Come & Share my Joy With Me…

St.Michael2

I am not a dweller.  I don’t bear grudges, my grandmother did.  She didn’t talk to her sister for years over a gift misunderstanding.  They finally began the slow road to acknowledgment after my lifetime of snubs when I was about 13 and on my way home from boarding school, to Beirut, Lebanon, for the Christmas holiday.

They both wanted to send me with gifts for the family, so they both had to be at the airport.

Children have that knack sometimes.

The one that brings families together.

Sometimes.

My 4th child’s no show at Thanksgiving did not bring us together, on the contrary it threatened to split us apart.

All that weekend hubs and I felt as though we were on the high seas and had lost control of our ship with the rudder hanging over the side of a 20 foot wave, just dangling there in thin air.  A breath away from destruction.

We asked God, how can we carry on?

We asked, what did we do to deserve this?

We invited Him to run away to a tropical island with us.

I have an awful lot of the stiff upper lip in me still despite my American citizenship and having lived here for a long, long time.

I stand up to adversity, not because I want to, not because I feel I always can, but because I refuse to be conquered by anyone on earth.

The British slogan from the Second World War sums me up pretty well,

“Keep Calm and Carry On.”

Matthew 25: 21 was part of our devotional reading over the weekend,

“You did well, you are a good and loyal servant.  Because you were loyal with small things I  will let you care for much greater things.  Come and share my joy with me.”

God has a way with words don’t you think?

Not, “come lie on a beach for a week or two and chilax with me.”

Instead,

“Stay with me, I will give you more responsibility.”

No pampering in store for me, I am going to be put in charge of greater things!

Oh boy…I can wait!

My grandmother’s words, (yes the same grandmother who stopped talking to her sister)

“God does not allow anything to happen to you that you cannot handle,” now make sense.

As my friend Polly Wright from We are Cherished reminds her ladies,

“God has already put everything you need for your life IN you.”

God is not testing me to see how much I can take, He is making me stronger by teaching me how to dismay the enemy and not let him steal, kill and destroy my family.

He has given me his Word.

He has given me armor. (Ephesians 6:10-18)

For me, just knowing that, makes me stand up a little bit straighter and say,

“Ok God ready to tango?”

Nothing will separate me from the love of God. (Romans 8:35-39)

Nothing will separate my children from my love.

St. Michael defend me!

StMichael

 

 

 

 

 

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