Weekly nutshells

I haven't blogged in a while so it seems. Things have been very busy!

Here's a few things about my week. Actually this is just yesterday:
-A little mouse hopped about our kitchen in the morning completely unaware of Aaron and myself. Of course, the dogs were completely unaware of the mouse too... unfortunately.
-Sent my first child to the ER. She is ok, thank the Lord. A little cut to the lip that required stitches. I will say that I saw God move though as 3 of us held this child down and tried to calm her for 30 minutes before her mom arrived. My assistant said, "I know you're going to be just fine because I said a prayer for you." and then she calmed down and stopped resisting just like that. We sang to her until her grandmother came.
-Also  yesterday, I sent a child home who cried for 2 hours and then threw up.
-Then I stepped in dog poop when I came home. I am sure I had every possible body fluid on me.

BUT the Lord has been so gracious this week! I have just sensed his presence and that has filled me with confidence this week. I am learning a ton about myself through my job and I am feeling like God is showing me who I am in him and what gifts he has given me.

I have been praying through and trying to memorize parts of Isaiah 55. God says that "My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways." I have been struck by how true that is. God looks at each situation so differently than I do. This week started off very rainy, which can tend to get me down. A few verses later in that chapter, God says that "As rain and snow fall to the earth and do not return without saturating the earth... so is my word that comes from my mouth." Anything the Lord speaks and ordains will be accomplished, will be fruitful, will be beautiful, and will be a blessing. Even me not liking raining days is saying that I don't think God was good in making in rain when in fact rain is such a blessing.

At times this week, Aaron and I have just been easily frustrated or quick to anger with each other and each time we were discouraged by not being able to identify why things seemed off. And so with no answers we simply prayed together and I just realized that God had ordained our marriage and he will bless it. We are human and we see marriage differently from. My thoughts on marriage aren't always God's thoughts on marriage.

My thoughts on life can be so far from God's thoughts at times. My thoughts are so me-centered. "I wish..." "I like... " "I don't like..." "I am doing this... I am doing that." I am (another I statement... just kidding, sometimes they are unavoidable :) reading the Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers. Although I look at the main character and think sometimes that it's a little unrealistic how faithful she is to her master (the main character is a slave)... that is how Jesus was and God's Spirit gives us the strength, power, and ability to be like Christ. We are to lay down our lives for God. He is the only thing that matter- he gives us life- he gives us each breath.

I wrote the other day about "breath prayers," and this idea of breath keeps coming up. I met one of our neighbors the other day. An older gentleman, 74 years old on Saturday, and just the sweetest, meekest, man. I am sure I learned his whole life story in about 20 minutes. He retired from the postal service and is going back to Clemson as a freshman to get his first degree ever! He was so cute talking about. He talked about living every moment for God because each breath we take is a gift from God so we always have a reason to be thankful. Wow.

Then as I was driving out to the Potter's Place, the lyrics from a David Crowder song lifted in my car "And he set me on fire with this breath in my lungs, I am coming undone... you are my joy, you are my joy, you are my joy."

God is my joy!