i thought that turning 40 would really throw me for a loop..... After all, i arrived there before any of my immediate, IRL friends. Twenty-five, now that was BAD..... couldn't even imagine that "thirty" word, but when i arrived it was maybe one of the best years of my life! God used those early thirty years to "grow me up in Him"!
So far what i find is that maybe, just maybe, this will be a very exciting time in life! Having two teens in the house can be an eye-opening experience in itself: but couple that with a mom who is starting through "the change" and life takes on a whole new dimension!
While they are running for the door in search of the inevitable freedom, i run for the door to relieve the sudden flashes of heat that engulf me, almost on a daily basis now..... i am yearning for a bit of cooler weather, so it's a good thing i live in the colder northwest than in the deep-south where my roots lie!
Now, at forty, i find that i am on another adventure with God, having my faith and my God become even more real to me, and the mind-blowing absolute vastness of a Sovereign God who is trustworthy in every instance of life! oh, that i might continue to grow in trust, grace, mercy and love!
To look at this year from the outside looking in, it might not look so great. After all, i broke my foot in February, being in a "walking" cast for about 3 months, able for a while to only eat the things that would ride in my pockets when no one was home.
Then oil production took a downturn, giving us the option to move, looking for a place more economically friendly to our pocketbooks.
i went back to work, in a job that demands much more from me physically than any i've had in recent years.
We moved and i started work all in the same week. And as if that weren't enough, two weeks later had a major bout with kidney stones that landed me in the emergency room on Sunday morning, tied up a week of my life with surgery and infection and extremely high fevers, and cost me precious time away from work while on probation status.
Then, we came to the end of our rope with the kids and their schooling, realizing that we could not afford the Christian education we wanted for them, and right at my daughter's senior year. What a year to swap schools!
But through it all, God is Good, God is faithful, and God provides it all anyway. So of course He can turn what looks like a bad situation for our good and His glory!
With the broken foot, i learned to trust my husband in ways i never had before, showing me that despite my first experience with marriage, i could lean on my God-provided spouse! and what an awesome hubby he is!
Then we found a place to move to within less than 36 hours of beginning our search, having known couples who looked for 9 months before finding something in the housing crunch of our area.
God gave me a job that i had been inquiring about for the last 5 years, off and on, and in that job has given me many opportunities to minister to, witness to, and just simply talk with others about Him!
God provided the means for the kids to continue to obtain a Christian based education, not the way we thought He would, but in unexpected ways that we had not ever thought possible.
So, forty? Yep, i feel more aches and pains. But every day i am learning to rely more fully on the Sovereign Lord of the Universe and trust Him with the circumstances and situations of my life!
May i be like YOU, Jesus!
