.Thoughts on Sadness and God's Perfect Ways

The flowers live by the tears that fall

   From the sad face of the skies;

And life would have no joys at all,

   Were there no watery eyes.

Love thou thy sorrow: grief shall bring

   Its own excuse in after years;

The rainbow! - see how fair a thing

   God hath built up from tears.

~ Henry S. Sutton ~

The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.

Nahum 1:3

Lord,
I know your ways are not our ways and even though it is hard sometimes - and especially right now, for me - I give thanks for your ways because they are good - they are part of your perfect eternal plan.  I give thanks and I trust in your promises.  Tonight, I cling to the promise from Isaiah 40 ~ your promise to comfort your people and your promise to gather your lambs and hold them close to your heart.

 I love you, mom and am so thankful that God, in his perfect way and plan, chose you for my mom!

Total Abandonment!

James 1:2-6

 Count it all joy my brothers (sisters), when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 

I have absolutely no reason to not trust every part of my life to God.  None.  Every part of my life is totally in his hands - the hands of the one who created me
~ the one "whose eyes saw my unformed substance",  the one who in his "book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them" ~ the one who loves me like no other, and the one who has promised me eternal life ~ the gift of God.  Yet, there are areas in life where my faith wavers ~ I become unsteady; I begin to fail or give way. I abandon (don't trust him with certain things or situations) God rather than being totally abandoned (giving up the control) to God. 
I abandon God each time I take control of my life.  When I am fearful.  When I worry.  When I am anxious.  When I try to fix things or fix people.  When I am totally abandoned to God I can rest in spite of the trials and the hard stuff that comes my way.  From the small, unimportant things such as missing a flight from Alabama to Arizona, to the bigger, more important things such as hearing that your mom has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is in stage 4, I must and I want to be totally abandoned to God knowing that I can trust him in all things ~ he is and always will be, no matter how difficult the situation and no matter the outcome ~ faithful. 

Hebrews 10:23 ~ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

May I be found faithful to him in every area of my life.

My beautiful mom with my beautiful daughter, Jessica.
My heart is hurting and sad but I rest knowing that God is in control and that every part (including the cancer) of my mom's life is in his hands.
I love you, mom, and am so thankful God chose to give me such a wonderful gift ~ you as my mom.
I love you too, Jessica.