Blessed beyond measure

For those of you that know me, you know that several years ago God asked me to stretch way beyond my comfort zone when my principal at the time asked me to teach 5th grade.  Reluctantly, I agreed.  For two years, I taught 5th grade alongside one of my very best friends.  Those years brought many challenges and many blessings.  I had the privilege of teaching students that I had previously taught in second grade.  I also had the honor of teaching new students.  Combined, the students of those two years brought much joy into my life, amid the stresses of wanting to give them all that they needed and often unable to give or get them what they needed most.  At the end of the second year in fifth grade, I asked to be moved back to a primary grade and taught second grade the last two years.

When we first taught 5th grade together!

 



Fast forward two full years...

In the spring of this year, God again asked me to move out of my comfort zone and pursue a new teaching position in a new district.  (This is big for me because CHANGE isn't something that I easily meet with acceptance.)  Striving to be obedient, I applied for several jobs within that district, including second grade, third grade, and fourth/fifth split grade.  I was called for an interview.  When the principal called to offer the job to me, you guessed it...it was for the fourth/fifth grade position.  Again, striving to be obedient, I accepted the position and prayed that God would give me exactly what I needed to be able to reach my new students.

Since that night, He has been answering that plea over and over in so many ways that I probably can't even remember them all.  First, that same evening that I got the call, my friend (the one that I had taught 5th grade with before) called and said that she had just been told that she would be teaching 4th/5th in her school.  WOW!  God cares so much for both of us that he placed us in the same grade so that we could spur each other on even though we are in different schools in different districts.  What a blessing it has been to chat, plan, share ideas, and pray for each other as we embark on this latest adventure in God's plans for our lives!  Second, He placed me at a school where the principal obviously loves her students and her teachers and does all she can to support both groups!  At the same time, He gave me two wonderful young ladies to work with on my new team.  They have been more than helpful, they've been a life-line!  Finally, over the last few weeks God has poured out His love on me by confirming the "whys" of placing me with this age.  From reconnecting with one of those former fifth graders that is now starting fresh as a freshman in high school to running into a student I had in second and fifth grades at Wal-Mart to being able to cheer for three of my former babies for their performance in a major musical, peace and a renewed excitement for teaching has flooded my soul.  To top it all off, within minutes of my twenty-eight students walking through our classroom door, I fell head over heals for each of them.  They have a zeal for learning that is contagious.  In just three short days, bonds have been built and our classroom family has formed.

 

So while there has certainly been stressful moments (like...my little orange flash drive that held nearly all my school files of the last 5 years is lost...AGAIN!), saying YES! to God has produced a peace that can't be explained in human terms. 

My cup overflows as God continues to bless me beyond measure!

Luke 6:38  Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

Blessings,
Cindy

How forgetful we are!

So I'm sure you've heard it said that elephants never forget!  People on the other hand are quite forgetful.  I am most likely the queen of forgetfulness.  In fact, I often joke with my students about my slippery mind.  Sometimes being forgetful can serve us well.  Other times it is something that can cause us to fall.

This past week (well past couple of weeks) have been some the most emotionally and physically exhausting days of my  life.  My faith in my Lord and in people has been tested.  I have found myself literally crying out...shouting out...begging for God to help!  My face and eyes have stayed red and puffy from crying.  I have felt physically ill from the emotional distress.  At one point, I questioned whether God even heard my pleas.  I knew in my head that He did, but at that moment my heart felt alone and deserted.  During these past weeks, I have spent as much time as possible reading scripture, listening to worship music, praying, seeking counsel from godly friends.  While all that helped for brief moments, I still felt like I was in a desert all by myself.  So what was the problem?

Have you ever been completely ready to leave the house, get out to car, and THEN realize you forgot your keys in the house?  Or maybe you are cleaning your house and you head into a room to get something and all of the sudden you have no idea what you went in that room for in the first place?  Possibly, you are like my mother-in-law who left church one Sunday (like completely left) and then realized she was short one kid?  (I don't think I've ever forgotten one of my kids anywhere, but don't hold me to that.  After all, I very well could have just forgotten that I did it.)

