Pondering....

I've been trying to decide what to write my next post about. God has put many things on my heart, but at the moment he is leading me to write about children. What a gift! Do you have children? I have two and I feel enormously blessed. I have experienced so many wonderful and extraordinary things with them. I have watched them as they discover and as they learn. I cannot tell you how lucky and thankful I am that God has blessed me with them.

Over the last year or so I have been engrossed in blogs. I have especially become drawn to Bring the Rain and MckMamma. If you are not familiar with them let me update you. Angie (the author of Bring the Rain) lost a daughter about two hours after she was born. This happened one year ago this month. She has written of her grief, her love for God, and his grace and mercy on her during this time. She is the wife of Todd Smith of Selah (and if you have never heard their music I highly recommend it). She is an instrumental person in giving glory to God, even in the most difficult of times. Her devotion and faith are unsurmountable and I have an enormous amount of respect for her.

MckMamma is the mother of four beautiful children, the youngest of which is five months old. When she was 20 weeks pregnant her son Stellan was diagnosed with SVT and MckMamma was told he would not make it to birth. By God's grace he did and has blossomed into a precious child. Unfortunately the SVT has returned and he is currently in the PICU at Children's Hospital receiving treatment. Hers is also a story of faith and love. I highly recommend these blogs to you.

In keeping of with these two women's lives (both of whom I have never met by the way) I am filled with such greatness in having my two children. I too have struggled with losses and I feel that God brought me to these blogs to learn and to find support. God has greatly given to me, he has also devastatingly taken away. Both are experiences I will never forget. I have learned from them all. The song "I Will Praise You in this Storm" by Casting Crowns is one that really speaks to me. One of the verses says, "I praise the God who gives and takes away". This is something that really hits home for me. We don't always understand why God does the things that He does, but we have to trust and have faith that He is in control. And regardless of the outcome, it is a Godly outcome and in that we must find refuge.

He leads us throughout this life, no matter what. That is the bottom line. My God is one who delivers me from evil, He delivers me from trials, He delivers me.........from EVERYTHING! I have to have faith that He will always be there and that He is always at work in my life. I may not understand it or even want to experience what He has lay before me, but I have to have faith that He knows what is best and that He is going to catch me - because He knows I will fall.

How I digress......I started talking about children and ended up talking about God leading me through difficulties!! I smile as I type this because this is typical for me. I often stray and find myself stopping and saying, "Now what did I start off doing?"

To close, let me just say, that no matter what my children are my blessing and my gift from God. Without them I would be nothing. Be sure and thank God for yours tonight!