The Simple Things

July 15

     We had a pretty meaningful mentor time with Gracie this morning. We talked about faith and seeing the potential in ourselves that God sees in us. She had us listen to the song “In Christ Alone” and asked us to think about “What the power of Christ in us is”. Then she wants us to write a two page paper on it and eventually post in on our blogs. I thought it was interesting that we ended up talking about all that because I was actually thinking about that yesterday during my quiet time. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I’m going to be doing with the rest of my life. I know that’s not something I can actually figure out at an instant, but as Gracie was telling us this morning, our life kind of goes through stages, but God uses those to bring you to where you are meant to be. I’ve never really been one to have big dreams for myself, I just know that my heart is in ministry. There are several things that I feel strongly about and that I would like to do, but I haven’t quite been drawn toward a certain direction. I do trust though that as opportunities come my way, I’ll eventually find a place where my passion meets His will. He makes all things beautiful in His time.

      Jen and I had all the babies to keep an eye on while the girls were in Sunday class with Mercedes. After that we decided to take the afternoon off and catch up on some needed rest. When you’re around crying babies and girls demanding your attention for a long period of time, sometimes you just need to “withdraw from the crowd” and that really is an essential need in ministry. If you don’t give yourself that time to rest and refuel, it’s so easy to get burned out. So we got lots of rest.

     The 3 "gringos" from Alabama arrived today. They’ll be starting their building project bright and early tomorrow morning. The rest of the evening was pretty mellow. I sat outside with Milagro for a while. She wanted me to teach her how to play the guitar, but she ended up singing to me. She likes music a lot; it’s kind of like her means of escape. Maybe I can find some way to minister to her through that. We’ll see; God works in different ways, so He may decide to use this somehow. Either way, I’m glad He’s been helping me find ways to slowly build relationships with these girls and sometimes it’s through the simplest things.

“The wonder of our Lord is that He is so accessible to us in the common things of our lives; the cup of water…giving thanks. A simple attitude of caring, listening, and lovingly telling the truth.”

-Nancie Carmichael