What do all those instances have in common?

In all those cases, you had to GO BACK!  You can't get anywhere without your keys, so you GO BACK to get them.  You can't remember what you needed, so you GO BACK to the room where you thought of it in the first place.  It is frowned upon to forget your child somewhere, so you have to GO BACK to get him.

This morning, in the stillness of the quiet house, God reminded me that I have forgotten some very important things and that I need to GO BACK and get them.

First, I had forgotten that I am the daughter of the ONE True KING!  The King who NEVER forgets me.  The Lord who will NEVER leave me or forsake me.  I had to GO BACK and be reminded that "He Himself has said, “I will never desert, nor will I ever forsake " in Hebrews.  I had to go back and get my identity!  I am not the wife who is too tired to get up and fix her husband's breakfast or the mom who is so emotionally spent that she didn't make it to her son's concert or the teacher who is at the end of her rope because she doesn't know how to reach a suffering student.  While all that is true of how I have felt these last few days, it is not the TRUTH about who I am.  I am a child of God and THAT is where I should find and rest in my identity.  

I also need to GO BACK to the things I know.  We sometimes get so caught up in being the best and learning new ways of doing things that we forget that the "old" ways worked!  Yes, there are some great new ideas out there about running your home or about connecting with students, but sometimes we just need to lay those aside and go back to the ways that have worked for us in the past.  I know that the house will run more smoothly if all of us that live here work together and do a little each day.  I know that my students are much more likely to learn in they are enjoying the act of learning.  I know that my relationship with my husband is the most peaceful and the most passionate when we are intentional about dating each other.  I have to GO BACK to what I know works...even if it isn't what others say "should" be happening.

Finally, there are times that forgetting is good.  I realize when we're wronged, it is difficult to 'forget' and most likely we won't ever truly forget.  However, when we couple that forgetting with forgiving it goes much farther than trying to forget about it without forgiving.  So often in life, people don't even realize how they hurt us.  Maybe it is something they say or something they do.  Maybe it is something they DON'T say or something they DON'T do.  The truth is that we are called to forgive anyway.  Jesus said in Matthew 6, "¹⁴ For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. (Emphasis added)  Oh Lord, thank you for this reminder.  I'm commanded to forgive.  It says nothing about whether they ask for forgiveness or not.  I'm supposed to forgive!  If I live with a spirit of unforgiveness or revenge, then why should I expect my Creator to forgive me for the multitude of sins I commit daily?

So the challenge is to GO BACK!  We will always forget, but the one thing we need to remember is to GO BACK to the TRUTH of who we are in Christ and the truth of what we know works.  Will we be able to do this perfectly?  Nope!  But to borrow a phrase from Lysa Terkeurst, we can make "imperfect progress" by striving each day to do better.



Blessings,
Cindy

Our MIracle Son (One of them anyway) Part 2

If you haven't read part 1, please go here first to read about the miraculous beginning of Cody's life.

Cody was an energetic, loving toddler!  He adored the Lion King and Spider Man.  He carried a little Simba action figure with him everywhere he went.  EVERYWHERE!  When he liked something you knew it!  When he didn't like something, you knew that, too!  He hated getting his hair cut and having his nails clipped.  He would scream to the top of his lungs, "IT HURTS!!!  MOMMY, IT HURTS!"  No amount of consoling would change his feelings on the matter, either.  He was a passionate child.

Fast forward to the spring semester of first grade.  At this time, Blake and Cody were 6.  (Dale was 5.  That means Brooke was 8.)  Needless to say, our house was always buzzing. 

We live out in the country on ten acres with a wonderful creek that meanders around our property.  There are lots of trees!  There are many things for young boys to get into.  Our boys were climbing trees by the time they could walk...or at least it seemed that way.

