Tuesday

You Have Given Me Greater Joy!

"You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and wine." Psalm 4:7

I thumb through my son's Bible, not really looking for anything in particular, just flipping pages and I stop on this verse.  I loved it & posted it on Facebook.

Then I began really thinking about it and how true that verse is in my own life.  For those who follow me on Facebook, you may already know of the most recent trial my family is going through.  I have debated on whether or not to even blog about it because I still struggle with the reality of it.

Many of you know that our family has struggled financially for quite a while, but the Lord has always provided what we needed just when we needed it. We have learned to go without many things that years ago I thought were necessity.  In October we faced a possible situation that we really hoped that God would intervene quickly in, but he didn't...at least not the way we wanted Him to.

Due to months of very little (if any) income we were no longer able to pay our rent or other bills & knew we would have to move very soon. The problem was that we had no money to rent another house.  Our only solution was to move in with our parents.  Since we have such a large family that meant that we would have to split up our family because no other family had enough room for all of us.  We hoped, prayed & cried out to God many times to not let our family be split up, but He was silent.

It has been about 6 weeks now and our family continues to live separately.  I live with my parents and have our 4 youngest children with me.  My husband is living with his parents and 4 of our older kids live with him and 2 of our older daughters live with a family in our church.  Definitely not how we wanted to live.  Not what we expected to happen.  But here we are. Living 2 hours apart.  Oh & don't forget...I'm pregnant.  Crazy stuff huh?

So, back to my verse I found.

In the midst of all of this I still know where the source of my strength & joy comes from.

I won't pretend that things are easy.  They aren't. I have days where I am really done & just want my family back together.  And then there are other days that don't seem so bad at all.  But overall,  I see God at work in my life & the lives of my children. That brings me joy. I still cry about this occasionally, but that is OK.  God knows this is hard for us. This has not stolen my joy.

I look forward to what God is getting ready to do in our family!  That is my hope!

I thrive off of the strength that He gives me daily.  That is my joy!

I know that He has not forsaken my family, He is at work.  That is my salvation!






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