Adjusting to God's Plan for My Days

It is two days after Thanksgiving Day, and I finally have a minute to sit down at my little blog for the first time in several days.  The boys are watching football, my daughter has her play dishes spread out on a table in the living room, and we just got home from our first cider mill trip of the year-- on Nov. 27, mind you.  I had planned to post something every day of November on my "Twenty-Five Days of Praise", but I have had to do some serious adjusting to God's plan for my November.  My plan didn't match up with His, but His plan is perfect nonetheless.  God sent several events, responsibilities, and people my way that I had not anticipated, and so my plans for writing every day had to take a back seat.  I felt very sad that I couldn't keep up with it, but there were people and things that needed my attention more, and those things were God's plan for me.  I would go to bed every night thinking about how there had never been time to write something that day, and I would just have to say, "OK, Lord, You know what my day held and You ordained all of that for today."

Someday I will have time to write all I want, but for now, I'm just going to have to be content with an "every-so-often" kind of blog.  My blog writing may be every-so-often, but my God is a constant companion and faithful refuge.  I'm so glad it isn't the other way around.

I continue to rejoice in the Lord's provision and His goodness to us.  I am so thankful for my precious husband and my four beautiful children who love me and need me day after day.  I praise God for the many family and friends that He has blessed me with-- friends and family that challenge me, encourage me, and love me despite my faults. We were blessed to spend Thanksgiving Day with three other families that, like us,  do not live near their families, and it was a precious time of fellowship for this little "far-from-home" bunch.

So my "Twenty-Five Days of Praise" turned into just a few posts, but I learned a lot about the difference between my plan and God's plan.  I can't fight against it when the days don't look like I expect them to look, but I can rest in the fact that God has perfectly ordained each interruption for His glory and my good.  Actually, they are not interruptions at all, just differences between God's "To-do List" for my day and mine.  Wrangling against it will do me no good, but accepting that God is writing the story of my life makes each day an adventure.

I'm so glad He is writing my story.  He will do a much better job than I ever would.  Let the next chapter begin...

Twenty-Five Days of Praise- Days Six through Sixteen

When I set out to post about twenty-five days of praise, I had no idea that I was going to be overtaken by a bad respiratory infection.  Consequently, I have been doing the bare minimum the last several days, and blogging has taken a back seat.  By God's grace, I am feeling much better, and I am beginning to get caught up on all of the things that got set to the side during my illness.  I was praising the Lord while I was sick, but I wasn't necessarily up to writing about it!  I guess my plan was not God's plan.

Today I simply praise the Lord for His strength, his grace in my life, and His healing from this physical illness.  It's startling to realize how much I take health for granted until I am sick.  It gives me great compassion for those that live with chronic illness, and it makes me realize how blessed I am to have been so healthy for so long.  I am also thankful for the ultimate healing that will come one day-- the healing that was purchased on the cross by my dear Savior.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits...

Twenty-Five Days of Praise- Day Five: My Husband

Today I thank the Lord for my husband-- the love of my earthly life, my dearest friend, and the person I'd rather spend time with than anyone in the world.  What a gift of grace he is to me.  Paul loves me when I am lovely, and more importantly, he loves me when I'm not so lovely.  He is the living, breathing love of Christ to me and our children day after day, and I'm very blessed to be called his wife.  I praise God for the precious gift of a husband who loves Christ, loves me, and loves our children.


