JOY Has Arrived!

Do you believe God cares about your dreams?

Do you believe He inspires your dreams so He can accomplish His will through your life?

Becky Tirabassi, in her book Let Prayer Change Your Life, says "faith is a whisper, a call, an intelligible, but usually not audible voice directing us to achieve something for the good of others."

She says, ". . . it is in and through prayer that God has released a myriad of ideas, goals, and dreams. They might have been new or lying dormant, but when no longer hindered by fears of failure or tripped up by stumbling blocks such as personal sin, shame, or guilt, (we are) empowered to risk and dream. 

"When you begin to spend time with God on a regular basis, your fears, besetting sins, shame from your past, and list of reasons why you 'cant, didn't, or shouldn't' will begin to pass away, be resolved, or be exposed as excuses why you haven't reached your dreams or fulfilled your purpose in life. Prayer will wipe away those excuses and pry open the doors of faith, pushing you toward your dreams" (203).

January 2011 was the darkest time in my adult life.

It was also the month that birthed the dream for my devotional book, Joy in the Journey ~ Encouragement for Homeschooling Moms.

As Becky Tirabassi so eloquently wrote, it was a time of pressing hard into the face of Christ out of deep and desperate need. I was stripped of everything I had trusted in save the mercy and grace of God, and I learned it was enough.

I learned to pray the words of Daniel 9:18, "We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy." 

And His mercy met me there.

"Perhaps this is just where God would have us--helpless within our own strength, dependent on His deliverance. This balance in prayer," Tirabassi says, "allows Him to become strong in our weakness as well as receive the glory for the (often miraculous) answers to those prayers. Prayer fuels our faith to believe what we cannot see" (208-209).

In the broken and tender ground of my heart, God planted Joy in the Journey. I began to see Him at work, "the God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. "  

And to see His purpose for me, not despite my circumstances, but because of them.

"To comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."

Tirabassi says, "Prayer doesn't stop with an idea or a list of to do's. God brings others alongside to believe in your dream. A great faith booster occurs when, after you have persevered in prayer, people come to you to offer help, even if you haven't told anyone your need.

"Oftentimes in the moments when you feel most rejected or discouraged, God brings His rescue, packaged in such a way to remind you that He is the designer, orchestrator, and giver of the dream" (209).


"What is the work or what are the dreams and desires that you believe God has given you to do that remain unfulfilled? 

When you pray, watch for small, medium, and large doors to open. These answers to prayer will be clear signs along the way of God's direction, goodness, faithfulness, and power being released on your behalf to fulfill the dreams He has put in your heart" (211).

 Joy in the Journey ~ Encouragement for Homeschooling Moms available now through Lulu.com

To God be the glory!

Baby Turtles and Baby Girls -- Thoughts on Sending a Child Off to College

We all held our breath as the naturalist gently probed the sandy cavity.  He counted out loud as he pulled out eggshell after empty eggshell.  We counted with him.  "67, 68, 69."  Oh, how I wished I had been a witness to the flood of baby turtles that had boiled out of this nest two days earlier!  It must have been an amazing sight.

The South Carolina coast is a favorite nesting spot for Loggerhead turtles, and Myrtle Beach State Park had incubated more than its usual number of nests.  Tonight, the naturalist at the park was inventorying one of the nests for statistical purposes.  Several days after a hatching, turtle watchers are required to open up the nest and count the number of hatched eggs, unhatched eggs, and remaining baby turtles.  We watched in fascination as he sifted through the sand and pulled out eggshell after leathery eggshell.

"Seventy, 71, 72 . . . oh!  looks like we've got a live one in here!" he exclaimed as his searching fingers encountered a shell of a different sort -- one with flippers and a tail.  He pulled out a tiny baby turtle, no bigger than a silver dollar, and held him up for us to see.

"Oh, he's so cute!" said one little girl, voicing what all of us were thinking as we examined the miniature reptile.  The naturalist placed him gently on the sand and continued searching.  By the end of the inventory, he had placed one more live baby on the sand beside him.

"Shouldn't we put them in the ocean?" one man asked.  The naturalist explained that these babies hadn't been strong enough to crawl out of the nest on their own, so it was very important that they make their own way down the beach. "Walking the long distance to the ocean strengthens their flippers.  If we just drop them in the water, they'll swim around in circles until a seagull eats them," he prophesied grimly.

