This Week

We started this week with the excitement of it being the last week of school. Every morning when I went to get the kids up, I said "Time to get up. Today is the last (insert day of the week here) of the school year!" I must admit that I'm not one of those Mom's who dreads the end of the school year. I really do enjoy having my kids home with me. I love going to the pool every day. I love going to Happy Hour at Sonic if we have a mind to. I love vacations. I love Vacation Bible School. I love going to the zoo...if it isn't a gazillion degrees outside. I love going to the Adventure Science Center when it is! :) I love that I can still get up early and get my day started with an appropriate quiet time and then still have a couple of hours before they come down ready to go. I'm a better Mom during the summer, I do believe.

The week had its share of heartbreak, too.  Someone whom I've never met is going through unthinkable grief. My husband broke the news of The Chapmans to me after he saw a news story online. I couldn't believe how it affected me! I was shocked at how I felt as though I had lost a family member. But in the Body of Christ, that is just the way it is:

Rejoice with those who rejoice [sharing others' joy], and weep with those who weep [sharing others' grief]. (Romans 12:15 Amplified)

But I think it was more than that. I realized that if it could happen to them, it could happen to me and I could not imagine how I would bear up under the weight of it all. Then His Words came to me once again:

But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! (2 Corinthians 12:9 Amplified)

It was also the thought that though we trust God and we know that He is in control, we really want to believe that those who so faithfully and publically serve Him and make His Name famous empowering others to do the same should be exempt from this kind of unspeakable trial.

The truth is no one is exempt. I have no answers for the Chapman family. I have no explanation. But I know my God and I know that He is good and what He does is good. Our good and His glory is always the goal. And though right now we can't fathom the good that can come of this, I'm confident that in the days to come His glory will be revealed.

Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty - he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:7-10)

Blessings,
Dori