God is Good; Our BIG family

I was finishing up my lesson for Bible study this week and, again, was hit in the face with some good things! I've been really struggling with discerning God's will for us and this house thing (that's the decision I was talking about last time). It's been frustrating because I've never had this much trouble before with discerning. Bridges talked about trusting God for who you are and also the will of God. He says that we do have a responsibility to make wise decisions, but God's plan does not depend on us "finding" His will. He points to Psalm 23:2-3...

"He leads me beside still waters...He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake"

This makes you think of a Shepard leading his sheep, not waiting for them to find the right path home. Bridges states,

"We think so much about our
responsibility to discover God's will in a situation or to make wise decisions
in life's choices, but the biblical emphasis seems to be on God's guiding us...I
am where I am today, not because I have always made wise decisions or correctly
discovered the will of God at particular points along the way, but because God
has faithfully led me and guided me along the path of His will for
me."

Dr. James Packer said,

"God made us thinking beings, and He
guides our minds as we think things out in His
presence."

In response to Packer's quote, Bridges says,

"This does not mean that we put our
minds into neutral and expect God to guide us in some mysterious way apart from
hard and prayerful thinking on our part...God does guide."

Think of the words to Fanny J. Crosby's hymn "All the Way My Savior Leads Me". He leads me! One last quote from Bridges...

"We can trust God to guide
us. He will lead us all the way. And when we stand before His throne we
will not be singing about successfully discovering the will of God. Rather with
Fanny Crosby we, too, will sing 'Jesus led me all the way.'"

So, what God hit me over the head with tonight was STOP IT! He will guide us in this decision. Period. The end. That doesn't mean we stop praying and talking and figuring the "logistics" of this decision, but it means that through all of that, God will guide us where He wants us to go. Hallelujah!!!

Okay, now onto our BIG family :) Most of you know that we have "foster" kids from the college. We have 4 this school year (plus a fiancee and significant others here and there!). 3 of them are my cousins. This is our ministry as a family. I absolutely love it. We've had foster kids our entire married life. A lot of them have been cousins, but we've also had some non-family kids. As I look back, it's been such a blessing. We've formed some great friendships and reconnected with family along the way. I would have loved a foster family in college. Someplace to go do laundry, get away from campus, and have a "home away from home". I got adopted into Aaron's foster family after we started dating. It was fun. I digress, though! These kids are great. We have family supper once a week (there are usually 10 of us!). Anna & Jacob love all of them and they love Anna & Jacob! It's crowded, but it's so much fun.

We have to bring a little table in from outside for Anna and Jacob...there's not enough room at the big table for them (there's barely enough room for all of us!). On the left side is our foster son Adam and his girlfriend Bailey. Adam plays baseball and Aaron used to sell wood to his Dad (that's how we came to know Adam). He's usually pretty quiet, but can bust out some pretty good zingers! :) Seth is at the far end. He is a cousin and plays football (you're surprised, aren't you?). He's just a big teddy bear:) It took Anna quite a while to warm up to him! Next is Ben (cousin) and his fiancee Karin. Ben finished classes at semester and will graduate in April. He coached football and now works temporarily in the admissions office at the college. He's been a babysitter a couple times when I'm in a crunch (since he doesn't have classes and a full time job yet). And he has a thing about making bizarre (and sometimes creepy!) faces in pictures. Next is dear, sweet Addie (cousin). Anna adores her and for a year called her Abby! She just couldn't get the 'd' in there! Addie likes to come over and "play house" when we're gone...which I LOVE b/c I get a clean house/laundry/whatever needs done!! We love these kids! It's been a blessings being a part of their lives for this season and we'll miss them dearly when they leave.

Jacob and his computer:) He'll find it, carry it over to me so I can open it for him (it latches shut), then find a spot to lay down and play. It is hilarious!!

Anna is very good about letting him play on it and likes to help out occasionally.

Ah-ha!

Have you ever had one of those "ah-ha!" moments? We're facing a decision right now and we're desperately trying to discern God's will for us. We've talked and discussed and weighed the pros and cons. We've prayed and prayed. We've asked others to pray for us. We've asked others for their wisdom. Tonight, I was struggling a lot. I really want to know that this is where God is taking us. I want to have that peace that surpasses all understanding. I want to KNOW that this is God's will for us. I couldn't sleep. Aaron & I talked for almost an hour. As I was laying there listening to his deep breathing, begging God for peace, I remembered something our pastor said this morning. It was after a lady sang a song called "Trust His Heart" (amazing song). The chorus goes like this:

God is too good to be unkind.

God is too wise to make mistakes.

When you don't understand,

When you can't see His plan,

When you can't trace His hand,

Trust His heart.

Pastor said When you can't see God's plan, what do you do? Do you try to find a way to make it on your own? When you can't sleep at night because you're thinking about stuff, what do you do? Do you get up and pray, do you read the Word, do you praise Him with music? What do you do when you can't trace His hand?

AH-HA! So I got out of bed, bundled up under blankets in the recliner and opened God's Word. I was flipping through the New Testament, reading here and there, skimming titles, reading the underlined verses, when I came across Philippians 4:6. I have had this verse memorized forever it seems. I'm sure I learned it in Sunday school or VBS as a young child.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know unto God."

Praise God that we can be anxious for nothing. That we can tell God our requests and be thankful for what He'll do. What a privilege it is to be a child of our great and mighty King.