As a mom I have no desire to see my kids get hurt. I half joking but totally for real tell them they are not allowed to do boxing or things like the Ultimate Fighting Championship. My heart cannot bear to see them get hurt. When Caden played baseball last season he got hit with the ball during a pitch and I almost cried right there in the stands. I wanted to run out to the field and hug him and take him home to help him heal and cuddle while he rest.  I am very empathetic and seeing someone’s pain almost always brings pain to me. When my kids come home with stories of rude friends or someone being a punk I want to spank that other child’s butt and give them a good verbal teaching about kindness and the power of words. I can’t do that but I can teach my child how to respond in those situations. I can prepare their hearts on who they are so when daggers come their way in the form of people’s words or life’s experience they know how to responded. I can do my best to prepare the way for them because I know trouble times will come and they need to be prepared. If  my kids ever did so some sort of boxing I would have to be comforted by the fact that they were being trained by a professional. Boxers/fighters do not go into the ring without some training. Their “off” days are preparing for the “on” days. When they get in the ring they 💯 know that punches are coming and it will hurt but they have been prepping for this. 

Sometimes I see our lives as a boxing ring. In our “off” days, our private lives, we should be in training for the “on” days. Even if you look at EMTs and doctors they have to be trained up for the moment when trails come. They have no idea what may lie ahead but they have to be ready.  They go to school and their teachers do everything they can to prepare the students for what is to come. 

I have said before that I am a silver lining kind of gal. For years I have trained my mind to look for the positive in all situations. Looking at my situation of being diagnosed with MS would be overwhelming. I had no other option but to find a silver lining. I have learned it helps a ton. This past week when flash floods hit the northern Davidson County and we had flooding I had to put this in practice. I want to tell you a couple of things I found to be the sweetest ways I saw were God prepared us for what was to come. Just like I hurt when my kids get hurt, God hurts when his children go through pain. I am empathetic because that is how God made me. I am made in his image and that tells me that he is also empathetic. To ever think that God does not hurt when his kids are hurting is simply you not understanding the true heart of God. When we are going through trails he is right there beside us to comfort us.  We have an upstairs apartment that we rent out to guys and from around 12-4 a.m. they will all down here helping us bucket water out from our basement.

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We all knew, even then, we were blessed. This was the left overs from the Hurricane Harvey that had just left devastation in Texas. We had seen on the news where houses were fully submerged in water. We “simply” had 2+ feet of water in our basement.  We still had our family and all of our main belongings. Over the next few days when we were still in over our heads with bleaching everything because of the sewer water that over flowed in the bathrooms and emptying out our basement so things could dry, I saw a few more silver lining things.  Before I even write out those simple things let me say this, God knew about the storm and the flood but did not cause it. We live in a fallen world and things crash when you are living in a “house” that is off it’s kilter a bit. Just like a boxing coach prepares his student for the fight and I prepare my kids for the fight of -real life, God prepares us for the fights that come out way. It doesn’t mean we won’t get punched along the way. It doesn’t mean we won’t have words thrown at us with such force it is meant to stab our hearts and kill us. It means we are trained up to be ready for the fights and come out winners. 

So many people forget that the battle between the devil and God already happen and God WON! He always will win. The devil wanted God’s spot in heaven and it is not possible for anyone else to take the throne. The devil was kicked out of heaven and come to earth to rule. He did not like it and will try to convince every single person who will listen that he is still a contender in this fight and that he is the champion. He has no wins under his belt and all his talk is trash talk and smack talk with no evidence. 

The week before the flood I had a ton of ladies to call and text to talk about the up coming life group a week later. I am usually a procrastinator and I have been working really hard on changing my words. Instead of saying “I am a procrastinator” I started to say ” In the past I usually procrastinate but I am using my time wisely” I finish that with a “Lord, help me use my time wisely” So normally this task of calling the ladies gets pushed back a few days but it didn’t. I called and texted every single one of them the day I was supposed to. I also emailed and text all the couples in our life group too. We were having a huge college party at our home Friday and a couples cookout on Saturday. I even used my time wisely and was getting the house clean before the big parties. I was rocking ✨✨this week on the -using my time well- I was kicking butt and patting my self on the back for my awesomeness 🤛🏻 

Jerry even made the comment earlier that week that for the first time in a long time he was on top of things for prepping for the Festival of the Nations and the TN State Fair coming up soon. I soon thought about how amazing this was. I feel that in God’s sweetness he gave us this extra boost of – using our time wisely- because he knew we were not going to have any time the next week. I was so thankful when I was scrubbing the bathroom floors that I did not also have the extra pressure of having to call the ladies. It would not have happened now and I would have let a lot of people down. I hate letting people down. That is a whole other post. Jerry had zero extra time to even think about the fair and that was ok because he used his time wisely earlier in the month. 

Another way I saw God’s hand was the perfect timing of removing a huge wasp nest. Two weeks ago I saw a massive nest on my neighbor’s window. This explained the abnormal amount of wasp we had in our yard. When I saw my neighbors I told them and within a week they had someone out there and removed that nest and 3 other nest (hives ….whatever they are called) around house. If that had not happened we would have lots of wasp coming into our home as we had every door and every window open to air it out. It is a tiny thing but such a huge blessing. 

God is good. He cannot produces evil. It is impossible. He can however and does prepare a way for the battles  we will come against. He will make your path clear so you don’t trip. He will give you a clear mind and creative ideas and help you use your time wisely. He loves you and hurts with you and is your biggest fan. So many times we miss the silver lining because we are to busy looking at the puddles around our feet. Look up and see all the ways God is working, you might be surprised.