Thwart...now there's a word you don't hear every day!

My husband has gone on another missions trip.  Sometimes I feel left out.  I mean since we have been married he has gone on a lot of trips without me.  I will say however when we were first married I know God told me that my first ministry was to my husband and my children.  Our son is old enough to have gone on a few trips with his dad and our daughter is about to turn 14!  To me this means-get out the checkbook because NOW all of us can go on a missions trip together!  

This trip he is in Kenya!  I am so excited for him.  It's the first time he has ever been to Africa!  I can't wait to hear the stories he has to tell.  I always try to do something to encourage him before he leaves.  This time I felt impressed to give him a card for each day he is gone on his journey.  It's really just a postcard I made with publisher and card stock.  Each day I have either written him a note, or another family member has attached a note.  I give him a challenge and a verse or two to encourage him.

The first day my challenge was to just ENJOY the ride!  It's a LONG journey from Atlanta to Africa!  You need to sit back and just enjoy the ride. Kind of like life right? That will preach but I won't go there since it's almost 3:00 in the morning and I want to finish this so I can TRY to get some sleep.

The verse I gave him was Job 42:2. It says "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted!" 

Great WORD thwarted...I don't think it's used enough these days. It means to frustrate or baffle. Kind of where Randy and I are right now. We are frustrated...by unanswered prayers. Baffled because we can't understand WHY God isn't moving. We are consumed with worry...and doubt! 

But LOOK again at the verse. It says I KNOW YOU CAN DO ALL THINGS! NO PLAN of yours CAN be thwarted!  (Don't you just LOVE that word?????  I do!)

In that verse is all we need to remember.  All we need to hold onto when life starts hitting us upside the head. It says, I KNOW you CAN do ALL Things!  Not some things. Not maybe you can pull it off. NO HE CAN DO ALL THINGS!  But the verse doesn't end there, it takes it one step further!  It says NO PLAN of yours can be THWARTED!  

God isn't up there looking at his plan on paper feeling baffled or frustrated about things!  His plans will COME to pass, even when it looks like there is NO way they can happen IF God said they would well they will!  (I mean...HE IS GOD right?)  Here's my challenge to you today!  Don't be baffled...don't be frustrated. Remove doubt and worry...I'm going to! You see I serve a GOD with a PLAN! And even though I would LOVE to know the plan right now...LOVE to check it out, I TRUST that HIS PLANS are the best ones...and they cannot be THWARTED! 

He isn't FRUSTRATED or BAFFLED...and WE shouldn't be either!

Never Insignificant

   
This Blog was written back in April but I never posted it.

I scanned the news report today. Nothing.  I typed in "pedestrian struck on Mableton Parkway April 15".  Nothing.  To the news right now the person who was hit last night may be insignificant...to someone he was family.  To my family it was just how we ended our very long day of school, work, ministry.

     Our Ladies Connection was full of fun, laughter and a short dose of Gina's teaching thrown in.  I pray it helped someone...I know it ministered to me when I wrote it.  The usual QT run after church to get our favorite snacks had me hitting my husband in the arm as he made fun of my driving yet again.  I threw the keys to him before getting back in my car..."You can drive then!"  I said with a smile, oh how glad I am now that he was driving.

     Coming past our church building with the bright cross blazing on it I smiled thinking of all that we had accomplished that day.  Cresting the hill we could tell that something was the matter as cars blocked both lanes of traffic.  I saw shoes in the road.  Maybe they fell out of someones car I thought?  Then I saw the expressions on the faces of those out of their cars standing in the road. Turning my head slightly I saw someone laying in the road.  I knew.  Oh I knew.  Yet another person had tried to cross this busy road to get to the convenience store.  They hadn't made their destination.

     "You have to stop Randy!" I said from the passenger seat.

     "Honey what good can I do?" his quick reply.

     "Look at their faces, they don't know what to think how to process.  Maybe you can just pray for someone.  Encourage them!  You have to stop!"

     He did.  Pulling into the turning lane.  The car still running.  In the back seat I could tell that our daughter Aiden-Rose was getting upset.  So many people.  So much confusion.  I began to pray..I began to cry out where are the cops!  Someone needs to get here!  They need to get here now!  I saw a familiar black truck pull up and one of our church members get out to walk over to the chaos.  Still no rescue vehicles.

     I called a friend to try and calm down and then I began to notice the car to the side of us.  A young man was obviously in pain the damage to his driver's side meant that somehow he must have been involved.  I could see the look in his eyes-he was living his worst nightmare.  Finally I saw the fire truck.  Our car was in it's way but before I could even get out our church member came and moved the car to the side of the road.  Allowing the emergency vehicle entry to the chaos.

     In the back I still heard the cries of my daughter, "I want my daddy!".  Even a thirteen year old wants her father sometime.  I calmed her down somewhat by saying, "Aiden-Rose your daddy is trying to do what he can to help right now."

     As we sat there for a minute we saw nothing but blue and red lights as car and ambulances and oh so many emergency vehicles began to descend upon the scene.  I was in the way.  So I asked our church member if he would give my husband a ride home, and I drove off.  Still shaking.  Still trying to calm my child.