It was the week of Spring Break.  At the time, I worked for a private preschool that was on the same schedule as the public schools.  We were all home for Spring Break.  This particular day (the Monday of break) was a beautiful day...perfect temperature, sun shining.  It was a great day for the kids to be outside playing.  The boys often roamed around behind our house while we would go in and out to check on them.

Late that afternoon, one of the boys (I don't remember if it was Blake or Dale) came running into the house and said that Cody had fallen out of a tree.  We raced out the back door and Cody was limping toward the back deck.  Just the relief that he was up and walking flooded over us.  However, when we got him in the house he couldn't breathe and was crying because he was hurting.  He couldn't tell us exactly how he was hurting.  He knew his foot hurt, but he basically was hurting all over. 

My parents rushed up to our house.  I was trying to soothe Cody and at the same time telling Doug that we needed to go to the hospital.  Doug (being the man that he is) said something like, "Oh, he'll be alright!  After all, he walked to the house."  Doug went outside to see where he fell.  When he came back in he told us that Cody had fallen 12 feet out of the tree and another 6 feet into the creekbed.  My tiny little boy had fallen 18 feet!  My mother and I had decided we would go to the hospital with or without Doug.  It ended up that Doug and I took him to Kosair hospital and my parents stayed with our other children.

The staff at Kosair immediately took him to a trauma room.  They ran x-ray after x-ray after x-ray.  He had broken his foot right at the growth plate.  He would have to put no weight on it for some time.  At that point, we were once again relieved and thankful that his injury, while serious, was so much less than it could have been.  The doctors decided that Cody should stay overnight for observation. 

That night, Cody would cry out in extreme pain everytime he moved.  Something wasn't right and this Momma knew it!  It really makes no sense that I thought something else was wrong when the doctors were saying there wasn't anything else.  After all, Cody was going to hurt; he had fallen hard and a long distance.  The only explanation is that God prompted me to know something more was wrong.  I pestered and complained to the attending physician until he finally relented and said they would do a scan of Cody's spine from top to bottom.  He said to me, "I'm only doing this to prove to you that nothing is wrong."  I said, "Great!  I hope you are right!"  Grrrr!  That still gets under my skin when I think about it.  Anyway, I digress.

Becky, my sister had come to visit Cody and told Doug and me to go get something to eat.  We went downstairs to McD's and came right back to Cody's room.  We weren't gone 20 minutes.  Becky met us at the door and told us that the doctor had come in and told her that Cody had to lay flat on his back and couldn't move.  The scan showed that he had broken his back.  I can't even type this without crying.  A broken back?!  What would that mean?  What will they need to do?  How can we control his pain?  If he moves, will he end up being paralyzed?  Oh so many questions. 

Of course, we were praying through all this, but the urgency became even more intense.  Cody had to lay flat on his back for several days in that hospital bed until they could make a custom turtle-style back brace.  He had so many prayer warriors interceding for him.

We spent a full week at Kosair's.  Cody would come home in the back brace, wheelchair, and a walker.  He could not get up at all without the brace.  He could not put any weight on his foot so he had to be in the wheelchair.  The walker was for moving small distances around the house.  We moved his bed into the living room to care for him 24/7.  Cody finished his first grade year home-bound.  He spent from April through the end of July in the brace and the wheelchair.

It wasn't until we were past the initial shock of his injuries that we realized how God had protected him the day he fell from the tree.  Cody probably didn't weigh 35 pounds at the time.  (Our boys have always been tiny.  That is until they started getting taller and taller.)  He fell 18 feet into a rocky creekbed hitting branches on his way down.  He walked to the house on a broken foot and with a broken back.  BUT GOD protected him!  Cody could have just as easily been killed that day.  Beyond the initial fall, Cody could have been paralyzed because of a delay in the diagnosis of the broken back.  BUT GOD had other plans for Cody.

For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.

Psalm 91:11 

Part 3--coming soon.

