Wind and Rain and Flooding, Oh My!

Wind and Rain and Flooding, Oh My!

The wind is howling, the rain is pouring down and the rivers and streams are flooding here where I live.  Needless to say, the weather is what everyone is talking about.

Last week we lost power for a little while, but weren't impacted too much because it came back on after 4 hours.  We enjoyed talking and being together without the distractions of the technology we are usually tied to.

11 years ago, though, was a different story at my house.  We had just moved back to our home town after being gone for 5 years.  Our oldest was 3 and our daughter was 11 months old.  We moved from a brand new home into a 50 year old house that needed massive remodeling.

The first week we were in our new (old) home, the weather made me begin to wonder about living in our new home.  A storm came in similar to the one we are having now.  We have a huge picture window in our living room that faces the front of the house.  The wind was as fierce in that storm as it is now.  I was sitting on the couch in front of the picture window with our 11 month old daughter and the wind blew the single pane window onto the couch, very close to us.

We got the pane put back in the window frame and looked around to make sure everything else was secure before going to bed for the night.  The wind was howling and the single pane windows made it seem like there was a freight train coming through our bedroom.  I loved that we moved to the country where our kids could have the freedom to play without fear, but our home was stretching the limits of my patience.

We set about to slowly replace and remodel many things in our aging home.  I was pregnant with our third child when we started the remodel process and remodeling with 3 small children was challenging, but now brings fond memories.  I wielded a sledge hammer and helped take out a double sided fireplace, while my son swung a hammer and helped take down walls.  All three kids rode their bikes through the house because there was sub-floor for a while. 

We rewired, re-plumbed, insulted everything, took some walls down to the framing and rebuilt, re-floored, put in new windows and doors, re-roofed and much more all while living in the house.  Whew!  I am exhausted just thinking about that process with three small children!  No wonder I was exhausted for several years!

Though remodeling was exhausting, I am ever so grateful now because we have a warm, energy efficient (my electricity bill this month was &50!), secure and quiet house.  The wind is howling, the rain is pouring, the river is flooding and we are safe and warm.  "The weather outside is frightful, but inside it's so delightful." 

Managing an old house by myself without it being remodeled would be exhausting, but managing an old house that has been remodeled is a blessing.  I may not have been able to see the blessing while we were remodeling, but I can see it now that we are safe and secure in the middle of the storm.

P.S.  I hope you are all safe and secure in this Winter weather!

In Everything Give Thanks

So the verse from the Bible, "In everything give thanks", has been running through my mind for the last week or so.  While I am normally a pretty content person, I was struggling with this a little, during Thanksgiving week, of all times!  There has been so much to take care of with Winter coming, that I think I was feeling overwhelmed and not looking for the blessing in the circumstances.

The circumstances I was feeling overwhelmed with, though, quickly brought me reminders of why I should be grateful in everything.  Here are several reminders from my week of reasons to be thankful:

1.  My yard was getting fairly overgrown and not very attractive.  I have been wanting to take care of it, but was a little nervous to do so because some of the plants and trees are pretty old and I didn't want to cut what I shouldn't.  I thought my son was at the neighbor's working on a fence when he came in the door and said that I needed to come outside right now to see what he had done.  Without being asked, he had trimmed the bushes and the trees.  The without being asked thing is huge because it is usually a major chore to get him to mow the lawn!  He trimmed everything and raked it all up in order to put up the Christmas decorations.  The house looks beautiful and he was blessed and I was blessed.

2.  The last four years have brought a major change in friendships with people I love.  Three of them contacted me, after not much contact, and wanted to reconnect.  It was good to hear voices that I haven't heard for a while and to remember the joy in those relationships.  Some relationships that had been broken are being restored and that is certainly one of the best blessings.

3.  I still live in the home that our children have been born and raised in.  It is a lot to manage sometimes.  One of my dear friends and I were talking and I mentioned that my kids were outside helping a neighbor and she said, "what a blessing that they can be outside and you don't have to worry."  I was humbled by that comment because I often take for granted that we live in a place where our neighbors watch out for and love my kids.  My kids can ride their bikes and go down the street to the neighbors' and I don't have to worry.

4.  We have had wind storms that have knocked the power out.  We lose heat, water and electricity when the power goes out.  We lit candles and had flashlights and were waiting to see when the power would come back on.  My kids all worked together to make sure we were safe and warm.  My oldest daughter counted the candles to make sure that we didn't accidentally leave one burning later.  My youngest daughter went around and gathered jackets and robes to make sure we were all warm.  We were just gathering up some things to go stay with a friend when the power came back on.  It was fun to be distraction free- definitely a blessing in disguise!

Speaking of a blessing in disguise reminds me of the song by Laura Story called, "Blessings in Disguise".  

Here are some of my favorite lines from that song:

'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

I know that the trials in my life are what have brought me to recognize the blessings the most.  Enjoy the song!

P.S.  Whether you are on the mountaintop or in the valley, may you enjoy and recognize the blessing!