     We called our friend back before we made it to our road because well it was obvious my child needed to talk to someone and I needed to arrive safely home.  Pulling into the driveway my friend asked if they could come over and help.  At first I said no, then I quickly changed my mind.  I had no clue how long the night may be...or what I would hear when Randy finally arrived home.

     They arrived pretty quickly.  Hugs...tears...a full disclosure of what I had witnessed.  Before we knew it the sounds of more sirens was filling the night sounds.  Then lights coming into the driveway. My husband had arrived home.

     His story was pretty much what we figured.  A young man tried to cross a busy road to get to a convenience store.  He hadn't made it.  One car struck him and pulled over.  Another car ran over him and drove away.  No one there had really known what to do.  My husband who had been a fireman went over to look for a pulse.  He had felt something weak he thought, but he really felt like the man had died.  He prayed for him.  Tried to comfort him.  He prayed with others there as well.  Bringing whatever comfort he could.  Then knowing there was nothing else he could do, he came home.

     We were a sad group.  A quiet core of believers trying to come to grips with what had just happened.  I had spoken on Choices that night at our Ladies Connection.  How we needed to really think about the things we decided to do.  I was sort of angry with this young man for the choice he had just made.  A choice to cross a busy road at night dressed in dark clothes.  I was angry and yet I grieved.  I grieved for the family who were about to experience a nightmare!  I grieved for a mom who would never hold her son again.  I thanked God for my children...their health...their well being!

     The only way we knew to end our night was in prayer.  So we held hands in a circle and we prayed.  Prayed for the emergency workers.  Prayed for those who had witnessed this terrible tragedy. Prayed for the family of this young man.  Prayed for this young man.

      All day today I scanned the news.  Nothing.  Finally this evening the first news came online.

     He wasn't an insignificant person.  He was a young 29 year old man who made a bad choice.  I don't know if he had a history of making bad choices, or if this was his first. That doesn't really matter.  I pray he had a relationship with Jesus.  I pray he had peace.  I pray for his family now.  I pray that NO ONE will ever feel insignificant!  I pray that no matter how much we need to get to the other side...we will really stop and think about our choice.  That we will pray about our choice.  And that we will never feel insignificant....God doesn't think we are!

He WILL Do it!

I can't sleep!  Ever have that problem?  I don't want to check out Facebook...okay honestly I already did, not much going on at 2:00 AM on Facebook.  I just chatted with my husband in Africa.  Yeah, thank heavens for Messenger and WiFi...when WiFi is up and running that is!  I don't really feel like playing a game...I could go clean some more, but honestly..ummm NO!

So here I am!  Simply ME...sleepless in Georgia!  I had another wonderful time this morning reading my devotion...okay honestly...let me tell you Ezekiel is pretty discouraging, but the devotion books I read before I get to Ezekiel....wow...powerful stuff!

My Jesus Lives Devotion was talking about Divine Protection!  And my Joyce Meyer devotion was "I want a mind change!"  (Oh Lord DO I ever!)  I have to admit that even though Ezekiel isn't all warm and fuzzy today's reading had a powerful verse for me.  Ezekiel 17:24 at the very end of this verse it says, "I the Lord have spoken, and I WILL DO IT!"

Sweet huh?  Not I might do it if you are really good to me.  Or if you pray a gazillion times in the right way, fast all of the junk food you want to eat and oh yeah help an older lady across the street. No he says I have spoken and I will Do It!

My son made me mad this summer!  Like really mad.  I told him to do something and he started getting really mouthy with me and was telling me several reasons why he didn't need to do what I told him too.  I wouldn't back down, and then I realized that even while he was being mouthy he was doing exactly what I told him to do!  I wanted to be mad!  I wanted to pinch his little head off, but all I could think of was, you told him to do it and he did!  How can you be mad when he's doing exactly what you told him to do?  (Okay parents out there I know I could be correcting the attitude, but he's almost 20, he knows everything and I have a LONG way to go before I know it all!)

Getting back to Ezekiel and God!  I am so glad I serve a God who when HE speaks and says HE is going to do something, HE does it!  Aren't you?  I tell my story all the time but I guess it bears repeating.  I was told as a teenager I may never be able to have children.  When I married my first husband I was having one prophecy after another spoken over me about children, and then he died. At 31 I was a widow and ummmm....childless.  I knew God had told me I would have children.  He not only had spoken it to me, but he had spoken it over me using his people and prophesy.  But ummm I was a widow.  You did get that right?

Three years later I married and became a mom overnight to my son, whose mom had passed away when he was 14 months old.  But I knew even as I began bonding and loving on my son that God had told me I was going to have a child.  After 5 months of marriage I was pregnant!  For the very first time!  Oh that wonderful moment I could tell my husband!  The joy, and then the agony after a miscarriage.  I was depressed!  I became discouraged...until I remembered through the voice of my son that GOD had told me I was going to have a child!  A son-Josiah and a daughter is what He really said!  My next pregnancy was NOT without troubles, but at the end I finally held MY promise! You see when GOD speaks something well you can take it to the bank...it's GONNA happen!

So what has He spoken to you today?  Has He told you not to worry that He will sell that house...Gina...then rest assured...HE will DO IT!  Because WHEN GOD SPEAKS...THINGS HAPPEN!