Blessings,

Cindy

Our Miracle Son (one of them anyway)--Part 1

The events of this past week have found me pondering on the life of our 'middle' son.  Really, Cody shares the first son position with his twin brother.  It just happens that Cody was born 2 minutes after Blake, thus the middle son title.  As I thought about Cody's life...from the time in my womb until now at almost 18 years old, I realized more than ever that God's hand has been upon him in mighty ways and know that God has wonderful plans for his future.  Let's back up to the winter of 1993 or a little before.

I had always wanted twins and had prayed and prayed that God would bless me with twins!  When I was pregnant with our daughter in the winter of 1991-92, my sister was also pregnant.  I knew I was having 1 precious baby and I was so thankful!  Then, my sister found out that she was having twins!  While it didn't decrease my thankfulness for our baby on the way, I must admit that my heart sank!  I thought some not-so-nice thoughts.  After all, I HAD PRAYED FOR TWINS!  I wanted twins.  I really thought she got pregnant just because I was pregnant!  (Yes--I'm the spoiled baby of our family!)  Oh my, the battle that waged within me about the twins!  Once our beautiful babies were born, I helped daily with Alex and Austin, while we also cared for Brooke.  Those were some difficult but amazing days!

Fast forward two years to the winter of 1993...November to be exact so really the fall, I suppose.  I had recently found out that I was pregant again!  What a blessing!  We always knew we wanted a large family.  Doug and I were so excited!  So much was going on in our lives at the time.  We had bought land several years earlier and the time had come to start building our house.  The night before the foundation was to be dug, I started bleeding.  I was devastated even before knowing what was causing it.  I worried and fretted all night.  I called the doctor and he told me to wait until the morning and see what happened and then go straight to his office.  We already had plans for Dougie and a family friend to start digging for the foundation, so he couldn't go with me.  A dear friend from church said she would go with me.  We waited and she was such an encouragement and comfort.  At this point, I was only a few weeks pregnant.  (I always knew almost at conception.  I was blessed with morning, mid-morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night, and even middle of the night sickness!) 


The doctor had decided to go ahead and do an ultrasound to see what was going on.  The technician doing the ultrasound was so sweet.  She started the procedure and turned the screen to look at it closely.  This scared me to death!  Then, she looked at me with a perplexed expression.  She turned the screen to me and asked..."Is there a history of multiple births in your or your husband's family?"  By this time, my friend's eyes were as big as saucers!  I said,  "Actually, yes.  My sister just had twins about 1 1/2 years ago."  The technician went on to point out two teeny tiny blips on the screen.  I was so early on that all that was visible were two amazing beautiful, awe-inspiring, blips on the screen.  There were TWO heartbeats!  I WAS EXPECTING TWINS! 

We rushed to the property where Doug was working and shared the news!  He turned as pale as a person can turn.  I thought he might pass out!  Then, the digging of the foundation stopped!  We needed to add more room.  :)  Isn't God's timing perfect?!

Fast forward a few months into the pregnancy.  Expecting twins in 1994 meant that I was privileged to have multiple ultrasounds unlike with Brooke when I had only 1.   During an ultrasound appointment, the technician abruptly left the room.  When she came back, she had a doctor with her.  Once again, my heart sank!  The doctor explained to me that Baby B (Cody) had something wrong with one of his kidneys.  He explained that I needed to follow-up with my OB/GYN and also consult with our pediatrician.  He then went on to strongly suggest that after those consultations, we come back to the hospital to have selective reduction counseling because of all that the kidney 'malformation' could mean. 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  YOU WANT ME TO CHOOSE TO REDUCE MY TWINS TO ONE?  YOU WANT ME TO CHOOSE TO END THE LIFE OF THIS BABY THAT I HAD PRAYED ABOUT FOR SO LONG?



(Ultrasound later in pregnancy...2 heads)

Well, I did talk to my OB/GYN and told him point blank that the only choice to be made is leaving this baby in my God's hands and trusting that God has a plan for him!  Thankfully, my doctor completely agreed!