Dear God, I prayed, all unafraid
(as we're inclined to do)
I do not need a handsome man
but let him be like You;
I do not need one big and strong
nor yet so very tall,
nor need he be some genius,
or wealthy, Lord, at all;
but let his head be high, dear God,
and let his eye be clear,
his shoulders straight, whate'er his state,
whate'er his earthly sphere;
and let his face have character,
a ruggedness of soul,
and let his whole life show, dear God,
a singleness of goal;
then when he comes
(as he will come)
with quiet eyes aglow,
I'll understand that he's the man
I prayed for long ago.
                       --Ruth Bell Graham

Twenty-Five Days of Praise- Day Four: An Advocate

I John 2: 1-- "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

There are many things I have learned during my years as the wife of an attorney.  I have learned that it is hard to out-argue a man that is quite skilled at making valid arguments.  I have learned that I am sometimes very quick to judge a situation when there is often much more there than meets the eye.  I have learned much about the protections afforded an individual in our court system- even if the accused has pled guilty.  Our constitution guarantees each citizen wise and competent counsel.  Our constitution guarantees each citizen an advocate, whether they are guilty or innocent, deserving or undeserving, lovely or unlovely.

As Paul has practiced law throughout our marriage, I have observed first-hand what it is to have an advocate in a courtroom.   He is often the only person pleading for the cause of an individual or speaking on their behalf.  I think he especially loves being an advocate for those that truly have no other means of help.  I don't often know much about his cases.  Once in awhile, however, he is able to share a bit with me, and I am always amazed at how seriously he takes his job as an advocate.

In Job 9: 32, 33, Job speaks of God when he says, "For He is not a man, as I am, that I might answer Him, that we should come to trial together.  There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both." (ESV) Job is pleading for an advocate between himself and God, someone that might present his case and come alongside him.  Really, Job is pleading for Christ.

I never expected to learn so much about the gospel being married to an attorney, but I am continually struck by the fact that I have an Advocate with God the Father.  Despite my guilt, Jesus is my Advocate before God.  As the hymn "Before the Throne of God Above" so beautifully says, He "ever lives and pleads for me".  Not only do I have an Advocate, but he is a righteous Advocate that also took the punishment for my sin and guilt.  He stands before the Father pleading on my behalf on the basis of His righteousness.

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness today for my Advocate, Jesus Christ.

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great High Priest whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.


My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heav'n He stands,
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
                   --Vickie Cook

Twenty-Five Days of Praise- Day Three: A Favorite Poem

Psalm 89:1-- "I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;  with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations."

I have to admit it-- I love poetry.  I have a few poem collections that I meander through quite often.

One of my absolute favorites is called Sitting By My Laughing Fire, a compilation of the poetry of Ruth Bell Graham.  I also have several books that include the poems of Amy Carmichael, the English missionary that rescued girls from the temples in India and began the Donhavur Fellowship.  For day three of the twenty-five days of praise, I decided to include one of Amy Carmichael's poems found in her book Edges of His Ways.


O praise the Lord, for it is good
      And pleasant and a joyful thing
To lift the heart as all men should
     Who have so dear a Lord to sing.


The number of the stars He tells,
     And calls each star by his own name:
No two of all His flowery bells
     Or leaves or grasses are the same.


So individual is His thought
     For all of us, did one let go
The hand of Joy, and sore distraught
     Forget to sing, His heart would know.


From rainbow did a color float,
     Or did a shining sun burn dim,
That were far less for Him to note
     Than dumbness of a child to Him.


O save from that!  Let grateful song
      And jubilance of melody,
And loving merry-makings throng
      The road that leads us home to Thee.

Twenty-Five Days of Praise- Day Two: Citizenship

Romans 13:1-- "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority, except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."

Today I sit here thankful for my citizenship.  First and foremost, my citizenship is in Heaven, and I am secure because of that.  I have always loved the verse in Psalm 20:7 that says, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."  I am thankful that no matter what an earthly government does, I serve the King of Kings-- and He is sovereign over all things including governments.


But does that mean that I have no responsibility here in America- in this time and place?  I have always struggled with those that have the philosophy that patriotism as an American is incompatible with being a citizen of Heaven.  As the verse from Romans 13:1 asserts,  I am subject to the earthly authority that has been put in place by God.  I am a citizen in America because God sovereignly ordained that, and I thank God for the freedom to speak, worship, and vote.  I will vote today, because I have been given that right and responsibility, and I will tell my children what a privilege it is to vote my conscience and have some say in our government.  All the while, I will pray hard.  I will pray that God would have mercy on us as a nation.  I will pray that my children will also have the opportunity to vote when they get older, and I will pray that Americans would come to realize that the solution to the majority of the problems we face is not found in government, but in Christ.  


