I'm Happy!

Mikaylah is two. We are trying to raise her to be a happy child who loves Jesus and is obedient. Right now she is opposed to change. She doesn't like to get her diaper changed, she doesn't like to get out of bed in the morning, she doesn't like to go to bed for her nap or for the night, she doesn't like to get in the tub or out of the tub. Her standard answers for "let's change your stinky diaper" is "No, I'm happy!". Like her disposition is going to effect the state of her diaper. "It is time for a bath, Mikaylah." "No, I'm happy!" forces me to take a very unhappy child and undress her and put her in the tub. After twenty minutes and very wrinkly toes and fingers, "Time to let the water out of the tub!" You guessed it, "NO! I'm happy!" Sometimes these protestations are through the midst of many tears and foot stamping and not the "If you're happy and you know it stamp your feet" kind! Well, I guess one out of three is better than nothing, though she knows Jesus is a bearded man to whom she prays and she wants her own way rather than Mommy and Papa's she is always "Happy!" at least so she says!

God's Waiting Room

I hate waiting! I am a fairly spontaneous person and love it when my husband surprises me but I hate to wait! We just finished studying the Gospel of John. Before He went to the cross Jesus told his disciples to wait for him at a particular mountain in Galilee. They still didn't understand what was going to happen. After Jesus was crucified they were crushed! Their Lord was dead! They still didn't clue in that he would be raised from the dead. They were hiding! Did they go to the mountain? Maybe but they got tired of waiting. Peter decided to go fishing. That's all that he knew how to do. Besides the last time he saw Jesus was just as the rooster crowed after he denied knowing Jesus for the third time. Even if Jesus was to come back would he even want anything to do with him?
Right now I feel like Peter. I feel like everything we planned for is falling apart. We had a three bedroom apartment in Quebec ready and furnished for our arrival the end of June. We have 79.5% of our support. Not enough to go to language study says our missions committee. Maybe in January. Tim and I were devastated. This is not how we had planned. Is God's word still true? "For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord,'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you and you will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:11-13) Yes God's word is still true. We don't know why we have to wait right now, but wait we will. We will pray. We will trust. We will obey.
You know what happened to Peter when he went fishing? He caught NO fish. He fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus then came to him. Jesus told him to cast his net on the right side of the boat. When he obeyed his net was FULL of fish. Jesus' timing. Peter obeyed. The rest of the chapter shows how Jesus reinstated Peter to the ministry. How beautiful to be in God's waiting room. To wait on him. Yes, He is rarely early and Yes, he is never late. Trust is a hard thing to do when you think you' ve got it all figured out. But He wants us to lean on Him not on our own understanding. So we wait. we may have to start the process of getting into language school all over again. But we wait.