We continued through the pregnancy, having ultrasound after ultrasound.  Each time, the kidney problem seemed to either stay the same or be a little worse.  Doug and I took the concern to our church family at the time.  Our church family prayed over my sons, even while I was pregnant.  When Blake and Cody were born, they immediately started doing tests on Cody's kidneys and other things, as well.  Both babies seemed perfectly healthy, except Cody's kidney still wasn't quite developed the way they said it should be.  All those "birth defects" the doctors were concerned about...NONE!





(Cody on left; Blake on right)

Again, we took our concerns to our church family.  This time, the church prayed over Cody.  I still get chills when I remember that day.  God's power that flowed through those believers was overwhelming!  At Cody's next check-up, his kidney showed no signs of any malformation!

These were the first things God did for Cody.  Psalms 139:13 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb."  God was at work in the life of Cody even before time began.  God also had big plans for Cody as he grew.

Part 2 coming soon.

Cindy ♥ Doug, A Marraige Made in Heaven

I've been promising a post about marriage for sometime.  Since I've been thinking A LOT about Doug this week with him working out of town, I thought now would be a good time to go ahead with it.  First, let me say up front, I'm not an expert on marriage, but I am experienced. :)  Doug and I have been married for 22 years.  We have experienced the wonderful seasons where we were on top of the world taking in the views from the highest mountain peaks.  We have also experienced the lowest valleys we could have experienced in a marraige and still came out with the rings on our fingers and the promise in our hearts.  So while I'm not an expert and will never claim to be, I have lived a gamut of experiences in my married life.

♥ Our story ♥

I never tire of telling our love story for it truly is a story of a marriage made in heaven by our One True God.  Doug and I met at church when we were in early elementary school.  I was in first grade.  He was in second grade.  By fourth and fifth grade, we were 'going together' and holding hands under the hymnal or church Bible.  (I don't advocate that for children. :)  However, it truly was innocent.)  We were best of friends.  We talked all the time.  We liked spending time together.  Our sisters were friends.  Our parents were friends.  We went to the same church.  We went to the same school.  We lived down the road from each other.  We rode the same bus.  In other words, we were able to spend a lot of time together.  We knew each other.  If anyone asked me at the early age of 10 or 11 who I was going to marry, I could have instantly told them, "Dougie!"

In middle school, we would 'like' each other off and on.  However, being middle schoolers, we also liked other people, too.  We remained close friends, but we were becoming two very different people.  Then, one awful day in high school I learned that Dougie would be moving to Texas.  I was a freshman, and he was a sophomore at the time.  There was no warning.  They were moving, and there was nothing I could do.  That was a very sad day in my life.

I went on living, of course.  I liked other boys.  I know he liked and dated other girls.  Then, in December on my sixteenth birthday, I was at a BC basketball game with some friends.  One of my best friends came running down the bleachers toward me yelling, "Cindy...Dougie is here.  Doug is looking for you!"  I thought she was just messing with me.  After all, he had moved more than a year before.  Why would he be there? 

I looked up and THERE HE WAS...as handsome as ever...walking toward me.  I'm sure my heart stopped beating for just a moment.  I'm also sure there was a smile as big as Texas on my face.  What a wonderful birthday present!  Well, we dated for about a month and then, he just disappeared.  I tell him often that he was quite the jerk!  I was so hurt!  My heart was completely broken.  I questioned why God had brought him back into my life (which I truly believed then that he had and I still believe NOW that he had) just to rip him out of it.

Again, life went on.  I dated again.  This time with the determination that D.F. would never hurt me again.  I would give my love to someone else.  I enjoyed the rest of my junior year of high school and began my senior year.  I was working at what was then Otto Drugstore. 

One particular day in September I was working the cash register up front and got a phone call from my sister.  She was at Doug's sister's house.  She said that he wanted me to come there when I got off work.  I said, "NO!"  Later, he called.  He was persistent.  I told him that he had hurt me enough and that I would not come there to see him.  If he wanted to see me, he'd have to come to Shepherdsville.  I told him what time I was leaving work.  He was there waiting when I went to my car. :)  That was September 6, 1987.

