First Impressions

As I write to you this morning, I am in New Mexico, drinking a Banana Nut Cappuccino - Mmmmmm!  So far, America has had quite an impression on Martha and Ian.  It's so much fun to see things through their eyes!
I am grateful for each of you who have been praying for our trip here.  The kids did so great with all the flying, tight connections, and just sitting and waiting in the airports!  Ian got a little upset right before one of our flights.  They had us sit and wait so they could redo our boarding passes (and put us sitting all together instead of all spread out!).  Ian started crying as he watched the other people getting on the plane ahead of us - he was SURE the plane would leave without us!  It didn't and God gave us a special blessing - a man and a lady offered to switch places with Martha, Phebe, and me so we could sit right behind Matt and Ian!  What a hug from Jesus that was!
When we got into the Atlanta airport, the kids saw something they had never seen before.  They tugged on my hand, and started pointing, saying, "Mommy, what is THAT?!"  I looked to see what they were pointing at and began laughing.  It was a drinking fountain.  We don't have drinking fountains in Peru, and if you do find one, you can't drink the water!  I took them over to the "water fall" as Ian calls it, showed them how it worked, and let them try it.  They loved it!!  Now we can't go past any drinking fountain without trying it out!  Fortunately, I remembered to tell them not to put their mouths on the spout!  Unfortunately, I didn't think about telling Ian not to lick the water out of the basin!  Oops!
So we have been here almost a week.  It is amazing to Ian and Martha that Mommy knows how to drive!  They have seen Matt drive - he has his Peruvian driver's license.  They didn't know that Mommy could drive too!  Martha asked me yesterday with a tone of awe in her voice, "Are you going to drive today, Mommy?"
I'm sure we'll have many more stories to add to our storehouse of memories before we head back to Peru!  I think about how delightful it is to watch my children make these discoveries - things that I have known, but to them it is all new and exciting!  It makes the "hum-drum" things exciting to me once more!  Then I think about our Heavenly Father and how delightful it is to Him when He sees His children making spiritual discoveries!  What a joy it is to serve the Lord as a family!

The Joy of Being

I would like to share something with you this morning concerning which the Lord has been working on my heart.  It isn't anything new or something we don't already know.  I've heard this principle preached and taught many, many times in my life.  Until recently, however, I didn't realize I was thinking about it, but not actually doing it.  We are all familiar with the phrase "Bloom where you are planted."  Now, I am not particularly crazy about that saying, but it is true nevertheless.  

As I was thinking about that quote, I got to wondering if there was Bible verse to support it.  Well, my faithful Saviour gave me the verse I needed.  Notice I said He gave me the verse I needed - not necessarily the verse I thought would prove my point!  

Psalm 39:7 says, "And now, Lord, what wait I for?  my hope is in thee."

Here is where I started arguing with the Lord.  Why?  I had several reasons (excuses) I offered to the Lord.  "Aren't I living on the mission field like You asked me to?"  "What in the world will people think if I share these thoughts with them?"  "People won't understand, and I hate being misunderstood."  "Do I have to, Lord???"  Let me be perfectly honest....even as I type this, I am fighting the urge to hit the delete button and get rid of this entire post!  I cannot escape the Lord's promptings, however.

The Lord directed my eyes to my house.  "What do you see, Sarah?" the Lord whispered to me.  The question demanded an honest answer.  "I see a house with a family living in it.  A family who has decided to follow You, Lord.  I see a wife/mom who is waiting....."  And that's where the Lord stopped me!

It was exactly what my Lord wanted me to see.  He was trying to lovingly and gently correct an error in my life.  Yes, I am on the mission field.  Yes, praise the Lord, my heart is even here.  I love Peru.  I love living here.  I love the adventure of being a foreigner in a foreign land!  I dearly love the people God has given us to love and to teach.  But at that exact moment in time, I realized I was existing, not being.  Do you see the difference?  

Like the Psalmist said, "And now, Lord, what wait I for?"  I realized that I have been busy "waiting," not busy "being."  I hadn't settled completely.  I've fallen into the trap of "What's coming next in my life?"  I realized that I must "BE" before the Lord can do anything with me or even bring me to the "next thing" in my life.  I thought of my children - what kind of example have I been to them?  Of course I want them to think and plan and pray about their futures, but I want them to be content with the "Here and Now."

So...the next question is, "How am I going to correct my error?"  Good question.  Here's what the Lord has given me for an answer.  I am going to put my hope (my future, my plans, my desires) in the Lord.  With the Lord's help, I am going to have that little garden I've been dreaming about this summer.  I am going to get those pictures framed and hung on the walls.  Naturally, I think..."Well, Lord, I'll do all this and then You'll move me!"  While that may be true, that is still somewhere in the future, and that's where it should stay.  

...And then there was joy!  Joy filled my heart as I thought of how easy it really is to just "BE," and allow the Lord to have my future, as well as my past.  I thought of how we love to quote, "...forgetting those things which are behind...," but what about letting go of the future?  Please understand that I am by no means saying to forget about the future, don't have any plans...just "live for the moment!"  No, we need to have plans and goals and dreams.  I am saying that sometimes we get so wrapped up in those plans, goals, and dreams that they become more important to us than where we are at the moment.  They consume us until we cannot just "BE" what the Lord wants us to be right now.  

The joy of being.  Do you know that joy?  Are you letting the Lord give you that joy every day?  I'm trying, and with the Lord's help I will succeed.  You can too!

Psalm 39:7 "And now, Lord, what wait I for?  my hope is in thee."