Good morning! I hope you all have had a peaceful, joy filled, amazing weekend and got some beautiful baby pictures to show off how you used the tips I shared in Friday’s Lemon Press.
My family and I have been on some kind of crazy roller coaster this weekend. Despite that, I can say with confidence it has been a peaceful, joy filled, amazing weekend, with TONS of spiritual growth for us. Always uncomfortable, but a good thing none the less.
This past Friday, the kids and I headed to the zoo to pick out an animal for them to research. My son chose Siamang Apes and my daughter selected Merecats. These are some pictures we took of the animals they will research:
We had a beautiful day walking around the zoo, feeding the lorikeets, and giraffes, and watching the elephants, too. Afterward, we had lunch at one of our most favorite chain resturants, Chick-fil-A, and then headed over to the teachers store so I could get a grade book and counters for our next year of homeschooling. It was a busy morning and we were exhausted so we headed home to rest up a bit before I had to head out to a photo shoot, where I caught this amazing picture:
This beautiful woman has an incredible story behind why she now works for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and I was honored to photograph her and her adorable young man to commemorate the life of her husband for Father’s day. She is one of the strongest people I know but I’ll resist the temptation to tell her story. In the mean time, I suggest you go check out what the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is all about and how you might be able to support them.
Anyway, it wasn’t until the end of the day that I discovered $1,520 missing from my purse! You read that right, one THOUSAND, five HUNDRED, twenty dollars. The majority of the money was allocated to taking care of my husband’s teeth but the rest was going to allow us to visit family as my brother and sister in law both graduate high school this weekend. I was devastated and my husband, naturally, was angry. As he called to cancel his dental appointment, I went over everything that could have been done differently to prevent the theft. As hard a pill as this has been to swallow, God has used it to teach us so much and that itself has been quite exhausting.
Fore-mostly, what I am taking from this event is that, it all belongs to God. Something I already knew and accepted but this makes it so concrete for me. This is money which was a gift offering to us to begin with; we hadn’t done anything to earn or save it. While we (and by ‘we’ I mean, “I”) still feel like we have let everyone down, I also have an odd peace. Since this money is God’s and He has a purpose for it; I am confident that His purpose will be accomplished. And that’s what matters most anyway.
Another thing we have been learning is money management. By having this money stolen we have looked at a variety of ways we might have kept it safer. From leaving my purse in the car to putting the money in the bank. But more pointedly, my husband has begun to review how he, specifically, manages money. Generally, I am responsible for the money management in our family. While I am not horrible at it, I have suspected for a long time that, if he would do it, my husband would be a MUCH better manager than I. Finally, he is beginning to acknowledge that he just doesn’t want the job and that’s not an appropriate attitude to take, or a fair responsibility to lay on me when he knows he would be better at it than me. I am excited for what that can mean for me and our family!
One other thing that really stands out to me as we have faced the loss of this money is our response to the individual(s) responsible for the theft. We don’t know, yet, who did it. We may never know. But, interestingly, while I have been angry at whoever did this, I also have a great sadness for them. They don’t really know who they stole from but they do know people don’t generally carry $1,520 in cash on their person. For all they know, they stole from the Children’s Hospital! It could have been life-saving medicine for someone. And when someone has that kind of money on them, it’s probably because they are going to use it very shortly, probably that day, for something big and important. I have prayed that everything they try to use the money for breaks or doesn’t work, and generally brings them absolutely no pleasure (and if I’m going to be honest with you, even harm) to begging that God will make their conscience unbearable until they seek to do the right thing and ask God for forgiveness. That they will come to know Him personally because of this event. And the farther away from Friday that I get, the more the prayer is that they will have a heavy conscience and, somehow, come to know Jesus because of it.
And my children, also, have amazed me! As the wound was fresh, both my daughter (13) and my son(9) came to me, independently. They held me and loved on me and told me it was okay and God is in control; everything is going to be fine. Amazing. Where did I go right with them? It has been my goal as a parent that my children love and, without question, trust God. That is MOST important to me; before science, spelling, math, history….you name it, I want them to love and trust God. And they do. Amazing. I was so hurt but this alone gave me unspeakable joy.
When I first decided to begin blogging, I was only going to post ‘something’ once a week, maybe twice if I felt like it. But I quickly found that, although it is a bit uncomfortable and maybe people won’t be interested at all, it is a way that I can offer help and it is a way that I can release, and then review, my life. I now, after only a few weeks of blogging, have “two” blog articles that I am keeping: on Friday, you get “The Lemon Press” and on Monday you get my favorite (and more difficult) article to write, “Fresh Lemonade.” Indeed, this week, the world has offered Lemons to my family. But my God has allowed us to be pressed by those lemons and now offers us Fresh Lemonade instead!
* My adviser does not find it necessary for me to add this information, but I am so “blog illiterate,” that I cannot help but to imagine others may be in the same boat with me! It took me a bit to figure out how to leave a comment here, so in case you want to leave a comment but can’t figure out how: Simply click the yellow bar that runs across the top of the blog post you would like to comment on. It opens that post in a tab of it’s own, the links necessary to make a comment are at the bottom of the post! Fun!