We went on our first official date that day.  He wonders why I love Mr. Gatti's so much.  That is part of the reason, I would guess.  We sat at Mr. Gatti's for hours that day.  We talked.  He apologized profusely.  We talked some more.  It was that day, sitting in the party room of Mr. Gatti's all by ourselves, with Doug writing sweet stuff on a helium balloon, that I fell head over heals completely in love with him.  Oh, I already loved him, but that day sealed the deal. 

On March 15 of the next year, Doug proposed.  We had plans to wait 5 years to get married.  I would finish college.  He would finish trade school.  However, we knew we could not wait 5 years.  So, we set the date.  August 5, 1989.  I still laugh when I think about it.  We were just being silly thinking we would wait that long.  We had literally been waiting our whole lives for this.  In May, we went to my parents and told them we couldn't wait a year to be married.  After much discussion, it was decided the date would be changed to August 6 of the same year.  There was ONE stipulation.  I couldn't say the word wedding until high school graduation was over.  (I was graduating valedictorian.  My parents were not going to allow anything to get in the way of me finishing what I had started.  I am very thankful for that.)   I graduated in May, and we planned the wedding in less than 2 months.

As I think back over the story of our life up to that point, I smile...I laugh...I even get a bit teary eyed at times.  When I think of how God orchestrated two separate families...two separate lives...so that Doug and I would be placed together for His glory and our good, it amazes me.  You see, none of that story is my doing or Doug's doing.  We couldn't have come up with such an outlandish on again/off again thing if we tried.  I mean, honestly...Doug's family up and moved to TEXAS and then, what I failed to mention above was that while he was visiting friends in Kentucky, his family decided to move back to Kentucky without telling him.  God had to have acted upon my heart to soften it to let Doug back into my life after being hurt.  As humans, we tend to build up scar tissue that isn't easily broken through when we're hurt by someone.  God had to place me on Doug's mind for him to decide he wanted to see me after more than a year of being away.  And to think it all started when we were small children. 

Our lives changed on August 6, 1988.  We were no longer just Cindy and Doug.  We became Mr. and Mrs.!  What a wonderful change!

My insights and thoughts on Christian Marraige:

1.  God has to be first in both of your lives.  This will be evident in so many ways.  Do you go to church together?  Do you pray together?  Do you study or discuss the Word together?  Are you committed to following God's will for your lives?  Are you raising your kids His way?

2.  My husband is second in my life.  I am second in his life.  This is a lesson we want our children to understand completely.  We want them to know that we love them...completely and unconditionally.  However, we want them to know that they cannot come between us a husband and wife.  Kids can be and will be manipulative if you let them be.  Don't allow them to move into the spot where your husband should be.

3.  When you get married, the focus should change from "I" to "WE".  When a couple consistently socializes separately instead of together, trouble is soon to follow.  To get to the point of marriage, what did you do?  You went out together.  Marriage shouldn't change that.  If anything, it should make it better.  The lowest time in our marriage is when we were both going out with friends instead of together.  We invited trouble into our lives by opening a door for Satan to step right into.  Why go to dinner with a friend on a Friday night and leave your spouse at home...especially on a regular basis?  Think about how often you are spending time with other people away from your spouse. 

4.  Friends of the opposite sex is a dangerous and slippery slope to walk.  I'm not talking mutual friends where you and your husband are friends with another couple.  I mean where the wife is friends with another man that her husband is not friends with or vice-versa.  We tend to think that we are super-human and can just be friends and that those friendships will never go where they shouldn't.  I'm here to tell you, friends, that you are lying to yourselves.  Once again, that opens a door for Satan to step right in.

5.  Work to make your marriage the best it can be.  What have you done for your husband today?  What have you done today that says "I love YOU" without using the words?

