Home, Sweet Home!

I have been officially HOME for eight days now. In some ways, it feels as though I'd never left. I can remember a time during my recovery process when I thought the time would never come for me to go home. I look back on the past few months and wonder how four months of just sitting around went by so quickly!

I loved being back in my home church on Sunday. It was absolutely fantastic being able to hear my pastor, reconnecting with friends, heading to lunch with those I wanted to catch up with, etc. I jumped right into work on Monday and was able to remember access codes, passwords, policies, routines and other things that I thought for sure I'd forgotten. I've had a very nice work week and have transitioned smoothly back into my usual routine.

I am happy to be working in the children's ministry department again and am looking forward to VBS this summer. Lots to do, but loving every minute. I just mailed 713 postcards to Roseville residents on Friday and am very curious about the number of attenders we will have this year. Our VBS goal is to have 300 children in attendance. I think we will go way beyond 300.

Things are looking up as an engine has been provided for my car. YEAH! I can't believe how God has chosen to work things out. We know He provides and we know that He keeps His promises, so why am I always surprised when He follows through?

I have decided to read through "Knowing God" by J.I. Packar again. I typically go through this book at least once a year, but thought it would be appropriate to read through it again. There is so much wisdom to be gleaned from its pages. I am constantly forgetting that knowing about God is different that knowing Him. If I were to describe to you a batch of cookies and their ingredients, you'd know about them. You wouldn't really know them from the standpoint that you had not eaten one. You could not attest to their taste, their goodness, their texture, their size, etc. You'd know nothing of their personal qualities and characteristics. While I am not in the habit of becoming so intimate with cookies, it is a good analogy nonetheless. To know Christ means that we must experience hardship so that we may know His joy, weakness so that we may know His strength.

Four months leaves one with lots of time to reflect on many different things. Recognition of how little I know Him is just one of many issues that were contemplated. I got so tired of people telling me that I needed to rest until I figured out that to rest means to TRUST! :-) I also am learning that worries are obsessions. We can choose to obsess about our needs or we can chooses to be obsessed with the author and finisher of those same needs. Our circumstances do not define us. They refine us. It is the priority of every believer to ask of himself one question, "How much am I willing to trust?" When God promises, He delivers. What He says, He will do. There is no room for doubt in a faithful heart....something I must tell myself on a regular basis! :-) -- Just a few ramblings from a woman who wishes to look back on this period of her life a few years down the road...