Hello, dear readers! I do hope you are having a restful and peaceful weekend.
We all need down-time after the stressful week we have had. I feel safe in writing those words because almost everyone I know assures me their bandwidth is maxed out.
Our Abba Father knows this which is why He designed Sabbath. It's not for Him because the Word tells us He neither slumbers or sleeps; but we humans need a boatload of rest.
Also, rest is not JUST sleep, it's trusting God for the outcome when you've done all you can do.
I had to do just that on Monday. Before I tell you that story, though, I must first tell you what happened earlier in the day.
Our first daughter, the math teacher, won the prestigious Golden Apple award for our state! There are 10 awards given out of 400 teachers nominated, and she was the only one to receive the award in the bottom rural part of the state. The rest were all concentrated in a large metro area.
It was a big deal! We surprised her at a school assembly. News stations sent reporters and photographers. State political figures showed up. Faculty from her alma mater were there.
She won $5,000 and an all expenses paid sabbatical to attend the Spring semester at Northwestern!
Please understand, I'm trying to not come across as bragging, but I am proud of the grueling 13 years she has put in as a teacher. Nobody knows the countless hours she has spent in lesson prep and all the extra things she does to give her students a great high school experience. She runs Student Council, Prom, tutors, and is the cheerleader coach besides being the only high school math teacher at our tiny rural school.
This past week was Mother's Day and I want to say I'm so thankful for my children. They are amazing young women who have awesome work ethics and each has a passion for different things. Besides my teacher daughter, I have a daughter who works for the Soil and Conservation District and runs the State Envirothon competition and another daughter who is the office manager for the area Do-It-Best Hardware Warehouse.
I'm also very blessed to have my awesome grandchildren.
Now, back to my story of trusting God. Mondays are normally my writing days (or I should say evenings). After all the excitement of the day, making dinner and getting the kitchen cleaned up, I told Jim I had about half an hour's work to do at my computer, then I would join him for our nightly ritual of watching game shows.
I plopped down in my office chair and reached down in my tote bag for my hard drive. IT WAS NOT THERE!
Cold sweat ran down my back. My entire writing life, not to mention all my pictures, and files for my second job reside on that hard drive.
I clearly remembered zipping it up in its little case and putting it in my totebag thinking it barely fit and I needed to clean the tote bag out. Yet I searched everywhere, and it was not in the bag, or in the car, or at home.
Where could it be? I had dropped one of the Golden Apple signs from Elissa's big day on the sidewalk by the church. All I could imagine was when I bent over to pick the sign up, the hard drive must have fallen out of its perch in my tote bag. It was probably lying in the street. Or worse, it could have gotten run over by a car!
Only one thing to do. Jump in the car and drive back to the church and see if it was still there.
Oh, I prayed all the way begging God to let me find it. Finally, I remembered God is in charge of my life. He has promised to guide me. If the hard drive was gone, He would help me to write new stories, take new pictures, and most of my job's info was backed up. I told Him I trusted Him come what may.
I pulled up to the church. No hard drive lying on the street or sidewalk. I unlocked the door and went to my office.
THERE IT WAS! My memory had steered me wrong because obviously I had not put it in my totebag. I was remembering the morning's activities, not the afternoon's.
I have left my hard drive at the office before and had to go back and get it, but what made this time much more scary was feeling certain I had lost it outside. I'm remembering something I say a lot, "We walk by faith not by our feelings." I need to take my own advice.
I ended the week on a high note: Friday evening we got together with our bible study compadres and spent 3 hours studying, talking, laughing and praying together. So blessed to have my core group of brothers and sisters in Christ!
And that wraps up my week on the Journey. How did God bless you and yours?