Today, I am exceedingly thankful for my citizenship and the right to vote, knowing all the while that every authority that exists has been instituted by God.

Twenty Five Days of Praise- Day One

I haven't had much time to write often on this little blog of mine, but in honor of Thanksgiving, I am going to begin 25 days of praise until November 25.  The posts might be about something that I'm thankful for, but they also might be a psalm, a poem, or a picture.  They will all have one theme though-- God's great goodness to His children.


Today I begin by praising God for Jesus Christ and the salvation found in Him alone.  On my own I am not deserving of anything but great punishment, and I have nothing worthy to bring to Him.  I am full of sin and selfishness.  It is because of His great love that He has called me and saved me.  He picked me up out of the miry clay, set my feet upon a rock, and gave me a new song to sing.  When I consider how sinful and unworthy I am on my own, what Christ has done for me by dying on the cross to take my punishment, and what I am in Christ- adopted, made whole, washed clean, and called a child of God- my heart wells up with thanksgiving.

Psalm 37:7

My body sits so very still,
But not so- my insides.
They quiver, shake, twist, and turn,
My mind, my thoughts and stomach churn.
"Be still before the Lord,"- the Psalm,
"Wait patiently for Him."
Be still, my mind-
Be still, my thoughts-
While others see the outward calm.


Great God of the Invisible,
You know my heart is not so still,
And waiting seems unnatural,
Yet Your Word clearly marks Your will 
For me- a deep internal rest,
Not just a calm veneer.
Your sovereign hand carved out this test,
Enable me to trust You here.

Monday Morning

For Heather, Kristi, and all the other ladies I link arms with on this journey heavenward. 

Monday morning, coffee brewing,
House is quiet, mind is stewing.
Lord, I have so much to do,
I knew I had to come to You.

My week is full, the tension high,
All that can wait- it seems that I
Have come to know, have come to see
This time with You- necessity.

The tasks bear down, the piles call,
Temporary, transient, earthly-all
Time spent with You to know Your heart
Turns piles into works of art.

As You teach me, this earthly home
Becomes a place to do Your will.
The highest calling, the noblest task,
With lives to love and hearts to fill.

Your sweetness, Lord. Your mercy, Lord.
Your goodness, Lord.  Your grace--
Please fill me up on this full day.
With all my heart I seek Your face.

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?

God did an amazing thing yesterday.

I shouldn't be surprised.  He has proven Himself faithful over and over and over again.  Yet somehow, I am still amazed to see Him work things out in such unbelievable ways.

When Paul got out of the Army last August, he had decided to go directly into the Reserves so that we could pick up medical coverage when he opened his own practice.  We thought it would be an easy transition, but it ended up taking six months to get the paperwork straightened out.  In the meantime, we had transitional coverage until the end of January.

Then that ran out.

We waited and waited and finally thought everything was taken care of...until yesterday.  I was trying to refill a prescription when I was informed that we still had no coverage.  The problem was that I only had six days of medicine left, and our coverage apparently doesn't start until April 1.

I called a pharmacy and discovered that a 14-day supply would cost $75.  We knew we didn't really have any choice.  We were going to have to pay the full amount.

I decided to call our doctor and ask if they had any samples.  A sweet Christian nurse from the clinic answered the phone and listened to my story.  A minute later she came back on the phone and said that they had one sample box I could have.

"How many days is that?" I asked tentatively.

"One month," she replied with a smile in her voice.  "When do you want to come get it?"

The kids and I ate a fast lunch and drove right over to the office.  When she handed me the box, I told her thank you and she said, "God is good all the time."

On the way home, Josiah asked to look at the box.  I said, "Do you know what you're holding?"

"No."

"You're holding $150."

