Trust in the Lord....

My son left yesterday for Iraq. I was ready this time to say goodbye. I didn't fall down and blubber like a crazy person. I hugged him, prayed over him and then hugged him again...and again and stole a kiss ;)

Then he boarded the plane. I only had tears in my eyes, until we got into the car and got out of OKC. Then I cried.

It's a hard thing sending your son off, knowing that might be the last time you'll ever see him, knowing he's going into harm's way, knowing that despite how light you have made of it, he still might not come back home.

But I know who I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day...

What more can be said?

A Busy Week

This has been a week of busy-ness. My daughter and her husband will be home tomorrow, but we have to go to OKC to get them. And that'll finish out our week.

We started two new classes Wed. night at church, one went okay another not so good. We have a meeting with all of the teachers tonight to discuss it.

And I lost my story I had outlined and am procrastinating on rewriting it.

Keep me in prayer dear ones.

Change

Change can be good. Change can be bad. One thing is guaranteed in life, however. That is that things will change. My son will be back for four days before he goes to Iraq for the year. My daughter's husband will be out of the military and they are coming home for a short time before moving on to a new place. My husband is back in school getting his masters. And the story I was plotting got eaten by my computer when I had to reformat my hard drive.

Any one of those things could be stressful or even devastating to someone. But something I have learned and tried to instill in my children is that life is a cycle. What you go through now will eventually pass and things will get better--only to have things go bad again and then eventually get better again. The psalmast put it great when he said, Hold on my child, joy comes in the morning, it's darkest just before the light...(my paraphrase).

We get so tangled up in the world sometimes with problems, kids problems, relationship problems, bill problems, (the three biggies they say affect every married couple), peer pressure, parental problems, (For you younger guys), that we forget that these trials will help us by refining us into what God wants us to be.

As gold or silver is melted, the gunk comes to the top to make the metal more pure--we're like that...these trials is the gunk in us. God uses many ways to refine us--but we need to learn from the trial or we will just have the same trial again. That doesn't mean if you learn from one trial, you wont' have others. As soon as God refines you in one area and you think, thank you Jesus, I am done with that, things have gotten better...God opens up another area in your life to reveal where you need fixing. OR, guess what guys, sometime we go through those trial so OTHER people can see and be fixed.

So, hold on my child, darkness is just for the night and it's always darkest before the dawn, but joy will come in the morning.