- our lead pastor resigned at church
- my electric knife quit
- my stove totally kicked the bucket
- our van's back door stopped closing correctly
- we had a water leak in our upstairs bathroom, totally unknown to us, and it seeped under the floor, until the ceiling sagged and came down in the downstairs bathroom, so for the last 3 weeks, we only use the upstairs shower
- the dryer had a frightening noise every time it started
- the porch railing completely fell apart and we had to wait an extra 2 weeks for the new posts to come in and then we had to wait another 2 weeks for it to get repaired
- the electric guys decided our open trenches waiting for them to put in underground lines were no big deal, and so we have had a portion of our yard torn up for weeks and weeks now
- the chicken house building project continues and keeps adding various stress to my dear husband
- Leon has spent hours and hours in the combine this fall, and I totally felt like a harvest widow
- I got the sorest throat I've ever had in my life and felt sick for over a week
- our two adorable baby kitties both died due to our naughty puppy's antics
But unless you should even squeeze out the tiniest bit of sympathy for me, let me be the first to tell you that God is good. And we are incredibly blessed. I don't think it was a coincidence that in the last several months I read an amazing book called Face to Face With Jesus. Hearing her tell her personal story of being a Christian in the middle East was completely thought-provoking! I am so thankful that the same Jesus who performed countless miracles on her behalf, is the same Jesus I serve. And He's doing miracles right here in America, too. I also read The Hardest Peace. Wow! What an incredible story of a mother of 4, dying from cancer unless God does a miracle, and how in the hardest places we find peace. I was inspired and encouraged so much- to live each day intentionally, and to just be kind to my children. We admire people who have gone through intense difficulty and come out with an amazing Jesus story. But I want the Jesus story without the pain. I'm forgetting that the deepest peace comes out of the deepest pain.
I told Leon recently that I just want the hard to stop. He reminded me that as long as we have life and breath, we are engaged in a battle. We can fight with our arms hanging down, or we can fight like the warriors God has called us to be. It's true. We are never promised easy. We are promised that God will be with us. And it's Him living in us that makes all the difference. He lives through us, wins our battles, and fights for us. But we can't walk around in defeat.
A lot of my list of hard stuff at the beginning of this post is so, so trivial. First world problems. I would be lying to say that I took each new 'broken' piece in stride. But that stuff cannot take my peace. My peace does not come from my circumstances all being honky-dory. My peace comes from the One who holds everything in His hand.
My husband fixed the electric knife, the van, and the dryer, and the bathroom is still an on-going process, our youth group blessed our socks off and gave us a monetary gift to replace the stove, the porch and trenches are out of my control so I may as well not fret.......and harvest is OVER for this year!!!
We had a lot of HAPPY mixed into this tough stuff.
One Sunday we just took the day off- for us. We had a special meal at a Mexican restaurant, hiked and took photos at the reservoir, and came home and watched a movie.
We had a couple family game nights sprinkled in too. We took advantage of every rain that kept Leon out of the field.
We enjoyed the baby kittens for a short time.
We took the day off of school and toured the Herbert Hoover Museum.
And this is how certain family members eat their caramel dip.
