Blessing upon Blessing upon...

Blessing.  You get the point right?

It's Thursday and the sun is truly shinning and I feel slightly guilty for not getting out in it, but I just wanted to get home so I could write.  Sounds silly right?  But I get these urges where I just need to sit down and let my fingers have their way with the keyboard.  It is during these moments where my fingers just dance across the keys - where I can type and type and type without really second guessing my thoughts.

And today, amidst the sun shining rays, I find myself in one of these moments.  I thought about going somewhere to type, but figured there isn't any place better than my back porch.  I mean this is my view.

Plus I don't have to go anywhere.  And to be quite honest, it doesn't get much better than that!  

So where to start?  Peter and I have been so abundantly blessed these past few days and I truly don't know where to start.  So I suppose what better place to start then at the beginning right?

At church on Sunday, Megan Dobrasz preached on Matthew 6: 25-34, which reads as follows...

 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, andyour heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The theme of the verse is simply Do not be Anxious, which is easier said than done right?  I mean I read this passage and I think, "Okay - I get it...you don't want me to worry about tomorrow nor do you want me to be anxious about my life."  I get it...I truly do, but it's hard to live out isn't it?  I mean what does it look like to have a life free from anxiety and worry.  Imagine how unbelievably freeing that would truly be...and I think isn't that how the Lord intended it?  Doesn't he desire for us to enter fully into that freedom?  What are we waiting for??

And I find that I can't even answer my own questions.  Because, if I am completely honest, job hunting and everything it entails has begun to consume me.  I apply for jobs.  I interview.  I wait.  And I wait.  And I wait.  And I worry.  And I am anxious.  And impatient.   And without direction.  And without guidance.  And overwhelmed.  And then I am anxious.  And then I worry.  Are you seeing a pattern here?

So at the end of Megan D's sermon when she asked us to lay down our anxieties and worries at the feet of the Lord - I knew exactly what I would be laying down.  I am anxious about finding a job.  And I have begun to let these anxious thoughts consume me and control me.  Rather than fully trusting in the Lord, I have begun to feel as though He has forgotten about me.  Or maybe it was just that I forgot about him?

Anyhow, Sunday was simply a beautiful day, a day I have already written about.  But something I have yet to write about is the beautiful generosity of my grandparents.  

Meet my Grandma Gladys.  

This woman is AMAZING!  And I'm not just saying that because she is my grandma.  I mean truly - this woman is simply delightful and she blesses everyone she comes into contact with (kind of like my dad, I guess it all makes sense considering she is his mother!)  This woman truly loves the Lord and everything she says and does always comes back to Jesus.  This is inspiring!  She truly lives and breathes Jesus and her faith in Him is simply palpable. 

So my grandparents came out to the Hood Canal on Sunday evening to celebrate my dad's birthday and to share a little story with us.  My grandma went on to say that, years ago, before many of us were born, she started a life insurance plan.  And she recently found out that she had outlived her life insurance plan.  Don't you just love that?  And after hearing all of her options, she decided to cash it in. She then went on to say that she had spent the entire day driving around Washington, visiting her grandchildren and handing out little envelopes.  

Why you might ask?  Well, it turns out that my grandma had consulted her husband and her four sons, and she decided that she wanted to give a portion of the money to each of her 12 grandchildren.   Gosh, I get so emotional just reliving this moment!  So give me a second...

She then handed the three of us sitting around the table our little envelopes and told us to open them.  Each envelope contained a handwritten note and my note went something like this...

"Dearest Malia - this gift that I am enclosing is for you, if you want to share it with your husband, dear Peter that is up to you.  It has a little story behind it and I will share it when we are together.  I love you so much and this grandmother is very proud of you and rejoices over your relationship with Jesus - such a blessing!  It's beautiful!"

And then it's signed Abuelita (grandma) Gladys.

As soon as I finished reading her card, I simply turned to her, squeezed her hand and with tears in both of our eyes I just said..."Grandma, I love you so much and it breaks my heart when I have to think about anything having to do with your death!  And I know it's selfish, but I just can't imagine my life without you in it.  But it gives me so much peace to know that you are simply going Home to be with the Lord."  And the reality is...she is going to die, and her time on this earth will certainly come to an end.  And when that time comes, although my heart will be aching, I will be rejoicing.

So that is simply blessing number one.  And remember the title of this post is blessing upon blessing upon blessing.  So that would mean that we still have three more and it's just Thursday people!

So blessing number two.  Peter and I had dinner with one of our absolute favorite couples - who will not be named for the sake of their anonymity - but you know who you are!  We were so blessed by our time with them like always.  I am always so sad to say our goodbyes and to part ways, but it's a reality because we don't live there - even though sometimes I wish we did!  I mean we would probably make pretty good babysitters?  So maybe they should consider it??

Anyhow, as we were hugging each other and saying our goodbyes, the husband handed Peter a check.  And it was a support check for his work with COTN because as many of you know Peter (my husband) is a missionary and he fundraises his entire salary.  And this whole fundraising thing can be exhausting - but it forces us to truly rely on the Lord and to truly appreciate the gift of not only giving but also receiving.  And God is faithful, and we have been blessed abundantly by people such as these.  

But the best part about all of this was that as we were driving away, peter turns to me and simply exclaims, "God is crazy right now!"  See, on Sunday at church, Peter had laid down his anxieties.  And his anxieties were centered on money.  We have all sorts of house projects we want to accomplish and things we want to do, but it all costs money.  And if I am completely honest, money certainly isn't coming out of our ears right now.  But that sure would be funny if it was!  So yes, God is crazy right now!

But the story isn't over yet - it gets even better.  Remember there is a third blessing.  We have all sorts of GIANT trees in our yard and we want to remove them, but that costs money obviously!  But who would have thought it would cost us $4,000 for one tree.  Holy cow that's a lot of money people.  We have checked out multiple tree surgery companies and received countless quotes - and we continue to search for the best offer.  Just this past week someone came to look at our trees and the quote was significantly less.  But not only was the quote less, a kind and loving donor, someone I know well, informed us that they wanted to help us pay for the tree removal.

God is so good.  And I just laugh thinking about it all!  Here Peter and I have been holding onto these things and getting anxious about them, whether it be money or jobs, and as soon as we laid them down at His feet BAMM - Things began to happen!

Thanks for reading this especially LONG post!  And have a delightful weekend.

P.S.  Also, I should mention that on top of all of this, I have received offers for 3 interviews.