BE PRESENT
This past weekend we celebrated FOUR years of life at Auburn Community Church! (For those that don't know, my husband and I moved to Auburn, AL a little over four years ago to plant a church!)
On our first Sunday four years ago we couldn't fill up a tiny church we were renting for one evening service and this past Sunday we celebrated with over 3,000 people coming to church over a span of four services. WHAT. I don't say that to brag about numbers, but to brag on our VERY good God and the lives He is reaching in Auburn, Alabama!
I intended to write a blog post in celebration and review over the last four years. (And hopefully I still will at some point... the Lord has taught me SO much over this time!) BUT after our day and night Sunday, I felt the Lord stirring my heart in a different direction. Anniston and I were able to attend one of the services and then be present for parts of the others. After watching everyone file into the last service of the day, Anniston and I headed home for dinner and bedtime and I would anxiously wait for Miles to get home so we could talk about what an amazing day it was!
WELL. Long story short, my sweet child started vomiting at bedtime and continued off and on for the next couple of hours. I called Miles once I knew the service was officially over in a panic of trying to comfort our child while also trying to get throw up off the carpet. He hurried home and we spent the next couple of hours holding our baby, doing multiple loads of laundry, and scrubbing carpet. Not the night we hand in mind exactly.
I don't say all of that for a pity party. Kids get sick (and she was absolutely fine the next morning. Praise God!). Plans get changed. We roll with it! But it just reminded me of where the Lord has me currently and to not only be okay with it, but to THRIVE in it. And if you're reading this, I think He is calling YOU to thrive in your current season too!
I have been a wife for seven years now and I know that is my number one calling. To serve and love my husband. For our first 5.5 years of a marriage I was a teacher and that was my second to calling. To love and teach my little elementary babies with all I had. Now I have the great pleasure and privilege of being a mom. So currently my top priorities are loving and serving my husband and baby girl as best I can! Sometimes that feels glamorous with fun trips with Miles, watching Anniston conquer new milestones, or celebrating our "tiny" church reach over 3,000 people!
Other times... that means washing vomit out of three sets of pajamas and one big carpet stain. It means staying in sweats that don't match (because all of YOUR pajamas also got covered in throw up) all the next day with no make up on and my postpartum frizzy hair going in every single direction. It means unplugging from the world and holding my little girl so she doesn't have to feel bad or afraid. It means making sure laundry is done and dinner is on the table so your husband can focus on all of the souls coming into church the following Sunday. It means going to bed at 8:00pm because you can't possibly keep your eyes open one more moment.
See? Not so glamorous haha. But oh SO worth it! Somedays are more exciting than others, but more often than not, it's filled of what some may consider the mundane. But those "mundane" moments are my calling right now and I can gripe about them OR I can view them as my purpose and how they are setting my family up for SUCCESS.
What do your days look like? Is your dishwasher constantly full like mine? Are you drowning in homework? Are you in a job you not only don't like, but can't possibly see HOW it could benefit you? Are you caught in one of those seasons where you don't know what's next and the anxiety of it is eating you alive? Man, I have been in ALL of those seasons. And I would like to say I was "thriving" and seeing the Lord's purpose in everything, but I definitely felt like I was drowning during some of those times. But now with just a tiny bit of maturity and hindsight behind me, I can see how in every single moment the Lord was setting me up for something better. How He was teaching me what I needed to succeed in the next great season. I mean it, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
I'm pretty sure I've talked about this before so I'm probably sounding a tad redundant, but if I am constantly relearning this, maybe you are too? I just hope and pray you don't waste and miss beautiful moments like I have in the past. I promise, something good is always around the corner... some corners may just seem a lot longer than others. ;)
“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ”
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
So no matter what season you are in... a lost freshman, an anxious senior, working in a lackluster job, feeling like the loneliest person in the world, drowning in housework, not seeing your prayers come to fruition, or anything between... you are SEEN and the Lord is at work in YOU. I only know this because I have been there! And I promise, it's a lot more fulfilling to give your all and enjoy what feels like a crazy season than to be exhausted with your own fear and doubt. Enjoy today and keep waiting... the good is coming!