Yesterday we were out of electricity at home all day.  Just as I turned on the computer it went out.  So what to do?

First I worked out the back of a cereal box

This is an unusual item at our home as it is quite expensive (between $8-12 a box) but on our last trip to Nairobi we found these on sale, so it was a nice treat!

Ok, so that took me, what, all of a couple minutes?  I then decided to read a chapter from A Woman Jesus Can Teach and was hit with these reminders and truths:

“Faith means trusting God to do what is best for us as we do what He tells us to do.”

and

“It is easy for many of us whom God has blessed with families to allow our families to come before our relationship to God.  Faced with the anti-family pressures of our culture, we want to turn back the tide of godlessness around us by making a strong family our first priority.  Is that wrong?  The answer is Yes, when our family becomes our first priority.”

This made me stop and think because I miss my family, I miss my kids.  Have I put seeing them a top priority?  God hasn’t allowed me to see them (in person) for almost three years and that has certainly shifted my priority to Him….because there really is nothing I can do for/with my family except pray for them, which also puts my focus on God not the family.

I had to let that settle in and decided to read a friends book she had written and sent to us (The Road From Pine Breeze).  I met Jo several years ago and knew right from the start she had a deep, deep faith.  It seemed to come so easily to her and I was always happy to hear her speak and learn one more little nugget of truth from her.  Her book did not disappoint either!

Briefly, she was a young teenager back in the late 1940’s and was hospitalized for treatment of TB.  She wanted to go home but God kept her at Pine Breeze (the treatment facility) for several reasons….all of which she learned as her stay lengthened.  Until one day a fellow patient accepted the Lord as her Savior and told Jo “I am so happy, Jo.  Oh, Jo, what if you had never had TB?  What if you had never come to my room and told me how to be saved?  Jo, I’m going to be with Jesus soon and then I will learn so much.  I’m going to heaven, Jo!”

After which Jo prayed:

“Lord, I thank You for keeping me at Pine Breeze for another year.  If you want to keep me here until I’m ninety years old and this is the only mission field You want to send me to, then I’m willing to stay right here and let You use me to win souls to Yourself.”

You see, I still seem to be getting things mixed up.  I want to see my family but they should not be my #1 priority….my work and purpose is here in Kenya.  Yet I have never prayed this prayer, not even thought about it.  Honestly it scares me a bit to think of being here in Kenya for the rest of my life, without seeing family or friends, however, I MUST trust that God knows “what is best for [me] as [I] do what He tells [me] to do”.

It’s tough for me having that complete faith that things will work out, it’s all worth it, God knows best.  I can say it and I do mean it but God knows the tiny doubts that creep into my heart and mind.  How wonderful though is our Lord….

to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, (Eph. 1:6-8)