One Loud Fam

The Lord has been bringing reminders to me from my past recently. I think the Lord knows what we can handle because, even a year ago, those memories may have brought more sorrow than joy. Today, though, I can think of times gone by and be thankful for the memory. Those memories are a part of me and my family and have shaped who we are.

For several years we lived a little distance away from our extended family, so our church and work family became our support network during those years. One of the families we worked with had 3 children very close in age. The license plate on their vehicle read 1LOUDFM, at least that is what I think it said. The meaning behind I do remember clearly, though; one loud family.  The best part of their license plate was that they took great joy in being "one loud family".  It wasn't that the family members were being rude or disrespectful, it was that they truly enjoyed being together and sharing their lives.  The kids were teenagers and young adults involved in multiple activities and they all supported one another.  At the time we only had one son and I remember thinking that my life was very different, but respected them for how they treated one another and enjoyed being together.

Now my children are 14, 12, 10 and 3.  I have "One Loud Fam".  I think the Lord sent the reminder from my past to be grateful for my "one loud fam" and to treasure the time we have together.  I am an introvert by nature and enjoy quiet time to regroup and re-energize.  There was a time when I would have felt the weight of "one loud family", versus the joy of "one loud family".  Quiet time does not exist for me, but now my energy comes more from enjoying the moments we have together.

The years that my children will be in my home are fleeting and I know that I will miss the busy-ness and noise when they are gone.  I love watching my kids enjoy one another.  My oldest son loves Christmas and thinks that Christmas decorating should start before Thanksgiving.  I woke up one day last week to him hanging all the lights outside, switching out the Fall decorations for the Christmas decorations and rearranging the living room furniture so that the tree would fit in front of the window.  He was so excited that his enthusiasm rubbed off on his sisters and brother and they were caught up in the excitement, too.

I had a quick thought of this time last year when he did the same thing because of his excitement and remembered that I was a little grumpy with him because of the mess I walked into, and not thankful for his enthusiasm and help.  I told him that I would just close my eyes this year to the mess and went to turn the Christmas music on and join in his excitement.  He mentioned that I was a little grumpy last year and gave me a hug and went back to work.  At the end of the day, the decorations were up, I cleaned up the mess without grumbling, the house looked beautiful and we enjoyed one another.  My blessings do overflow!

P.S.  Even if you don't have "One Loud Fam", I hope you enjoy the blessings and the people in your life today!  And when I am grumpy, remind me to do the same!

Consistency

My life changed drastically and suddenly four years ago.  I became a single mom to three young children and was pregnant with our fourth child.  In the middle of the chaos and confusion, I felt that God was telling me that He would redeem these lost years, but that I needed to stop playing in the shallow end of the pool with my faith- that He wanted to take me to the deep end of the pool and I needed to trust Him. 

I also felt like He was telling me that this process of growing up and growing in my faith would take time.  Like many Americans, I want a solution now, without having to wait.  I also wanted to have control of my circumstances and if I couldn't control my circumstances, I wanted other people to help change my circumstances.  I may not have verbalized this, but I did seek other people's opinions and prayer, at times before I sought the Lord's heart.

When everything is stripped away, you realize that you need to surrender and let the Lord lead.  All my striving in my own strength got me no where.  Once I was still and quiet, I heard the Lord speaking to me to seek Him in His Word and in prayer.  I wouldn't change the last four years, because the process of change has been, though painful, the most precious gift ever.

As I have sought the Lord, He has spoken to me that a lifetime of faithfulness is where our testimony lies.  His faithfulness to us never fails and we are to turn our lives over to Him to be filled up with Him and not ourselves.  Honestly, this consistency for me is often a minute by minute decision to take captive every thought.  The only way to take captive every thought is to know what His Word says.  We can only know His Word if we are in it.  Any time I feel far from the Lord, it is because I have moved and am not reading and praying as consistently, not because He ever moved.

I heard a great illustration a while back about the water drop that keeps dropping onto the hard stone.  Over time, the shape of that hard stone changes because of the consistent drop of the water.  The water doesn't stop, it keeps dripping and dripping and dripping.  It is not one drop that changed the stone, it is many drops over time that changed the stone.  So, too, with us and our faith, it is not a one-time "drop" that changes us, it is a lifetime of faithfulness.

It is getting up in the morning and determining to seek the Lord for that day.  It is in being present with those we love.  It is is continually seeking to lay down our own will and way and surrender it all to the Lord's will and way.  It is not the mountain top events in my life that have changed me the most, it is the every day surrendering and growing that have started the process of cutting away everything that does not bring Him glory.  I am certainly not there yet, but the last four years have shown me that consistency over time is where true faith lies.

The greatest heroes of the faith, to me, are the ones who have run the race consistently for a lifetime.  Though they may stumble, they get up again and again to be changed and used by the Lord.  I spent the first half of my life focused on doing things in my own strength- what an ugly testimony.  I pray the next half of my life is spent in service to the Lord and others.

The message of consistency rings true in all areas, faith, family, friends, business.  "The race does not go to the swift, but he that endures"  May we be found faithful in all things- being persistent like the water drop on the stone.  "Keep on keeping on."