almost summertime

I am so sad that today was our last day of the 2013/2014 school year at our homeschool group.  It's bittersweet because out of the five moms who regularly attend, only two are coming back next year.

I know, I already said all this last night, so I'll stop with that.

Today the stomp class that Graham took this year performed for us.  They are amazing!  I would love to share it with you, but it's not allowing me to do that right now.  They played a drum line with drumsticks and gallon sized paint buckets.  I love watching them!

I went ahead and registered all my boys for next year~Graham will be taking his chemistry class here, Drew is taking a home-economics type class and personal finance, Jonah and Noah are taking a science class and a cooking class.  Their Bible study hour will be spent in the book of first Timothy.  I'm excited for all of us!  I am also glad that the small group leaders will continue meeting all summer.  We're taking off May and June, but starting in July, we'll meet weekly to pray and study.

Before we left, all the moms gathered around my friend Rachel and me.  Rachel is having her gallbladder removed tomorrow, and since I'm having my surgery on Monday, they prayed for us.  Let's just say that it ended with both my friend Angela and me crying.  I wish I could tell you the way it feels to have a bunch of Jesus-loving women pray over you....but I cannot.  If you've experienced it, you know what I'm talking about, but if not, there are no words to describe.  It is precious and anointed.

As we wind down this school year, I wanted to share with you the sovereignty of God and His perfect timing.  I've been dealing with my issues ever since June of last summer.  I continually got worse and worse, until December, when I had an ablation.  Notice I said December~right before we took our break for Christmas, a time when it was acceptable for me to slow down and recover.  I was better for a while, then things started getting kinda bad again in March.  I saw doctor number four at the beginning of April and at the (almost) end of our school year, she's performing my surgery.

A few things about the timing of all this...God knew that I could not have done my job as a homeschool mom and recover from surgery.  He also knew that I would need tons of help getting from point A to point B, and only a month and a half after my oldest son turned fifteen, He saw fit that this would be the perfect timing for me to have this surgery.  Do you see how He worked out all those little details?  It's no accident that any of it happened this way.  It makes perfect sense that all this would play out only in His perfect timing.  Not mine.

So when people ask, "Don't you just wish you'd already gotten it all over with?", my answer would have to be no.  I don't wish that, because that timing would have been mine, not the Lord's.

Let me also encourage you with one last thing~if ever you doubt that the Lord hears every word we utter, do not doubt any longer.  I prayed very specifically about this surgery just a week ago today~I almost seemed to be getting better and I doubted the decision to go through with it.  Not two hours after I prayed about it, the Lord very clearly gave me an answer that I needed.  The answer was yes, I definitely needed surgery.  He's continually shown me that all this week, and for that, I am so thankful!

Keep praying, keeping seeking Him.  I love in Matthew chapter six, where we are told to seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness, then all these things will be added to us.  We don't seek the opinions of others, we don't seek approval from man, we seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness.  When we seek Him first, everything else falls into place.

Be encouraged today, my friends!  I know I am.  Love to all.