Saturday, December 30, 2017

Ice, Words, and Valleys oh my...

Here in Texas, we are hearing all over the news to drive with caution as an arctic cold front is headed our way that could produce the slightest bit of ice. Ice trucks are prepared for the roads, but mind you there is no real percent of precipitation mentioned.



Yet, they are prepared.

Some may say over-prepared, it has been a while since Dallas saw anything significant in weather, but still, they are ready and telling us to be cautious.

It raises the question though, Are you over prepared for the possibility for anything to come in life? Or are you just taking things day by day and hope that you are prepared.

Before the question raised though I was smacked with a visual. A visual of ice on part of my yard and my dead grass visible on the other part of my yard. I was thinking, man the parallel of this hitting near New Years seems quite symbolic.



It's as if 2017 is being frozen in its tracks; a clear line of ending, and then 2018 beginning.
A thaw of new coming.

The day things are supposed to be thawed out here is January 3rd. The day we take our first trek south for a speech and debate tournament. A new normal for us if you will. A new job a few months ago. New financial low at the end of this year. Promises whispered throughout 2017 though.

I don't know what to make of it all. I don't know what is to come.

This year my husband and I had words laid on our hearts for 2017. His was "change" and mine was the word "still." To think back on all of the change we never saw coming or thought that that word meant back in January brings tears to my eyes.

5 different companies he worked for
Left one job we'd been at for 5 years for what he thought was a better opportunity to be fired 6 months later
2 1/2 months of unemployment
I started working part-time
An entirely new industry for my husband, again
Financial low... lowest in 14 years
Parenting moments we never saw coming

We attended a wedding and a funeral this year. 
This year brought it all.

And through it, all God has never let us fall. Never be without. God math blows my ever loving mind. There was no way that back in January we were prepared for the "change" that God has brought to our land or the "stillness" we felt when the world was fallout out below our feet.

Is Texas ready for this weekend? I don't know. Will they even have anything to be ready for, maybe not this weekend but at some point, something will come. This could just be good practice for them for what is to come.

I have no idea what words for the year my husband and I will hear. The words our children even heard for themselves this last year would give you goosebumps in looking back at what they have walked through as well.

2018 has plans. God wrote them a long time ago. Whatever 2018 holds we will praise Him because in the end... this isn't our eternity anyway, and how we handle the battles before us we help shape the eternity for someone else. What glory are you giving to God in the valley you are walking in? Eyes are watching.



Through our journey this year a story was shared with me of a vision a friend was given during a low in their lives. He asked me to envision a mountainous valley... peaks and valleys. Simple enough right? He then asked me to envision the tree line and asked me where I saw it. "Near the bottom," of course, was my response. He said, "exactly." He proceeded to say, "don't you see it? The growth happens in the valleys, not at the peaks."


I wanted to cry right then and there. In the valley is where we grow. That place we want out of so bad because we are being refined. And even that word hits hard. Refined. But the point remains.... growth happens in the valleys... not on the peaks.

How are you responding to what might possibly be coming your way?
If a valley is what you are currently in or about to walk into, or what you are walking out of remember this is the spot where growth is taking place.
Have you already heard your word for 2018?

Whatever comes your way hold tight to know that "all Your promises are yes and amen!"



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