I AM NOT ALONE

Today I have spent the day on my couch, computer in hand, researching all I can on gluten sensitivity, ADHD and high copper -- things we struggle with in our home.  If I allow myself,  I can get overwhelmed trying to meet the needs of my children.  And in my strength - it is overwhelming.  In my strength, fear arises. In my strength tears and despair fill my every breath.  In my strength, I am alone.  

I hurt when I see, hear and read of others struggling to do things on their own; those feeling as if they are alone. Those who speak of feeling afraid, being in despair.  

For the glory and honor of our LORD, I shout out......... In HIS strength I am NOT alone!  

In His strength He tells me... (Isaiah 45)

² I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. ³ I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. 

In His strength He tells me... 

⁵ I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, ⁶ so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. 

In His strength He tells me...

18 For this is what the LORD says— he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited— he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. ¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.

In His strength He tells me...

²³ By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. ²⁴ They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone are deliverance and strength.’” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. ²⁵ But all the descendants of Israel will find deliverance in the LORD and will make their boast in him.

Father’s Day

Every morning before school we try and have a time of prayer with the kids. Friday as we prayed all four spent time praying for a classmate who didn’t have a father or whose father couldn’t make it to the special Father’s Day Program.

It brought tears to my eyes for two different reasons.

A memory of me in first grade standing in the parking lot after school watching fathers pick up their kids.  I remember thinking to myself, “I want my daddy to pick me up.”  It’s sadness, loneliness and some jealousy all mixed together.

But, what really brought tears to my eyes was the sensitivity my children have in their hearts for their classmates.  For them, unprompted, to know that there would be sadness, loneliness and jealousy for their friends who would sit and watch others sing to, recite poems to and interact with their fathers.

I LOVE the hearts of my kids! I love that they have an earthly father who relies on their heavenly father to train and mold and soften their hearts.

Psalm 68:5

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. NIV