6.  Learn early to say, "I'm sorry for _____________.  Will you please forgive me?"

7.  Learn how to forgive even when it hurts.

8.  Play together.  Again, what did you do before you got married?  You had fun together.  Why stop?

9.  Hold hands.  :)

10.  View your marriage as a FOREVER promise.  Divorce is not an option.  God is an amazing God that can heal hurts, give peace, calm fears, and in the process SAVE marriages. 

I've often wondered why our story had so many twists and turns before we finally figured out we belonged together.  After 22 years of many highs and some very low lows, I think it's because God knew what we would experience and was preparing us for the times ahead.  He was preparing me for future heartache and for future healing.  He was preparing Dougie for how to be the wonderful godly husband he is today.  God was teaching us about forgiveness and persistence.  You see, God knew that without this we would have given up on our marriage ten years ago.  God knew what we needed, when we needed it.  I'm so thankful for God's provision and protection over our marriage.    How exciting it is to know that my marriage to Dougie is truly God-given, God-ordained, God-orchestrated...absolutely

♥ a marriage made in Heaven! ♥

Blessings,
Cindy

Had it not been...

Don't you love when God speaks to you?  Isn't it so exciting to be reading in God's word and feel like...no, KNOW that He is speaking directly to YOU?!  Don't you just get giddy when what you are reading hits home so hard that you know that God put you in that passage on this day so he could whisper sweet things to you?  Our God is so amazing!  He never ceases to amaze me.

This morning, I was continuing my study in Psalms.  (I love Psalms!  Who doesn't?)  Anyway, I'm up to the Psalms of Ascents that were said/sang as the people traveled to Jerusalem and to the temple.  Most of these Psalms are quite short.  Usually, I study 2 to 3 a day because of their length.  However, this morning, Psalm 124, which is only 8 verses, struck me so that I had to stop after reading it several times and share it with you.

It is a "Song of Ascents, of David" that is 8 verses.  It talks about Israel's past.  But...my oh my, when we take this and apply it to our lives...when I take it and apply it to MY life...WOW!  Here it is...

Psalm 124

"Had it not been the Lord who was on our side,"

Let Israel now say,

"Had it not been the Lord who was on our side

When men rose up against us,

Then they would have swallowed us alive,

When their anger was kindled against us;

Then the waters would have engulfed us,

The stream would have swept over our soul;

Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul."

Blessed be the Lord,

Who has not given us to be torn by their teeth.

Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper;

The snare is broken and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

Read it again!  Truly I understand this is an account of how the Lord saved the Israelites from destruction.  However, has he not done the same for us as believers?  Does he not do the same for us day after day? 

What if the Lord was not on our side?

I can not imagine living my life without God on my side...in my life.  I can't fathom going through the daily grind without Him.  I certainly can't begin to imagine facing life's biggest challenges...a sister who fought cancer, health issues of parents, raising children and all the issues that go with that, financial problems, tragedies in life that we don't have the answers for.

As David says, "Blessed be the Lord!"  Or thanks be to God for not turning us over to our enemy or giving us over to ourselves.  Our help truly is in the name of the Lord!  Amazing...the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End, the ONE who created EVERYTHING...

HE IS ON MY SIDE!

DO YOU HAVE HIM ON YOUR SIDE?

Blessings,

Cindy

We've Only Just Begun...

Here we go! We've decided to try the whole blog thing as a way for us to keep family and friends posted on the ever crazy world of our family and as a way for Brooke and I to continue to build our relationship. As she is moving toward a new phase in her life--graduation is now just 6 months away--we are finding that we are closer than ever.

I must say that this has been such a blessing that God has poured into our lives. I've always known my 'job' is to be her mother, not her best friend. Sometimes that is hard medicine to swallow, especially when we have only 1 girl. However, over time I feel like she and I have both come to a deep respect for the roles God has placed us in and we are loving every minute of the time we get to spend together.

We're not sure exactly how this blog will work for us. Sometimes you will hear from me and sometimes from Brooke. There will probably be times we'll collaborate. We're simply looking forward to what God has for our family and want to share glimpses of that with you. We hope you enjoy the journey!