Thankful Thursday

"Show me how you work, God; School me in your ways. Take me by the hand; Lead me down the path of truth. You are my Savior, aren't you?" Psalm 25:4-5
The Message Translation


Don't you just love how God shows us the way, how He directs our thoughts in the direction they should go, how He is right there with us along the way? I sure do!

The last few weeks have been busy, busy around these parts. School activities with the kids, Cub Scouts, busy work schedules, activities at church, and then there's that new business we're trying to get off the ground. It's enough to make a girl exhausted some days and lately it has all just seemed to hit at once.

After going through a few weeks of this endless stream of activities and watching my 'to do' list continue to grow instead of shrinking, I just got downright overwhelmed over the weekend. I sat down with my husband Sunday afternoon and just had to talk it out. I told him I just didn't know how we were going to get thru the next few weeks. As usual, I felt better after we talked about it for awhile, but I wasn't really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And, quite frankly, all I could think of what how great it would be when we did get to the end of the tunnel.

I did spend some time in prayer that afternoon just asking God to help me see all the good and let go of the overwhelming feelings. I asked Him to show me what was most important so that I would focus on that and not all the other things on my list that were less important and could wait.

Later that evening a neighbor stopped by. She is in the midst of a painful and difficult divorce and just needed a friend. She was here for about an hour... just sharing the difficulties of her weekend, her concern for her teenage children, and just sharing her heart and her feelings. (As a sidenote, if you should feel led, please pray for this family... they are so special and they will get thru all of this, but they are hurting now and need our prayers!) After she left, I first said a quick prayer for them and then instantly realized that I had been given a whole new perspective on my feelings. I was overwhelmed with life in general, buth my marriage hadn't fallen apart and my children's heart weren't aching because Mommy and Daddy were no longer together.

Move forward to Tuesday morning of this week and, while I was feeling better, I drove into work knowing and I had a mountain of work that needed to be done. I'll be on vacation next week and there is much that I need to accomplish before leaving the office on Friday of this week. I walked in the door of the office only to discover that our site computer network was down. This meant no work getting done for me as 98% of my job requires the use of my computer and with the need to have the network available to access necessary software applications, etc. This word was soon followed by the news that it would be down for 3-4 hours. Oh, my! BUT, very quickly I realized I had the ability to drive home and connect remotely to my company's main network in California via the internet connection at my house. After making a quick phone call to my manager in Wisconsin I was out the door and soon home and working. Plus, I was able to get much more accomplished than I ever would have in the office since it was quiet at home with no stream of co-workers in and out of my office. YEA!

Then, finally this morning... I was catching up on reading some of my favorite blogs and ran across a post speaking of some of the same feelings of being overwhelmed that I had been experiencing. She spoke of how she had suddenly realized this week that she wasn't giving glory to God with her feelings. Her thoughts stopped me dead in my tracks. She shared how we need to accept these moments in our lives and be thankful for them as these are the moments that God gives to us. Yes, they are busy and they are crazy sometimes, but each moment is a gift from God that should never be wasted away wishing for future moments of quietness. As long as we turn to God and know that He is right beside us all the way then we are good.

Through each of these happenings this weeks God showed me the gift He has given to me... even if it is BUSY and CRAZY right now. He is with me and He is showing me His ways by showing me how fortunate I am and by blessing me with unexpected moments of time to catch up a little bit. I am so thankful for all that God has shown me this week and I just pray that I will take it with me in the days to come.

Thank you, dear Lord, for showing me YOUR WAYS! Amen.

For more Thankful Thursday posts, visit Lynn at "Spiritually Unequal Marriage"!