the silver lining

I just put my son to bed without reading to him, or spending our usual thirty-minute cuddle time on the comfy brown chair upstairs. I hope he doesn't flunk out of kindergarten.

All is moving along at New Beginnings... Nick and I are truly starting to get settled which really makes a massive difference in how we function as house parents. Our upstairs is slowly becoming our haven and I notice that we're going up earlier and earlier each night. It's good for the girls too... to have some autonomy and not have us breathing down their necks telling them it's bedtime.

Faythe's fiance, Jimmy, arrived yesterday from England and we couldn't be happier for her. They'll have the next two months together here and then right after their wedding they move back to England to live on a YWAM base there. I must say, as a brit, he is a little disappointing. His accent is far less thick than mine (thanks Kal & Stace) and I think Faythe said he doesn't even like tea. Regardless, we're trying to show him some true American hospitality and Nick is making him Shepherd's Pie tonight for dinner.

Over the past two weeks - there's been this sense (at least in my mind) that the ministry is somewhat under attack. From my illness, to random illnesses with the girls, to Elias' behavior - things have just felt a little hard, but in the past few days I've been seeing life for more of what it truly is. I definitely believe in spiritual attacks and I believe in encountering the enemy - but in general, I think life separated from Christ, in a fallen world, is the big enemy. I just AM 36 weeks pregnant and on my second pregnancy in two years - that just does make you tired and sick and achy. Elias just IS a one year old who happens to spend all day with two parents who love him a lot, and that makes for slack discipline sometimes and pissy babies. The world in general can just look very drab & grey without Christ. And I think He's been showing my heart how much it is OUR choice to see the silver lining.

For the most part, I don't get into silly sayings like that - but the silver lining, the bright side, the lemonade... is usually hiding so cleverly in grim humanity. It looks like our husbands, or our dust covered bibles, the coffee cup, and the friends name in the cell phone you've been dying to call. Our Savior, in His grace - not only loved us enough to redeem us and adopt us into His family... He also made it enjoyable and placed the silver lining in everything. We've been given these eyes to see God's blessings, almost like xray vision, and it's our choice to wake up and live like the chosen ones that we are.