Trials and Triumph

Yesterday was our end of the year picnic, and as I looked across the lawn I noticed that one of my parents from last year looked as if she was growing a blessing bump.  I didn't want to ask because last year they had lost two babies in the first trimester.  E and I had lost two little ones in the fourth month before we were blessed with K.  I ended up being on bed rest for the entire rest of the pregnancy which ended with our little one coming a month early...just weeks after I'd graduated college.  It was a hard time in our lives... a trial - a time for God to grow us in knowing Him in the ways that only come with heartbreak and tumultuous circumstances.  I write that, because I understand the heartbreak that longing for children brings.
Anyway, this Momma found me at the end of the picnic and let me know that they were almost 18 weeks along.  I wanted to cry, I was so overjoyed.  E. and I have prayed for them several times over the last two years and it was wonderful to see what God was doing in their lives as she explained their journey.  The Momma talked of how that time of trial had actually been precious to them looking back, it also coincided with the economic downturn and hard times all around, but now as God was blessing them she was so excited to tell of God's goodness and faithfulness.
Later, yesterday we had bible study and as we were going through the ninth chapter of The Story Joseph and Judah  the pattern of building life's that God often uses was again brought to my mind.  God is not interested in what we accomplish if it is not intertwined with who He is making us to be.  What a loving Father we have.

Tuesday night, I picked up Leadership as an Identity. one of E.'s latest reads that I had been privy to through  excerpts he had read to me.  A good friend gave it to him earlier this month and now it is on my must read this summer list. This is a good summary...but you'll want to read the whole thing.

Don't waste...spiritual equity;  God is teaching you a greater capacity to know Him and to love Him more.  You are learning what it really means to need Him.  God loves it which we know that we need Him.  This "limp"  is your core credential as a leader. 

Samuel Chadwick states it this way, "It is wonderful what God can do with a broken heart if He gets all the pieces."

I just think of the passage in 2 Corinthians 4, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not ourselves..."  Praise the Lord..