I was ready, however, to take a trip home...
I was ready to
feel air conditioning again…
I was ready to go on a real date with my husband (you
know at a real restaurant with rich, delicious food including dessert and then a movie that isn’t created to entertain a 5 year old)…
I was ready to see my
brother again and get one of his great big hugs...
I was ready to take the kids to Smoothie
King or treat them to an ice cream cone… you get the picture…
It’s no
surprise that we’ve all been a little homesick after so many people have just
been here from home but I was really sick last week and when you’re sick and worn out there are few things that make it “all better” like the comforts of home
and I was really tempted yesterday to fall into the trap of the “if
onlys”.
I had one of my terrible
headaches and I almost gagged at the thought of another peanut butter sandwich when
lunchtime approached.
It was so hot I
would swear my skin was about to explode by mid afternoon, the chateau (water tank on the roof) has been empty all week and there was no water in the
buckets upstairs for flushing the toilet or washing our hands…
I was definitely
feeling stretched and outside of any comfort zone!
I was
reminded of one of the devotions from our children’s devotion books. It was called, “One of My Days”. The verse in the
beginning was 1 Peter 5:7 which says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because He
cares for you.” It talked about when we
have one of those days where
everything goes wrong. It said, “Do you trust the Lord enough to let
Him lead you through the days when everything goes wrong? Or are you determined to fix it all
yourself? If you keep trying to make
things go your way while He is leading you in a different way, you make your
desires an idol. Instead of doing this,
cast all your troubles and worries on the Lord.
Then He will turn ‘one of those days’ into one of His days!”
I was
quickly on the path to making my desires idols yesterday. My ‘if onlys’ were becoming idols faster than
I could say ‘if only’ and I sensed it but it was like I was in quicksand with
no hand in sight for rescue. The kiddos
had all finished their schoolwork and my head was pounding so I declared mandatory
rest/quiet time and I did the only thing I knew to do. I prayed and then I tried to take a nap,
myself. I woke up sweating, my head
still pounding and my mind immediately went back to the negative thoughts I was
fighting before I fell asleep.
And then I
saw it…. right next to me on my bed was
a card Caleb made while I was asleep. It
said “Hope You Feel Better” and it had 3 beautiful butterflies and 3 amazing
flowers on it. Talk about a perspective
changer… Suddenly I began to smile and I
started thinking about all that I have to be thankful for instead of all that I
had to complain about.
As Lysa
TerKeurst once said, ‘God loves to invite us outside of our comfort zone and
then he gets all the credit.” See, God
is due all the credit but sometimes I forget that. Sometimes I put myself in the credit seat and
when I’m having one of those days I
act like I am owed something. I start
processing what I deserve and I
daydream about how much better things would be if… but this is a dangerous place
to be. As Oswald Chambers put it in My
Utmost for His Highest, “You must keep
yourself in the proper condition to allow the life of the Son of God to be
manifested in you, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to
self-pity. Our circumstances are the
means God uses to exhibit just how wonderfully perfect and extraordinary pure
His Son is.” He also goes on to
remind us that, ‘ If God puts you into
adversity, He is adequately sufficient to “supply all your need” (Philippians
4:19).’
Some days
are just harder than others. They will
be until I see Jesus face to face.
Some days I
will crave the comforts of home more than other days.
But you know
what else? I serve a compassionate God
that delights in blessing me (and you, too), every day! Regardless
of how many times I fall prey to the ‘if only’ days, my God is quick to supply
my every need and He even supplies some wants, too.
John had to
go to Cap Haitien yesterday to pick up our mail from the airport. Guess what was delivered YESTERDAY (yep, on one of those days)…… 5 goody boxes from 2 of our friends and 2 of
our family members that sent "little pieces of home"!!!
I had to laugh with excitement… my God knew
all along what kind of day I was going to have when he impressed it on the
people’s hearts to send what they sent the very day they sent them. Some of you will shake your head and say it
was pure coincidence but I know better.
Now, will I always get care packages on the bad days? No and I won’t always get gifts that I can hold
in my hands when my heart needs them most but I did yesterday and I want to be
quick to give praise to my Great God who made it happen!
We got
Peanut MnM’s, plain MnM’s, Cheetos, Doritos, Fruit snacks, Twizzlers, Yummy Sugary Cereals, Muffin Mixes, Cake Mixes, Icing, Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies
(MY FAVORITE), Jell-O and Pudding Packs, and more. Cabila even got (3) “welcome to the family”
gifts! Isn’t God good???
I am convinced that when we give Him 'those days' that He is more than able to turn them into one of His days!
**Thank you, Jesus, for helping me find the right perspective. And thank you that you will be here for me when I need re-positioning again!**
No comments:
Post a Comment