Just do it!

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus....

1Thessalonians 5:18

In all circumstances? For real? You have got to be kidding, right? Are you sure? ALL?

Of course...ALL! It is pretty tough to wrap my thoughts around that verse, but looking at it from the outside looking in, it totally makes sense. But do we really obey this verse? Of course not! Should we? Totally!

Things don't always go as planned for everyone, if anyone. I know for sure that I didn't plan on being a single parent for almost 5 years while my husband spends time in prison for being stupid. I went through years and years of saying "Buddy, one of these days....". And sure enough one of those days came for us! And I say us, because we are a family! We have 20 more months left to go and we will all be together again. I won't be a single parent any longer. My husband, who is now a born again Christian, will take his rightful place at my side to parent together. God only knows how many times I prayed for that. And now I give thanks for that. And it was tough at first to think about giving thanks for my husband going away for that long. Very tough! But I know that He has a plan and this is all part of that plan.

I also know that as my little brother struggles with different temptations in his life that God has a BIG plan for him too. I know that he has a lot of people praying for him. And he will overcome this in God's own time! But until then, it is really hard to be thankful for that! Really hard! But I know that God has gotten me through tough times with prayer, whether I liked what He did or not, I was still steadfast in praying for His will! God's will, not ours, not Buddy's, not mine, not Lori's, not Mom's or Dad's, not Bernie's! I know that He is faithful and He will see us through anything and everything that we ask Him to see us through. All we have to do is ask.

Read Luke 11:1-13 where Jesus teaches us how to pray. He tells us exactly what to do. So, "just do it"! We may not like what He tells us but be fervent in it! He will never let us down! Obey what you know! (Sound familiar anyone?)

It is funny, because when I sat down here at my computer tonight, I had planned on writing about my extremely busy week with the kids out on spring break. But I guess that the Lord had other plans for this. I needed to be reminded of this too.

Maybe another time on my exhausting week....to be continued....