A Pearl of a Situation....

Morning all!
     Have you ever heard how an oyster makes a pearl?  I am sure you have, but please allow the homeschool mom in me to review it with you.  The oyster gets the tiniest bit of irritant in its "mouth" and it bugs the oyster.  I mean it bothers it and festers and in my mind drives the oyster crazy! Much like a splinter.  So the oyster produces a substance to cover the irritant in order to get some relief and try to protect itself.  It coats this irritant over and over until a gorgeous, beautiful pearl is formed.  It is funny to me that pearls can cost so much.  That they are worth so much all from what the oyster went through.
     Why the animal science lesson on this rainy Monday morning?  Well I feel like that oyster.  Things or people just bothering me, irritating me, bugging me, driving me crazy....do you get what I mean?  So much so that I have found myself on more than one occasion asking, even begging God to remove these people or things from my life.  Kind of like making them go "poof"  But the truth is God uses "testy" people and trials in our lives to act as an irritant to us.  That way, if we submit and allow the Holy Spirit to coat that area of our lives we will have something worthwhile in the end to offer up to a Holy God and something beautiful to attract a lost world.  And boy is it costly at times!  I am a confessed people pleaser.  I HATE conflict and really try to avoid it.  But the older I have gotten I realize all conflict can't be avoided and must persevere and let God work in me and through me.  Sometimes I have a tendency to shut down around those who rub me the wrong way.  I clam up! (Ha, I made a funny)  Avoiding or clamming up is not going to bring God glory.  Nor will it show these "testy" people God's grace and love.  I have been learning so much lately from God about Himself and now it seems I am in the middle of an exam.  Will I show others all I have learned and love more, give more, serve more?  "But Lord not them" I have said "They are much much to hard"  But He has replied over and over "Yes them, especially them"  I will be honest I have pouted and rolled my eyes and even growled at the Lord's response.  (Not a wise thing to do with the ruler of the Universe)  But in the end I must bow my knees and my heart to His authority and let Him turn these irritants into pearls in my life.  The only way to do this is to constantly be before HIm in prayer and in His word.  My prayer this week is that as the irritants come (and they always do) that we would let the Holy Spirit produce what is necessary to cover and coat the situation.  Then at the end of our week, months even at the end of our life produce one big beautiful necklace to toss at His feet.
     James 1:2-4  Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything...
From one oyster to another,
Carrie

Who can show us any good?

Oh why am I up?  I am tired, I had a long day and I have an even longer day laid out for me tomorrow.  Not bad long either days, long good days.  I should be in bed.  It could have something to do with the 2 diet cokes I drank this afternoon.  It seems the older I get the more sensitive I get to caffeine.  But it also may have something to do with all the stuff God is doing in and around me.  God is on the move here with me and my family, with you and your family, on this planet earth.  He is drawing me ever so closer everyday.  Revealing more sin to repent of, more goodness to be grateful for, I am overwhelmed.  It seems like every thing I am reading and hearing has to do with living more simply.  Living more on the edge for Him.  Trusting and waiting.  This morning in my shortened quiet time I found myself in my room in my chair asking Him to draw near to me.  I wanted to just press my face into His robe.  (I don't know if He wears a robe, but that is just how I picture Him, work with me)  I love Him.  More than I ever have.  As I was praying and reading the Scripture I was struck by this verse, Psalm 4:6-7 "There are many who say 'Who will show us any good?' Lord lift up the light of your face upon us!" I read it over and over.  Out loud and quietly.  The world is asking "who can show us any good?".  When their marriages are falling apart, finances are lacking, health is deteriorating.  The world shouts "Who can show us any good?"  And His people should shout back "We can"  "We can"  "The Lord is alive and at work in HIs people's lives".  He is on the move.  But sadly we are so busy, so stinking preoccupied with our own lives and our own dissappointments that we say nothing back.  Or maybe we have so limited the amount of God in our lives that we don't see any good either.  Oh how we have failed as His people.  God help us!  We are to be His billboards.  Living and breathing His glory to be displayed to all so that a lost and dying world may be drawn to Him.  Tonight or I guess I could say this morning my prayer is that we would trust Him and wait on Him.  And then when He works to shout it to all.  That is my goal.  So much of my life depends on Him coming through.  Terry and I have never been able to explain how we have made it on one income for so long.  It has been Him all the way.  All the healing that He has done in my life and in my marriage can not be attributed to any man.  It is Him.  It is not my power, grace, patience, knowledge that I homeschool these kids.  It is HIm.  It is not by my finances or wealth that we move forward to adopt.  It is HIm.  Miracles done every single day by Him and through Him.  There is no good in me, no nothing.  It is Him.  Dear Lord lift up the light of Your face upon us so that when they ask where is any good we can show them You!  May we lay aside any fear or possesion that weights us down in this life.  We are your people may we live like it.  Amen.
Love you
Carrie

Expecting #4??

Good Soggy Afternoon girls!!!  Hope you are nice and dry!  This is a 2 pots of coffee kind of day.  One in the morning and one to get you through the afternoon.  It has been quite busy around my house lately.  If you haven't heard the news the Smith's are proudly expecting their fourth child.  This one not of my womb but of our hearts.  There is a child waiting in Ethiopia for us.  We have officially begun the paper work to get to him or her.  It is a loooooooong process.  Longer than any of us could have imagined, but it is for a human life right!  We have prayed and prayed and prayed.  God gave us what we feel is a confirmation so we have taken the first couple of steps.  Met with the agency.  Went to our first adoptive group meeting. (Levi's Circle)  We have filled out line after line after line after line!  Told a few people and asked all to pray for us and with us.  I have had moments of elation and moments of being really overwhelmed.  I am almost 34, do I really want to start over?  Lord you know we are stretched financially how can WE do this?  Will my kids get to go to Disney World if I do this?  Will they resent me if they grow up and not have had the best name brands and best of recreational, athletic or educational opportunities?  All of these questions and more have flooded my mind.   I guess you could say I was counting the cost. God says in His word to count the cost to follow Him.  But as we stand on this rainy Ash Wednesday I have contemplated His cost for Me.  His life.  His life for mine.  The more I read the more I realize this life is not my own.  The only life I am convinced that is worth living is the one spent and poured out for the Savior.  The Lord opened my families eyes to those in need.  Proverbs 24:12 states that "once our eyes are opened He holds us responsible to act"  I can not go back now, and I wouldn't want to.  We are at the beginning of Lent.  I want to encourage you to look at this season leading up to our Savior's death and resurrection as a time to focus on Him.  Alot of people give up meat or even sodas or desserts for Him during this time.  But what good is that if He doesn't have your whole heart.  That is what He wants.  A people who will count the cost and do it anyway. 
     Dear God, please raise up a holy generation who desire You above all else.  Who are willing to pray and trust you to do Big things in our midst, for Your names sake!  May we reach out to the widows, the orphans, the weak, the naked, all for You!  Cause us to go the extra mile to dash the strongholds in our lives and the  lives of others.  May we pursue righteousness and purity.  All to shine Your light to a needy world! Amen!
Carrie