Thankful

I miss blogging. I can’t believe I used to blog almost every day! I am tired today but want to take this opportunity to express my thankfulness during this season while I am sitting around being unproductive!  Come on people…I can’t turn off this crazy brain OK?

My heart is full today mainly because I survived this past week that had more things crammed in than is humanly possible.  In my prayer time a week ago, I felt like God told me this would be a week of celebration and zeal! I so wanted to believe but I had my doubts.  I was honestly just praying to God that I wouldn’t loose my marbles at least the ones I have left. 

It was BCS Homecoming and we were planning events that had never been done in the history of BCS! God used the Taylor family in a tremendous way! They had a fantastic idea to do a powderpuff game with the high school girls playing football and the high school boys cheering!  I was pumped and ready to do it!! It is always a scary thing to launch out and do something new!  People are always skeptical of new things and sit on the fence before they get onboard.  It irritates me very much!  It was frustrating to get the students to commit and I had my moments that I may gingersnap on them for being slackers!   

The Taylors were very patient and longsuffering and the event pulled together better than anyone could imagine!  The students finally got onboard and it was a tremendous success and something that will be an annual tradition at BCS!  My Bonnie posted pictures and said it was an event she will never forget!  The Jacksonville Jaguar drumline played and now we must figure out how to start a BCS Drumline!   The week ended with a magical Great Gatsby Homecoming Dance of epic proportions!  It was beyond anything BCS has ever done, so elegant and classy! The students were blessed beyond measure thanks to the hard work of the Taylor family!

My heart is also so overwhelmed because of the dear friends and co-workers that God has blessed me! Tina, Cara and Carrie love me no matter how psycho I act!  They talk me off the ledge.  They tell me to hush when necessary, bring me food and coffee and bail me out almost daily!  Carrie has taken on a bazillion jobs that she never imagined because she saw the need.  She is really doing a very minimum of what we hired her to do but passionately jumps in wherever she can help!  Beyond being an over the top, committed to a fault co-worker she is a kind and caring best friend who loves my kids maybe as much as I do!  She cares for them and loves them as much as her own kids.  

My mom had to be hospitalized over night and Carrie immediately took charge of Maggie’s trip to Daytona for Dance. She picked her up at 5 AM and got her organized and where she needed to be with no questions asked!  I made sure mom was OK, dashed down to Daytona and got to be wowed by the NancyDance Company performances!  She kept Maggie overnight for me and safely delivered her home!  I will never forget the love and kindness she showed me and my family.  What a gift of God she is to me in everyway! 

The reason I had to come home was I had committed to share the message in church because my Pastor was on vacation.  I recently went through a hard, personal struggle that was filled with self-doubt and a level of insecurity I have never experienced in my life.  I know without a doubt the church community that I stayed committed to is the reason I came through to the other side.  I have never been so consistently tormented night and day in everyway possible.  It was like a bad dream that seems unreal when I think about it with demonic attack after attack, problem after relentless problem, complaint after ridiculous complaint.  I have learned enough in my spiritual walk to reach out for prayer.  I asked those that love me to be praying over me and my family. The intercessors at church prayed without ceasing for me. Pastor Howard and the Elders at the church rallied around me, prayed and supported me like I never experienced.  The results were a sermon that was birthed in pain but I pray to Jesus that it will help other’s persevere in adversity.  That is the point of it all.  

We are in a terrible spiritual battle that is unseen to stop us from doing God’s will.  We forget.  I forgot and internalize why God was letting me suffer.  Why would he allow these relentless attacks and ridiculousness when I was doing what He asked me to do?  It was to mature me.  It was to grow me and it was to produce gold in my life.  Did I respond in the right ways?  Heck No.  I cried, I cussed, I had lots of pity parties but I did pray more than ever and I didn’t quit.   I learned how to stand firm and allow God to fight my battles, to vindicate me and to defend me and guess what He did!  I remember the day the Elders prayed over me.  The dark cloud lifted and my heart was again at peace and my joy returned.

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for my spiritual family.  Not many people in today’s society have a network of faith-filled people who will stand with them in prayer!  I am blessed so much more than I deserve and want to thank God for the love He has given me, the friends that He has blessed me with, for my Pastor who supports me and my family who allows me to be in ministry. I know the battle wages on and I pray that I will remember how to stand strong!

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:13