the video

My brother made this for me. Sweet kid. :)

Long time

So, all of my blogging resolutions went by the wayside when life started getting busy. And I have an even better excuse - my computer was stolen. And then someone hit my car. And then a big black box appeared on our TV screen every time you turned it on. And then I accidentally paid for our spring break package twice. Isn't life just funny sometimes?

Actually all of that stuff is old news, and mostly resolved (a million phone calls later). For a while I was feeling a little overwhelmed but it occurred to me that I could really learn something from all this, and I would hate to go through a mini tragedy without gaining the lesson! So, here's what I learned:

Isaiah 43:1b-3a
Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Sounds a little dramatic, the burning and consuming, but I realized that I myself was not harmed. God protected us and allowed these small things to happen but kept me safe. And I mean, really, they are SMALL things. (After my "lesson epiphany" I got an email from family friends about how one daughter was badly injured in a tornado and another daughter fleeing from a rebel army in Africa - see, my issues are small! Talk about going through the fire . . .!!) During candidate week we talked about giving up our "rights" - honestly, rights we aren't even entitled to anyway. So God is helping me along, challenging me and carefully peeling away what I might hold too tightly.

Here's to life lessons. Love learning them. Now, if only we could get that black box on the TV to disappear. . .