And then God said to me, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?  And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from Your Father...Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows."

Amazing.

Our Latest Birthday Celebrations

Micah and Sarah turned seven in February!  Here are some pictures of them with their cakes!  As you can see, the cake tradition continues, and we had a great time celebrating the birthday of our twinnies!  They got the presents, but they are the gift!

Sarah wanted a garden cake complete with a pond!  This may be one of my favorites!  The fence is made out of frosted graham crackers, and the little girl is made out of gum paste.

On the afternoon of Sarah's birthday, Paul came home from the store with the pot of daffodils.  You can't have a garden cake without real flowers too!

Micah wanted a football cake!  As we were finishing up the cakes, Paul decided to make a frosted graham-cracker scoreboard.  It is a little hard to see, but Michigan is beating Ohio State 77-7 with 7:07 left in the fourth quarter.  We do bleed maize and blue in this house!  The field is complete with yellow gummy bears to represent Michigan and red gummy bears to represent Ohio State.

Micah even wore his Michigan jacket for the picture!

Rudderless

Paul called home one day last week to check in with me, and he asked how my day was going.  I said, "I feel rudderless today.  Absolutely rudderless."  Then it dawned on me why I felt that way.  I had stayed in bed later than usual and then one of my kids got up earlier than usual.  I wasn't able to have the quiet time with God that has become like my very morning food over the last two years.  No wonder I felt rudderless.  The unfinished, most-important thing in my day was hanging over my head.  I hadn't acknowledged the One that directs my steps, so I was completely lost.  What a realization.

When Paul deployed, I very quickly learned that if I was going to have any joy at all through those twelve long months, I was going to have to start each day giving everything over to God.  It became my habit and something that I actually look forward to each morning.  What I didn't realize, though, is how much I had come to depend on that time.  It is my "breakfast" of solitude, reflection, prayer, and listening to what God wants for my day (although it is always done with a cup of coffee in my hand!)

Sometimes the baby-steps of progress in my Christian life are so imperceptible that I hardly see them.  What a grace that God would allow me to see how He has brought me along in my own personal walk.

I started the day rudderless.  I ended the day encouraged and thankful.  Onward I plod-- by God's grace and for His glory.

New Year's Greetings 2010

Dear friends,

Paul and I want to take this opportunity to wish each of you a Happy New Year filled with the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! The last year was one of many changes for us, and I invite you to go on a quick pictorial journey with us as we recap our last year and look ahead to the new year unfolding before us.  With all of the adjustments and changes of the last few months, I haven't written nearly as often as I would have liked, but Lord willing, I will be adding to this blog much more frequently in 2010!

Josiah (9), Micah (6), Sarah (6), Isaac (4)

The year 2009 began with Paul at home for his two week R&R from Iraq. We had a wonderful time as a family, and we dreaded the good-bye that came all too quickly.

At the airport when Paul arrived for his leave

On January 8, Paul again journeyed back to Baghdad for another five months, and the children and I resumed our daily activities. To say that God was active in our family is an incredible understatement. There were many days that I got to the end of the day, positive that the only thing that had sustained us was the limitless grace of God.  I can definitely look back and say that I tasted the sweetness of Christ like I never had before, and I came away from the year of deployment having learned much about God as an ever-present help and refuge.

In March my mother-in-law came for two weeks, and then my sister came with her two girls for two weeks.  My mother-in-law even found time to paint murals on the basement walls!  Both Heather and Betty were a great help, and their company was a great gift.  Again, the Lord met my needs when I was very weary!

As April arrived, I have to admit that I've never been more excited to see spring come in all my life!  The children and I began preparing for Paul to come home at the end of May, and on May 29 we left for Fort Benning, Georgia to meet Paul as he arrived home on the 31st.  What a joy to be reunited as a family, and what a gift from God!

