Saturday, November 16th

30 Days of Praise

Have you ever had a day that you felt like you'd scream if just one more annoying thing happened?  We all have those "Oh, great...just-what-I-needed days".  Sometimes it can seem like every bad thing happens all at once.  It's on these days that I must remind myself that nothing ever "occurs" to God.  He knows our whole lives from the minute we are born---even before we are born!  These overwhelming days are all part of His plan for our lives.  God's timing is always impeccable (without fault or flaw), and today I'm thankful that the Lord's timing in our victories, as well as in our difficulties, is always for our good.

In January, 2001, I miscarried a baby very early in my pregnancy.  We had just gotten back to Greece a month before after a time of furlough in America.  I had never lost a baby, so it really never occurred to me that I could.  But, more than the emotional devastation I felt, I questioned the timing of it all.  Why couldn't I have miscarried in America where I could have been closer to my mama when I needed her,  I wondered.  In April, we found out we were expecting another baby.  This baby (Kinley) was due in December.  Because of our visa/passport situation, we flew home in November for the baby's birth.  After Kinley was born, my mama came to stay with me in Louisiana for a week to help with the other children.  While she was with me, she broke her back.  To make a long story short, because of the broken back and not having mobility, she developed pneumonia.  Because she had heart disease, her heart was weak and not strong enough to keep pumping with the pneumonia ravishing her lungs.  She died of heart failure January 5, 2002.  Kinley was only 3 weeks old.  And, here's where the Lord revealed to me the perfection of His timing.  Remember I told you I miscarried in January of the previous year?  If I had carried that baby to term, we would have flown home in July for the birth and stayed until probably the end of September.  I wouldn't have gotten to have one last Christmas with my mama; I wouldn't have gotten to be stateside when she died; and, it's very likely that the whole family  wouldn't have been able to fly home for the funeral having just gotten back only a few months earlier.  How different things would have been IF I had carried my miscarried baby to term.  But, because the Lord knew the timing of the future, He knew the events that needed to take place in my life to complete that plan...including my miscarriage. 

Today Pastor couldn't even get out of bed because he is so sick.  Instead of panic and a bewildered cry to the Lord, What?????  Anniversary weekend??!!!, I remembered that God's timing is so perfect, so flawless and thanked Him for already having this weekend under control:-)

Scripture Reading for the Day:

Proverbs 16
I Corinthians 12