Month: January 2016

Refining
Our pastor is at it again! 🙂 He has been a continual encouragement to us from across the country. He shared this verse with us a couple of days ago and said it jumped off the page at him. It has definitely been a soothing salve to our hearts as well.

“Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, will I do it: for how shall my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.”
Isaiah 48:10-11

He explained this passage this way:

It isn’t always about chastening, purging, or correction. Sometimes God chooses the platform of affliction to simply make Himself BIG in the eyes of the audience.

We are thankful that in the “furnace of affliction” God’s grace is present, abundant, and sustaining. His grace is accessible to…

Sweet
I’ve heard rumors of a cinnamon roll in Texas that weighs 5 pounds. While Jon wanted to add a stop on our epic road trip of America, I personally think that’s just too much sweetness to be enjoyable. Though sugary sweetness can sometimes be too much to handle, it’s rare that you wish for less sweetness in life. We are learning that you appreciate the sweet times much more when you experience the not-so-sweet times.

We feel like this is a good correlation to the Gospel. When you begin to realize how sinful you really are, God’s gift of salvation becomes sweeter. When you think about all the torment that Christ went through, His willingness to do the will of His Father becomes more precious. God sent His Son so that He could offer us eternal life and redeem us from our sin. There was nothing in us that was desirable…

This was actually during Ellie’s chemo infusion today. They both slept through most of it!

Clarity
The past few days have felt confusing (and a bit frustrating) as we hear one thing and then research to find another thing to be true. Or we are told something will happen at a certain time, and then it is either moved back or just done late. Clear communication feels so important at this point, but it doesn’t always happen.

I’m thankful that when I am frustrated by confusion, God is not. God already knows the outcome of Ellie’s leukemia. And I get to trust Him…not the medicines, not the communication, not the system.

God is powerful. The Bible is full of that reminder. He created the entire world. He rescued His people by parting a giant sea so they could escape across dry ground…and then He killed their enemies behind them. He toppled…

Sustained
Our pastor emailed Jon and I this past Saturday and told us he is praying for God’s sustaining grace for us. I’m beginning to learn that God’s sustaining grace is needed to walk the road we are on. We’ve passed our 2-week mark in the hospital, and I honestly can’t decide if it feels like we’ve been here 4 months or 3 days. So much has happened so quickly that it seems impossible we have been here for only 16 days. And yet Jon and I both feel we have aged years in that time.

We’re getting into the routine even though each day is different. We both love our ministry jobs and are finding ways to fit work-related things into the random empty spots in the day. While we are so thankful and love being with family who are making things much, much easier on us, we are…