...and He lifts me up!

As I am sitting here in the airport waiting for our flight to Baltimore, I have been thinking about Louisiana and all the memories there. Thinking about how the last 2 years seem to have flown by so quickly - almost a blur in my mind. It seems to soon to be leaving, like we were just getting started. I started looking at some pictures that I had taken over the past few days as we said goodbye to friends, and began to feel sad. Even alone.

SO I started thinking about my friend Beryl and how she always reminded me to call on scripture and all of God’s promises. Just as I started thinking about how God’s word tells us that where I go He will be also, Morgan busted out singing. Nothing unusual for her, but what was neat was the song she was singing, and of course dancing to. It was a song that she learned when Uncle Charlie came to our church for a concert. It says…”I get down, and HE lifts me up!” “…in the darkness HE shines through”. Praise God for little children. Words so simple, yet so powerful to me right now. He is our Joy. Not a temporary, emotional smile, but an internal JOY! A joy so imbedded in us that it lives in the very depth of our soul. A joy that when we close our eyes (okay, you don’t have to actually close them) but when you just stop, and focus, and think about where you are in life, where you have been and where God is sending you, you find peace. Comfort in knowing that God is leading you and THAT is your Joy. As Christians we are given this joy, and the more that we learn, study God’s word and develop a relationship with HIM, the more that joy grows. What is interesting to me is that the joy that we have is so easily stomped on by life’s day to day activities.

This move has been such a roller coaster of emotions for our family. We KNOW that we are supposed to let God lead and ‘cast all our cares to him” but yet we get so busy and caught up that we forget, no, we choose without recognizing that we are choosing, to not let God be in control. Every time something would not go as planned I would go into ‘react mode’ and not think for one moment that there could be a purpose for this speed bump larger that I realize. In fact the last thing I did was say “well, thank you Jesus that so and so worked out…” Shame on me. I eventually was there, but not after having a small tantrum. What did others see in me? Especially those who were inconveniencing me. They saw sarcasm (yes, I know you’re surprised) and frustration. The worst thing was that my family saw the worst of it. I will say that I contained myself pretty well at times. Like when I went to get Mark’s uniforms at 9am and was told that I had to come back at 2pm because the workers there couldn’t count money. WHAT!?!??!! I did tell her that she should unplug the OPEN sign if they couldn’t do business. Oops, lost it a little I guess. But in my defense, there were many more things going on in my mind that I didn’t say. I kept thinking about that verse in James that says we should be slow to anger, slow to speak, and quick to listen. I get point for trying right? But did I stop and thank God for the other things that had been going well for us that morning? No. I loaded our already fighting children in the car they complained about getting out of, and now were complaining about getting into. Then sped out of the parking lot. Well, I was in a red sports car. J

Had I been in God’s word that morning? Had I invited God to be a part of my day? Sadly no. I have done better in general about inviting God into the ‘small things’ but I am still a work in progress. I figure I must be doing better when we find a great parking space and my daughter says “thank you Jesus for this great spot”. Sounds silly, but why not that Him for good parking spots. So when we don’t get such a great spot we say “Thank you Jesus for healthy legs and a beautiful day to walk”. See the difference here? By doing that in the little things, we can keep that joy on the top and not let things like “Geeze - that guy took my spot!” and driving around for minutes complaining about cars that take multiple spots. Okay, the people that use 2-3 parking slips for their cars still bug me, but they don’t care, they are not there, so why get bothered by it?

Now I m on the plane and as I begin to write again, I am reminded about the lady that was in front of me here on the plane. She laid her seat all the way back. I think her seat must be broken because I was practically breathing in her hair. The back of her seat was on my knees. I don’t know, when I lay my seat back I always check out what is going on behind me and often ask that person if they mind. I thought since it was early, maybe she wanted to get cozy and take a nap. NOPE. She sat up in her seat and hovered over her tray to look at a book!! Since then, Morgan and I traded seats so that she and Madison could watch a movie. The guy in front of me now had his seat back already. Not as far though. Far enough that I can’t have the screen all the way open, but not as bad. I can’t see the screen at this angle. But he too is sitting straight up doing some reading. Maybe he is claustrophobic? ;-) So I guess I will have some major editing that I need to do since I am just typing whatever comes to mind. Scary, I know.

We are on our way to Baltimore for a whirl wind of visits and last looks before heading out across the pond. Mark’s schedule is already booking up for events and meetings once we arrive and he assumes command. One of the smartest things we did was stay at a hotel in Dallas the night before leaving and having a shuttle load and unload our excessive amount of luggage.

God is continuing to look after us. Duh, I know. A friend offered to drive us to Dallas so we didn’t have to wait and see what surprise mode of transportation we would have. We were loaded down in there. I think her truck probably floated all the way back to Bossier!! I want to write about friends, but this is getting long, so I will save that for another day. Sorry no pictures again - I need an adapter to add pictures, which was mailed, so you’ll have to hang in there and visualize….don’t we look good? We are all smiling…I’m much thinner…the sun is shining behind us…okay, you get the picture. Now Christa can photo shop the image!

Hugs to all - Jen