God IS Working

(Image found HERE)

It's fitting that I recently wrote about trusting God's providence, because right after I shared those very words, our family was stretched. Our finances were stretched like never before, our faith was stretched, and even our hope was stretched a small bit. I do realize that even our greatest problems are still first world problems. When all we can see is loss, another still looks at us and sees luxury.

So even when I can't see straight for all the stretching, I can still see the blessings that abound .

And I really do believe that this stretching is for a reason. We have simply yet to see it. But that doesn't change the fact that the growing pains still hurt.

When we left the children's home last year and moved into our little cottage on Fieldcrest Lane, I thought that surely we deserved it. Deserved a nice home, more free time, more of 'us' (our family), and less of serving others. After all, we had been houseparents for nearly seven years time and we were tired! We deserved a break, right? And while I thought that our motives for leaving were good, and they mostly were, a small part of me got caught up in desiring a piece of the American Dream. And while I thought that we were being wise with our choices and our finances, and we mostly were, therein lies the problem. They were our choices and our finances. We did not include God in our decisions. At least not in the way that we should have. It was all about us, what we wanted, our dreams, and our finances. Because we deserved it. And so, we have been stretched. Stretched this year in the way that one is stretched when they try to do life on their own.

But God is faithful, and he is working, always working to draw us back to him. To set our feet on his path for our lives once more. And I told Boss last week, that even though many aspects of this past year have felt like a giant FAIL, if the only two things I do well this year are birth a beautiful new son and know God more, then the year is still a SUCCESS.

So our family is working. Working our way back to where we belong. Working on our priorities, making sure that all of our choices align with God first, family second, ALL else third. Working on our finances, asking God to show us how we can live on less in order to give away more. Working on desiring God's ways more than we desire the world's ways. Working on teaching our children the concept of less of me, more of Thee. And these lessons are hard, because they are completely opposite of all that we know.

But God is working.

We know things must once again change for our family. Life is a consistent pattern of growth. And while it is scary to lay your life before God, to ask Him to do his will, we know it is the only way. And so we lay, and we pray, and we ask God to intervene. To set our feet on the right path. And we trust, even though we can't see today how our story will end, because we know that God is working on behalf of our family. And for today, that is enough.