Mama said there'd be days like this...

Mama said there’d be days like this…

These last 2 months have been hard, no way to sugarcoat it. We spent the month of April having our ‘lasts’ with the family we’ve done life with for the last 3 ½ years… last day at the pool, last field trip, last ‘night jump’, last workout, last weekend away. That was so emotionally draining and yet it was filling to be deepening a relationship we know we won’t be daily, but yet we still desire the investment into the relationship because it’s one of those ‘lifetime’ friendships (who knows…maybe our kids will marry someday?)

To top it off we were all battling sicknesses… within six weeks all five of us were on antibiotics at some point and fought high fevers, etc. … Ali was on antibiotics twice in those 6 weeks. After living here almost 9 years, I have a high awareness of the dangers of fevers and Maddy seems to spike the worst ones…that was a long 7days.

And then there were some stressful, unexpected work issues that can easily swoop in and make us question our confidence and calling (good thing God equips!).  Our intention is to live a live focused on relationships = trust, time, vulnerability, but that can feel like it bites ya sometimes.

No, these weeks haven’t been easy. These feelings of grief and loss, they hurt. They hurt in ways I don’t know how to process. But I’ve had to make a choice. A choice to have patience with sick kids. A choice to share feelings and be vulnerable. A choice to mourn with others. A choice to accept that my life has a lot of goodbyes in it. And a choice to “let no bitter root grow up and choke out grace (Hebrews 12:15). I have seen that when life gets tough, my God is still good. And I must choose to continually offer praise because it is the fruit of my lips because I confess His name (Hebrews 13:15-16).  My loss is slight compared to many others sufferings, but regardless of the severity of loss, I need to CHOOSE to let it pull me to Christ and His goodness. Because He is still God and still deserves my praise – even on the cloudy days.

It’s a new season… same location, same work. But it’s a new season for me. Please be praying for us to use this new season to be closer to Jesus and closer to our neighbors and those He wants us to impact.

God isn’t just good in the days of sunshine, He’s still good in the storm.