives you an opportunity to breathe deep, look around at your surroundings, and see the wonders of God’s creations. The choice is ours. When I find myself getting frustrated over little things like backed up traffic (or big things). I have to remind myself that I don’t have to give the devil something to cheer about. The next time you find yourself becoming frustrated by setbacks, ask yourself who do you want to be cheering you on? God bless.
A few years ago we came across a really good deal which allowed us to replace our living room furniture. We had an area rug that we took out and rearranged our living area. Lucy, our six year old Mountain Feist (yep, a real live breed of dog), isn’t much for change. In fact, I think after a few weeks with the new changes, it is probably safe to say she really doesn’t like change at all. She would jump up on the sofa and sit for a few minutes and then jump back down and either lay in her bed or go to the bedroom. Watching as she adjusted to change, I thought about how people tend to get set in their ways and how they don’t like to change either. But change can be a good thing. Even when it seems like it isn’t, it is but you have to look at it with the right lens. Through the eyes of Christ and not your own.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
The Bible tells us that when we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we become a new creation. So change. It happens. It can be good a thing. Like becoming a Christian.
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