Hello!

(Note: The hi-lited passages provide links to the appropriate sites or Scriptures referenced)

Well, I cannot believe I am entering the world of blogging...I knew that some of my friends were blogging and I was always like "HOW IN THE WORLD do they have time to blog AND to raise their children???" I never thought I would join the ranks - especially as a single mom who, at first, was just trying to survive day to day. At first the temptation is there to think that you will not survive, as I once wrongly thought, but YOU CAN, by God's power and His strength that is there for you through His Son. It is there for ALL of us by grace. God promises us through His Word that He is the God of survival; He desires to "gather" His people, to help them "survive" and to "strengthen" them. This includes YOU! You are His child, adopted through His Son! But that is not the end of it...There is more beyond survival - Now I am living so beyond just "survival", by the grace of God, and you can too!
I recently realized that there were women God put in my life with whom I was communicating by E-mail and sending sometimes weekly "encouragements" with scriptures that had helped me and tips that had helped me...when these women started telling me how much this had helped them I figured....I was spending the time typing out these E-mails anyway, so why not just save what I wrote and save my journals that I was typing and then cut and paste them and blog them so that maybe other women could read them too!
I don't want anyone out there to think that I think by any means that I have it "all together" or that I think I have the answers to being a single mom - Every morning since my divorce I have a little ritual that has stuck and, I believe, has saved my life and my mental stability! -- I have to DAILY confess my need for God (with variations of course!) : "Lord, wash over me with your Spirit. I will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of You. Lord, I don't know what I'm doing. Lord, I can't make it without you. Lord, show me the steps to take today. Thank you Lord that Your strength is within me, Your mighty power is within me, and no weapon formed against me will prosper in Jesus' name. I trust in You Lord, I will not be troubled, and I know that you care for me. You are my rock and my shield. I am your precious child and Your love for me endures forever. Amen"
I don't have any answers for tomorrow or next week or next year. If you had asked me before my divorce, I would have proudly told you that I had my "ten year plan" and maybe even a twenty year plan and that nothing was going to stop my plan. Since then, after all of "my" plans were destroyed, the Lord has shown me the awesome truth of James 4:13-15 - "Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
I have to say that as a Type-A person, that verse used to drive me crazy! I hated it! But now, as I truly do live day-by-day, step-by-step, never knowing what is around the corner, this verse actually brings me great peace. I don't HAVE to have a 10 year plan! I don't even have to have a one week plan! or a 2 day plan! I have a loving, just God and HE has a plan much better than any plan I could come up with! So I will follow Him, step-by-step, day-by-day, and I will trust in HIS plan and His alone. Whatever I thought would have been good for me, when I let go, His plan is far better.
Whether we realize it or not, admit it or not, we are ALL living step-by-step, day-by-day. We really truly never know what will happen next. When a phone call we dread will come, when a diagnosis will be made, when a loved one will walk in and say it's over....Isn't it easier to just admit it and let go? We are like kids on a toy ride, holding our steering wheel and thinking we are actually controlling the car. How frustrating is it when we turn the fake wheel left and the car goes to the right, when we pump our fake brakes and the car keeps rolling on its track? When will we finally realize that we are not steering our car at all but that our loving Father, who is watching the whole time, is in ultimate control of the ride? I have finally learned to let go of my steering wheel, sit back, and enjoy the ride, knowing that He has a plan and it is not to harm me, but to work all things for my good - THANK YOU LORD! And if no greater glory than this comes out of the horror of my divorce, then this Peace is plenty enough for me.