I drove my 7-year-old to camp today. For the week. Her very first time at camp. Ever. I miss her. She did great. No tears. From her...or me. I'm so thankful. She has a great counselor. I miss her. She has more than enough clothes, socks & underwear. I fully expect for most of it to come home clean...as in untouched. She was happily waving goodbye as she joined her group for Steal the Bacon. I miss her. Did I say that already?
Today the Holy Spirit led me to pray for an amazing servant of God as we visited briefly. She is growing tired. She has more than enough reasons to be weary. We cried and prayed together. Her hope is in the Lord. When she prayed, she prayed His Word - His truth back to Him and it sounded a lot like this:
Psalm 73:25-26
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
At home tonight I met with two more amazing women who are at the beginning of their journey with Christ. I love them. He loves them more. They are inspiring. God loves me through them. We waded through some very important, foundational issues and He blessed their perseverance by revealing His truth.
Romans 12:1-3 (The Message)
1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 3I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
5 comments:
Reading that almost made me cry... not quite but almost.
Thank you for sharing your life with us!:)
I'll call later this week....
*hugs*
April
Awwwww April. That's as good as making you cry 'cause you're one of the most stoic people I know! :) Thanks so much for posting a comment! I love hearing from far-away-friends.
Your daughter is going to have so much fun!!! Apparently the first time I went to camp, when my mom came to pick me up I told her to go home because I wanted to stay. She told me she cried. Ooops!
I love the way the Message states this Romans passage, especially, "It's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you."
Amen to that!
Thanks for sharing -- I had a completely different reason to cry -- Anna's counselor was smaller than Anna when I went to church with mom and dad in MD years ago!! She's not so small any more!!!
Anna is going to have a blast -- wish Logan could have gone with her too, but on the up side he is going to VBS at his Grandma Christine's church this week (I talked to him today and he seems in good spirits)
We're coming out July 10-16 to visit with Logan and we'll have Nathan with us -- hope we can set up sometime to meet -- talk soon!
Love to all of you!!
Carrie
Carrie - YAY YOU for commenting! :)
So good to hear from you and know that you visited my little corner of bloggyville - xox Come back soon!
IM - I have a feeling she won't be ready to come home either! But, now we will be more prepared. :)
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