The end or the beginning, why God blesses us, repositioning, slowing but not stopping

Mission’s conference officially ended last night. Shaking hands with, hugging and then parting from those missionaries we have come to know and love is the sad part of every Missions conference. Now we begin to put into practice those things we learned through the preaching during those five short services. That is the tough part. When there is a task to be done, sometimes just getting started is hard. But once a reasonable start is attempted, things generally come more easily. Once the momentum has set in, especially on a long-term, daily sort of task, the most difficult part comes – to keep going. At the beginning of the year I pledged to learn one of the promises written in the Word of God every week. We are in week number 17 and I have learned twelve. I will get caught up at some point, but you get the idea. Now, we have been alerted to our failure to pray as we ought. It is time to begin to correct that failure. It will be one of those life long changes that will take some discipline to make habitual. Today is a good day to get started.

One thing that was made clear to all who would listen to the preaching was that God does not bless us just so that we can have good things happen in our lives. He blesses us so that, in those blessings, those around us who do not know Him can see the goodness of God in our lives and give Him the glory. If we take that thought and apply it appropriately, every blessing ought to be an opportunity to witness. We are not blessed for our own private and individual edification. We are blessed so that God can be glorified. I do not know about you, but that changes my perspective. I have been careful to give God praise for His blessings when I am with our church family; with fellow Christians. I have not given Him that praise as much when I am with those who do not know Him and how very good He is to me. That is also going to change. I am saved to serve Him. I am blessed for the express purpose of praising Him so that the lost can come to know Him. This could actually be fun.

Speaking of blessings, Mama has thoroughly enjoyed having Zoe and Sophia with her. Victoria was off yesterday and will be off today as well. She too has enjoyed having the girls with us. No mommy. No daddy. (No Papi during the day.) It has been all about Grammy and Tori. Sadly, that will last only a few more days. Brittany and Andrew are scheduled to get to the farm late tomorrow night. They, by the way, are enjoying beautiful weather and beautiful beaches. Mama is almost jealous. Hopefully, they will not get too sunburned as they enjoy all that sun and surf.

Before we left for church last night, we turned the girl’s car seats to the forward-facing position. Actually, we turned one around – Zoe’s. That was to enable Victoria to more easily access the back seat. When we put Sophia in the car and she saw her sister’s car seat orientation, facing the rear was not going to be an option. “Up. Up. Up.” Was all she could think to say – repeatedly - but we got the picture and turned her seat around as well. She was thoroughly excited about the change. All the way to church it was like having Pooh in the back seat. “Cow. Horsey. Cow. Cow. Chicken.” They were thrilled to be seeing out the windows on the vehicle. On the way home, still very excited by the change in seating, they were so loud Grammy had to tell them to be quiet – about every three miles or so. They were asleep almost as soon as they were laid in their beds last night. They had had a busy day. I am assuming they will sleep as late this morning as they did yesterday. That morning they got up at 8:30.

If there has been contact from any of our children or grandchildren, I have not heard about it. Mama’s focus has been singular regarding that relational plane. But I can imagine that Savanna still calls Victoria daily as they count down the days until Victoria is scheduled to visit her in Honduras. Whether or not Walter still wants to “face” Grammy on her phone, I have not been told, but I would not be surprised if that is still happening. And Becky generally calls several times per week. All of that happens without necessarily being relayed to me. I was shown a video of Owen playing with a leaking water hose. That was hilarious.

Our busy week will begin to slow this evening since we do not have to rush off to church, but our days will remain full while we have Zoe and Sophia with us. Oh, the trials of grandparenting.