"Walking on the beach also imprints the beach in their minds, " he said, "and in 30 years, when it's time for them to lay their eggs, they will return to this exact beach.  Even though they migrate hundreds of miles away, they will always remember where home is."

We formed a line on either side of the babies, all the way to the ocean. He instructed one man to stand in the water with a flashlight shining toward the nest, and the little turtles began their long walk.  Sometimes they strayed from the straight and narrow course, and we had to adjust the line of people cheering them on.  Always we stayed on either side of them, not touching them, but rooting for them as they struggled.

The man with the flashlight, the naturalist explained, was a beacon, helping the turtles find their way to the ocean.  Hatchlings instinctively know to head toward the horizon, he said, which is always the lightest point in the sky. 

It took over an hour for those babies to travel the 90 feet to the ocean.  We cheered them every step of the way.  When the first crawled close enough to the water for a wave to carry him away, the group erupted in a shout.  His brother soon followed, and then they were gone.

I remembered that special night this week. As I send my baby girl off to college for the first time, I feel a little like I did the evening we released the baby turtles to the ocean. We've had the joy of enjoying our daughter from the time she was a tiny baby, standing beside her as she grew stronger and watching her learn to walk.  We have surrounded her with friends and family to cheer her on and give her direction.  

Best of all, we have always pointed her to the Beacon of her soul, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will always shine a light on her path to show her the way.  I have faith that as she has imprinted our home on her heart, no matter how far away she travels, she will always remember where home is.

I love you, baby girl.  Swim straight and true and make us proud.  We're cheering for you!

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Forsaken

"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent." 
(Psalm 22:1-2)

It was our first day in Boston.  It was also my mom's first experience with the "T," Massachusett's underground subway system.  Riding the subway was a big step for her.  Keep in mind that Mom has lived the last 15 years of her life in the very small town of Sandy Run, South Carolina, population 5,047.   There, heavy traffic means that the mailman AND the UPS man drive down the road on the same day.

So there we were in Boston, about to embark on a grand adventure, when something went terribly wrong.  My mom and daughter stepped onto the subway train, and I did not.  The doors closed and they were gone, hurtling down the rail at 40 miles per hour.  In the wrong direction.  Away from me.

David, the author of Psalm 22, felt the same way as my mother as the train raced down the track farther and farther away from where she wanted to be.  He felt forsaken.  "My God," David cried, "My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent."

Sometimes we feel forsaken too.  Maybe we have cried until we think there isn't another tear left in our bodies, and then we cry some more.  Maybe we have felt abandoned, afraid, or hopeless.  Despite our earnest prayers, God seems far away, and we feel so alone.  We begin to wonder, like David (and my Mom), if the one who was supposed to be taking care of them had fallen asleep on the job. Or worse yet, didn't care.

Scripture describes David as a man after God's own heart.  Even in the depths of his hopelessness and despair, he arrived at the proper conclusion. Listen to his words:

" But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
  Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them.
  They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed."

When his emotions told him that God had forsaken him, David remembered God's faithfulness in the past, and chose to trust Him for the future.  That's what faith is.  It is not a blind leap in the dark.  It is placing our trust in God based on what He has done in the past. The same God who rescued King David from the hands of his enemies is the same God who rescues you.  And me.  And my mom on the subway.

David remembered, "You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother's breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother's womb You have been My God."

Do you feel forsaken today?  Are you struggling to trust God for the future?  If you are, cling to the promise of Hebrews 13:5.  "He (God) has said, "Never will I leave you.  Never will I forsake you."  Trust Him for the future based on what He has done in the past.  Your trust will not be misplaced.

As for my mom on the Boston T, my quick thinking daughter remembered Newton's Third Law of Physics that states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and applied it to the train system.  She ushered my mom off the northbound train at the next stop, crossed the platform to where the southbound trains were departing, climbed aboard, and arrived back at our original stop before I had time to formulate a game plan.  Your rescue may not be as speedy, but you can rest assured that deliverance is near.

God bless you as you grow in faith and trust.

