Matt, Nora and I took some of the VP's to the beach, and the cloudy rainy day (and minus two children) allowed me to actually sit at the beach and to spend lots of time asking Him to clear my mind and heart and refocus. So important.
Julie got me Francis and Lisa Chan's book, "You and Me Forever", and I was finally able to get it started. He noted something important right from the start: "We hear strong opinions from arrogant people all day long. We need to cleanse our minds by reminding each other of God's actual words."
Staring at the waves and His creation (which in my opinion is always close to staring at God) and thinking through God's actual words for my life, our lives...such an important refocusing on not MY perspective on anything, but on what is real and true....not how I feel or what seems to be true, but on who He is and what He says.
(and I collected more sea glass, which is my favorite!)
The reality is this: in light of who He is, when we truly sit silent and stare at Him in our lives, it is impossible to even dare care what other people might think, or even what we ourselves might think or feel. It is only His thoughts, His heart. The reality of His heart is that His love is great, His holiness is high, His truth is TRUE, His grace is abundant, His path is narrow, and not alone.
I needed a moment to lay my feelings down and pick up His, to lay my fears at His feet and to stay there. Very thankful for that!
Church this morning was just what I needed, too. We drove out to Granny's church, Sofie immediately disappeared and spent the entire service in the front row on Granny's lap (an answer to many years of prayer itself...that Sofie would grow comfortable enough in the language and culture and in relationships and in courage to actually be at home NOT clinging to mom or dad at every moment), the worship was fantastic, the sermon was solid, we were all able to worship together and with all our visitors and with our Haitian brothers and sisters, and Nora was even able to make some new friends.
...who she befriended by showing them her belly button, of course :)
Afterwards we hung out at Granny's for awhile, and had a chance to pray with her.
Sunday is laundry day
The rest of the day was spent playing and resting and feeding all our visiting friends dinner, and I'm so thankful for all the relationships and dynamics and experiences around the table. What rich stories and powerful witnesses our girls experience daily through EBS' many visitors.
Keep in His reality...You are dearly loved. He offers more-than-stable for our times, in our times, in our hearts.
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