Just Go With It

I would not normally consider myself a go with the flow kind of person, however I can't help but feel after the last month that I am being urged to become one. I have not written a blog in the last month, I have hardly had time to breath in the last month but now, finally on day one of September, I feel like I can stop for a minute and think about everything that has happened this past 30 days. 

So much that I thought was going to happen in August did not happen and so much that I was not expecting took place. I feel like I am learning a lot about myself right now, new layers that I was unaware of seem to be popping up to surprise me.  For instance I began work this year to do one job and was thrown into a completely different type of work.  The type of work that requires an extreme amount of patience and compassion.  

These are two words most people including myself would not use to describe me and yet I have them.  They must have buried under layers of grouch all these years.  It is amazing to me who we can become when put into situations that we don't expect and don't really have a choice about.  What rises to the surface in the midst of the unexpected can often be surprising in good ways and bad ways.  I was happy to discover what I had under the surface.  It did however make me look at the patience and compassion I have when dealing with my own kids.  If I can have it at work everyday with kids who are not my own I can not justify not having it it with my own kids at home. 

It is amazing to me how God does that to us, he simultaneously shows us a strength and a weakness at the same time.  Someone this month walked up to me with a scripture that is only now  as I write becoming clear...

"Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me."(2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT)

Learning to be allow myself to be weak is a new challenge for me.  I usually try to be strong, try to have a plan, try to make a way, but God is putting me in a season of learning to depend on him in my weak places.  Never before realized quite like I have when Matt was gone for 19 out of the last 21 days. This required me to do two things I am not great at, ask for help and receive help when it was offered.  

I learned the art of taking things one day at a time.  Looking any further than that gave me an instant stress headache.  So one day at a time I would get through the day with tons of help from friends and family all the while God was using Matt and Cooper to touch the lives of people thousands of miles away. 

I'm so grateful for the experience that Cooper was able to have in Guyana. I can see in him a change, I can see that God spoke to him and used him and he is carefully thinking through and processing all that took place.  

I am thankful that I remained blissfully unaware of any dangers that faced them as they traveled 8 hrs up the Amazon the minister to an Indian tribe who had not revived a missionary team in over three years. 

So many people are involved in the missions process, so many lives are blessed far beyond the people who receive ministry and the team who goes.  All the people who make it possible for this life changing experience and we are so grateful to everyone who participated.  Be on the lookout this week for a guest blog to give more stories from Guyana.  

In the mean time I hope that you will learn with me to relax and trust God, to learn to go with the flow and take life one day at a time.  One thing I know is that a stressful life does not make a happy life and it gives you lines and wrinkles which lets face it are never a good thing! 

Happy Sunday!