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When You Get Weary

I watched her as she made her way across the parking lot.  She struggled with a toddler on each hip and a baby in a carrier on her back.  Perfectly balanced yet precariously upright, I wondered if a wiggle from one of the toddlers would tip the whole equation and send them all spilling to the ground.  The look on her face said it all.  Weary and overwhelmed.

I thought of her when I read Psalm 145:14:  “The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.”  The Hebrew word for “bowed down” is Kaphaph which means “bent double.” 

You don’t have to be a young mother juggling three children to be “bent double.”  Maybe sorrow, disappointment, or heartbreak has you overwhelmed.  Perhaps you are struggling to carry the weight of a single parent household or the responsibility of caring for an aging parent.  Whatever it is that has you bowed down, allow the words of Jesus to fill your heart, straighten your back, and carry your load.  “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mat. 11:28)  Let Jesus be your burden bearer.

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done

 I thought my college Head and Neck Anatomy class was hard.  I thought studying for and passing the National Board for Dental Hygiene, all seven hours of it, was hard, too.  I thought working full time and volunteering at church was hard.  I thought childbirth was hard.  And colic. . . months of colic. It was hard to surrender my child over for surgery at 9 months old .  So was praying for her salvation since before she was born.  Acting in front of 13,000 people was hard.  Staying married during rough times is always hard.

In comparison though, homeschooling remains the hardest thing I've ever done. 

 And if I had the choice to make again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Despite the lonely days when I thought if I didn't see another human being over three feet tall I would
scream. 

Despite the 547 days of phonics instruction before one of my daughters could read a four-word sentence without pausing.

 Despite the buckets of tears I (we) shed over Chemistry, Algebra, and Geometry.

 Despite the days when fear would grip me as I wondered if I might be single-handedly sabotaging my children's entire academic future. 

Despite the days when I dealt with the same sin for the 100th time, and then had to correct it in my children as well.

If I had the choice to make again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

 I would do it for the joy of hearing my daughter pray to receive Christ into her heart during morning devotions. 

   

I would do it for the pleasure of watching my daughter read all the way through Go Dog Go and knowing that I had taught her to read. 

I would do it again for the character training I received through the years.

  I would do it again for the opportunity to trust God when I knew that apart from His work in our homeschool, it would not succeed. 

I would do it again for the privilege of watching Him work in each of my daughter's lives as they came to understand the world through a Christian perspective. 

I would do it again for the precious gift of time. . . never enough, but SO much more than many of my friends had with their children during their growing up years

. 

I would do it again for every field trip/vacation we took to fascinating places on a shoestring budget.  

I would do it again for the chance to pray and ask God for all that we needed and watch Him provide bountifully.

I would do it again so I could own part of their high school graduation and their college acceptance. 

 I would do it again for the satisfaction of knowing that I had obeyed what God told me to do. 

If I had the choice to make again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

"I can do all things through CHRIST who gives me strength."

(Phil 4:13)

Birthday Reflections

When they were babies, my daughters taught me the most important lesson on birthdays:  Eat the frosting first!

The gals from the Pink Posse Breast Cancer survivor group taught me never to take birthdays for granted.

My 94 year old grandmother taught me that every birthday is a celebration, whether it's yours or not.

The GEICO car insurance bill I received in my mailbox today taught me that contrary to all the Hallmark cards, today is NOT just all about me.

Sydney, and Wendy, and Jered, taught me that it's very cool to have birthday buddies with whom to share my special day.

My friends and family taught me that it's nice to be remembered, even from as far away as Morocco, Colorado, Ohio, and yes, even Myrtle Beach.

And the Lord, my precious Father who is the Giver of life and  every good and perfect gift, taught me the most important lesson of them all.

"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."  (Psalm 90:12)

I read the birthday list in Genesis 5 today.  You know, "So all the years of Seth were 905 and he died. . . So all the days of Cainan were 910 years; and he died. . . "  Each entry read pretty much the same until I got to Enoch. "After he begat Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. . . So all the days of Enoch were 365 years.  And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." (v. 21-24)

Wow.  What a testimony.  Not that he lived, had children, and died, but that "he walked with God."  Every man on this list was granted a lifetime to live.  Some lived it for themselves in selfish pursuits.  Others walked with God.

When I come to the end of my life, may it be said of me, "She walked with God, and then was not, for the Lord took her."

I cannot think of a more fitting epitaph.