Hello friends! It was Super Bowl Sunday so we had a relaxed Sunday of football at home for the evening. We enjoyed good food (that’s the best part to me) and the big girls decided they would like to make stuff.
Jenna made a fruit salad!
Linley and Raegan made “punch” (just cranberry juice mixed with ginger ale)!
Ella Kate made a football cake! We found a box cake mix in the pantry and used the icing we had to cut it into a football shape. Super fancy, right? We didn’t even have the right colors for a football, but it still tasted good!
After the game, some players thanked God for their win and other players thanked God for the opportunity to play the game even in loss. God is the same God of the players of both teams. He cares about the players as individual people.
It’s kind of hard to trust God sometimes, right? When I was little, I would jump to my dad in the pool before I learned to swim on my own. After gathering all the courage I had, I took a leap, and for a moment, I was holding onto nothing. My feet had left the pool deck and I hadn’t made it into my dad’s arms yet. It’s a terrifying feeling, but I knew he would catch me, even though it was scary for a second before I saw and felt his arms catch. I had faith that it would be okay, though. And it was okay every time.
There are times in life that require faith and it feels like our feet have left the pool deck and we are just suspended in the air and we have no tangible answer to prayer. We want to know when we are going to see and feel Him. I know people waiting to get married. I know some who want babies. I know some people who want a place to belong. I myself have several things I am praying for, including a house with a better layout for us. It is going on five years for that one. God’s Word says “hope deferred makes the heart sick,” and it’s definitely hard to wait and pray and trust (Proverbs 13:12).
What do we do when God is silent? When we wait and wait for a longing that just hasn’t happened yet? It’s so different for different people too. KNOWING God is good is sometimes all we have while we wait, pray, and look for His plan.
So much of culture is based on feelings. Sometimes we don’t FEEL we have faith or we don’t FEEL God’s goodness or we might FEEL alone, but at these times we must hold onto what we KNOW to be true. We can continue to go to God and talk with Him even when we feel like we aren’t getting anything back.
We KNOW God is good. We KNOW God loves us. We KNOW He is a loving Father and loves to give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11). Sometimes we have to just honor God each day even when life hurts. We have to continue to do the right thing and honor God even if it seems that life isn’t turning out how we planned.
Sometimes we want to blame God for hard times because we know He could easily change life it He wanted to. Sometimes children want to stomp their feet when they don’t get what they want. Sometimes I wanted to stomp and walk away and just not speak to my parents anymore. My own children want to get mad and ignore me, although I am actually the one who can help them.
If I am honest, I want to do the same. In reality though, if I get angry with God and refuse to read my Bible and stop talking with Him, I am really just hurting myself since He is my only source of hope! Thank God He understands my humanity and knows when I am really trying to trust Him when it hurts. We must trust that His plan is good and He feels with us. He doesn’t want us to be sad, but He will give us the best. Sometimes we have to get through all the tough stuff to get to the great stuff.
It’s nice to read all the Bible verses or listen to encouragement in a worship service, but I find it difficult to do the ordinary, everyday stuff while waiting or enduring a hard season. It’s hard to get up in the morning, do the regular teeth brushing, eating breakfast, living everyday stuff while still in that time of waiting. We have to make the decision to stick with God. We may not be FEELING like God is blessing us, so we must simply make the choice to choose Him. It’s hard to understand that God hurts when we hurt, when I know He could fix things at the same time. We can hold onto what we know in the hard times even when there is nothing tangible to hold onto. God can restore all the tears and struggle. He promises to restore us and make us strong (1 Peter 5:10). He will restore the tough years (Joel 2:25). Let’s hang onto this hope every single day.
Love,
Charis
Pic(k) of the day:
Does anyone else find cat food dumped in the water bowl? Cats don’t seem to find it appealing when it puffs like that …
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