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Posted on November 28, 2022
Thanksgiving just passed, and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! My family and I traveled to my parents house, and it was a wonderful time! It was nowhere near relaxing, but spending the time with my family, busy or not, is always a great time! I hope you all experienced the same joy from the holiday!
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays! I’ve always loved the whole idea behind Thanksgiving! Being thankful for everything that we have, and for everything that the Lord has done for us, and will continue to do for us! It’s easy to think back to everything that we have, and how the Lord has worked in our lives, one day out of the year. But do you take time, every day, to thank Him for everything He has given you? I know I always seem to forget to do that.
The expression of gratitude, especially to God.
onelook.com
When I looked up the definition, this was the first one I found. The expression of gratitude, especially to God. When I read this, it really shows how important it is that we take the time to say thank you to the Lord. He has done so much for us, most of the time we don’t always see it!
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
1 Chronicles 16:34
His love endures forever.
We can even see how it’s important to take the time to thank the Lord for what He has done for us! His love endures forever, and He is good!
I think one of the biggest things that I struggle with is always being thankful, even when I can’t fully see what the Lord has planned for us. Our youngest son, he’s 3 years old, has had constant ear infections since Labor Day. I had felt like we were living at the doctor’s office, because every time I turned around he seemed to get another one! Then there was the constant battle of getting him to take his antibiotics! It was a fight through and through. When this was all going on, it took me quite a bit of time to fully understand what the Lord was doing. I couldn’t bring myself to be thankful, because what was there to be thankful for? Our son was in pain, and there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. One day when we took him to the doctors, because of another ear infection, I had asked his pediatrician if this was normal, or if this was something we should be concerned about. She referred him to an ENT, because of how frequent the ear infections were. There they determined he should get tubes put in, because that will help with the infections.
Now, I know that kids getting tubes put in is very normal. However, I didn’t see the reason to be thankful until they explained how much this is going to help him! They explained that because of all the fluid that he had; he wasn’t really hearing the way he should. They also explained that this could help him with his speech as well! So here we are, having constant ear infections, to finally figuring out that these tubes could be helpful in so many areas, not just draining the fluid! That is when I felt so thankful to the Lord for allowing our son to go through this. Although no parents want to see their child in pain over and over, but I’m thankful for that pain because in the end it’s going to make him so much better!
The Lord has ways of using these normal, painful situations, and turning them into good! It’s a reminder to us that He always has His best interest in mind for us!
I thank and praise You, God of my ancestors:
Daniel 2:23
You have given me wisdom and power,
You have made known to me what we asked of You,
You have made known to us the dream of the king
After going through Thanksgiving, and really having some time to think about what the Lord has done for me and my family, it made it clear that I need to live a life of thanksgiving every day! The Lord has done, and will continue to do, so much for us that I will never be able to thank Him enough.
I will give thanks to You, Lord, with all my heart;
Psalms 9:1
I will tell of all Your wonderful deeds.
My friends, I encourage you to stop and think about all that the Lord has done for you! Consider the situations, in your life currently, that may seem like nothing good will come of them, and then consider how the Lord could be using them for good! Be thankful for those hardships, because we never know what the Lord is doing!
I do understand that sometimes that’s hard. Trust me, I get it! So if you ever feel like you can’t be thankful for something, trying thanking the Lord for things He has done for you, and for things that you know He will continue to do!
Until next time!
Posted on October 6, 2022
I know that I’m supposed to go on with Part 2 of Relying on the Promises of God, but I wrote this one instead. Part 2 will be next!
I believe that sometimes we’re meant to go through some challenges in order to help others. This week has been a tough week for myself and my family. Our middle daughter spiked a very high fever on Sunday night and had it all day Monday. We took her to the doctors and found out that she had hand foot and mouth disease. Thank you, kindergarten! We struggled with getting her temperature down, because her mouth and throat were so sore that getting her to swallow anything was difficult. Tuesday night she woke up at 1:30am and puked, and continued to puke every hour until 5am. Mind you, she still was hardly eating or drinking, so nothing was really coming out. Yesterday, Wednesday, she seemed to have gotten over it and was back to normal except saying her mouth was still burning and hurt. I was relieved because I thought we were getting near the end! But then…it happened. Our son spiked a high fever, and we could not break it. My husband ended up taking him in a cold shower to lower his temperature, and then we could get him to take medicine. When that was all done, I looked in his mouth, and sure enough, sores.
I felt defeated. All I wanted was to lay in my bed and cry. Not because I felt sorry for myself, but because I was exhausted. Before hand foot and mouth invaded our home, my son was on antibiotics for a double ear infection, and I was getting over a nasty head/chest cold! I was exhausted from the sickness, from not sleeping well, from being up half the night with our daugher puking, from tryting to maintain our house, from still getting up to make sure our oldest was getting on the bus for school, and just trying to be a good wife.
But I had enough.
So why did I decide to write this instead of my Part 2?
My friends, you are not alone. You are not alone in the feeling of being defeated, in the feeling of just wanting to give up, in the feeling of wanting to run and hide somewhere. Whether you are struggling with sick kids, or something else, your feelings matter and are valid! The Lord never promised us things were going to be easy. He never promised that we would have a perfect life as long as we followed Him.
And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
1 Peter 5:10
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
Psalm 34:18
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
These verses show me that although we believe in the Lord, and we have our trust in Him, we’re still going to be going through all these trials. But we have the one thing that many nonbelievers have. We have the Lord on our side, and we have His strength to help us!
When you pass through the waters,
Isaiah 43:2
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
My friends, the feelings you have about yourself will not help you in the long run. They will not help you get through any of the trials you are facing. In fact, when we think those negative thoughts, we are allowing Satan to have a foothold in our hearts and minds! Satan wants us to lose faith in ourselves and in the Lord. We cannot let him win!
The Lord has placed you in this chapter of life for a reason. He knows you can handle these things, because we have that faith in Him! I struggle with keeping a firm grasp on situations, thinking I can handle them better, or I can take care of it faster than what the Lord can. Every time I think that or do that, I fail.
We are humans, and sometimes we just feel completely overwhelmed by the happenings of life. Sometimes it’s like things just come one after the other, and we never get a break. Just because we have faith in the Lord it doesn’t mean we can’t cry. We can cry. Cry when you are feeling overwhelmed and upset. Cry when you are feeling like you have no other way to express your feelings. If crying was a sin, then I don’t know what I would do. You can ask my husband. I cry over everything. Not because I’m a “cry baby”, but because it’s one way, I can let out my emotions the best. What makes the difference is how we handle ourselves after we cry. Are we going to allow ourselves to continue being sad and feeling bad for ourselves? Or are we going to get up, shake it off, and move on because we know that we have the strength of the Lord to help us?
Also friends, eat that ice cream!! There is nothing better for the soul than some good ice cream!
My prayer for you this week is that if you’re going through anything that seems overwhelming, that you will turn to the Lord for the strength to get through it! Pray to Him and ask Him to help you, because He already knows what you’re feeling and what’s happening! He is waiting for you with open arms! Also remember…
You’ve got this!!
Until next time, my friends!
Faith and Coffee