I am amazed at how God works things out for His good purposes. This morning started out well and quickly fell apart. I was dumbfounded by my children's behavior and their lack of motivation to accomplish the goal set before them. I did not want to act in anger or in fear (remembering that God is love and that nothing matters except faith expressing itself through love), so instead of getting anxious and irritable and barking orders at them to get it done, I let them carry on as they were and when the time had come for us to leave for our co-op I simply said that they had not pulled it together in time, we were not going to be late, and so they would not be going today. I can do this, because I am not currently teaching and they are in this co-op for extra-curricular and social purposes, not as our primary source of education and learning.
I left the older kids home (with supervision) to work on their studies, which they would normally do after co-op, and I took the younger two boys to their preschool and kindergarten classes. They were so enthusiastic about going that I did not want to disappoint them in their second week, and they had done nothing wrong to lose the privilege. I told their teachers and my older children that in the future we would either be early or absent. I am not going to be late week after week after week, and I am not going to get stressed trying to get out the door with six kids.
OK. That was background information. Also, circumstances were such that I had too many bags and samples of "friendship bread" to share, which I wanted to take to co-op to give away to any interested takers.
Because of these circumstances, I ended up in the Encourager's Room at our co-op, a place to fellowship with other homeschool parents when not fulfilling an obligation to the co-op. I would have been helping out in pre-school (just because), but I was too embarrassed about being late and needed to take the bread to the Encouragers Room. I introduced myself to several moms who were new to me and we began talking about our families. One thing led to another, and I ended up sharing about how God's love is more important than anything else, which led to sharing our testimony about how God healed us. I was amazed at how my testimony was received, and how God was using our testimony to bring hope and healing to another family (maybe more). I was amazed at how I was able to answer all of the questions asked of me. I was amazed at how I answered without fear. I was amazed at how God touched several lives through my testimony and through the power of His Word. Several of my beautiful new friends said that our meeting and my sharing was God ordained, and I concur. God arranged it! He encouraged them through me, and I too am strengthened in my faith because of our meeting and my fellowship with them. Amazing!
It happened because one bag of friendship bread didn't get to a friend in time, because my children failed at their task, because I acted in obedience to God and chose not to get angry, because I swallowed my pride and took my little ones to their classes late with profuse apologies, and because I was too embarrassed to stay and help in pre-school. (Note: pre-school was overwhelmed today with extra help and totally did not need my help anyway. How cool is that?!?) God IS amazing!
Indeed, He works all things together for His good purposes.
Update 1: I am very happy to report that all of the kids pulled it together the following week and we accomplished everything and got out the door on time with absolutely NO stress. It was so very wonderful!
Update 2: Praise the Lord! Really, He is amazing! One of the ladies that I shared with, the one who told me that she knew that God had ordained our meeting that morning, went home and considered all that we talked about, and being very encouraged, she quit her special diet and all of her pain medications and has been absolutely fine all week! I just want to say that I did not encourage her to take this step of faith. It was entirely between her and the Lord! God caused me to be there to share. He used my testimony of His work in my life to encourage greater faith in her. Wow! I can truly understand how Paul was able to say that it was God who worked in Him to will and to act according to His good purposes. When we trust Him and obey Him, He can take us where He wants us to go and use us for His very good purposes. Amen and amen!!!
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