From Georgia we began a very long, very exciting road trip-- 8,134 miles to be exact!  We drove from Georgia to Florida and spent ten days on vacation.  We went to Disney and Sea World and loved every minute of being together.  From Florida, we began a 4-day, cross-country drive to Seattle so that Paul could out-process out of the Army at Fort Lewis, Washington.  After a week in Seattle, we drove to Denver for a few days with my parents, and then drove back home to Michigan.  The kids are fabulous travelers, and we had a wonderful trip!  We were gone a full month, and Paul was very glad when we finally drove back into his beloved Michigan!  He was finally home for good!  I posted numerous pictures of our long road trip earlier, so if you would like to see those, go here!

The rest of the summer was spent adjusting back to our life together, growing a garden, playing a ton of backyard whiffle-ball, and enjoying being together.  Paul and I celebrated our 10th anniversary at the end of July, and his mom came to stay with the kids while we went to St.Ignace/ Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for five days!

The kids spent a lot of time foraging in the garden for sugar-snap peas and strawberries!

Paul and I at Mackinac Island

On August 1, Paul left active duty after more than eight years.  The Lord made it clear that our time in the Army was finished, and we are excited to begin a new chapter in our marriage and family!  Paul applied to transfer his law license from Colorado to Michigan, and in November, he opened his own law practice here in Rochester, Michigan!  The Lord seemed to lead in this direction, and we are looking forward to seeing what he has for us in the years ahead.

I am in my fifth year of homeschooling our children, and I find my days filled with school, our homeschool group, and tasks at home.  I am also directing the adult choir at our church.  The choir is one of the sweetest groups of people I have ever known, and they are truly passionate about leading our church family God-ward as we provide a musical picture frame around the face of Christ!  It is such a joy to be involved in this ministry.

Josiah is in the 4th grade now, and he loves books and animals.  He just received an aquarium for Christmas, so he is the proud owner of some new tropical fish.  He is a great student and is making wonderful progress in his education.  I see the Lord doing much in his life right now!

Micah and Sarah are both becoming great readers, and they are doing well in 1st grade.  Micah loves Legos and math, and Sarah loves dancing, singing, and writing.  Micah is daddy's boy when it comes to sports, and Sarah is my constant little companion in all things girly!

Isaac is our spoonful of sugar!  He loves Legos and Wii bowling, and he tries very hard to keep up with the big dogs (his brothers)!  He will start Kindergarten in the fall of this year, although he has already caught a lot just listening to me teach the others.

As I look back on 2009, I have learned three main lessons.  First, whether I can always see it or not, the Lord is active in the lives of each of His children.  Sometimes it is easy to imagine that He hasn't done much lately, but when I was forced to look to Him more than I ever had, I found Him in even the tiniest details.  Even when so many refuse to recognize His sovereignty, He is orchestrating every detail of life for His glory.

Second, I learned that I cannot calculate without God.  The instant I started to imagine what might happen, or "forward-fear", I would lose sight of all of the ways God had been so near to me in the past.  I had read many things about difficulties post-deployment, and while Paul and I had some adjustments to make, things really did get back to "normal" pretty quickly.  We found that two people seeking to glorify God can overcome many obstacles with His help.

Third, I learned how very blessed I am to have my precious husband and children, extended family, and dear friends to link arms with on this journey heavenward.  While Paul was deployed, he videotaped daily devotions for our children using a wonderful book called Training Hearts, Teaching Minds.  He would mail me the tapes, and we watched them almost every night.  I believe strongly that this made the deployment and subsequent adjustments so much easier for our children.  They heard their dad pray over them almost every night, even though he was half a world away, and they knew that God watched over all six of us.  Our family and friends came around us to "hold up our arms", and I can't praise the Lord enough for blessing us so abundantly.

The completed paper chain that grew around our kitchen while Paul was gone!

I don't know what this new year holds for our family, but I know that God is living and active and present.  With much thanksgiving, we bless Him for caring for us in 2009 and look forward with expectancy to what He will do in 2010.  We are thankful for each one reading this greeting, and we pray that the Lord will make His name great in all of our lives for His own glory.