Manna Monday

It feels like forever since I have written on Manna Monday!  A day to write and to behold the Lord's faithfulness in our every day lives.  So every day that we do it on a Monday.  A day that is often a harder day for some, a day which beckons yet another week and the routine of the daily grind.


My friend Hillary and I are reading through another book together, Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow and the chapter we just finished reading talked all about purpose.

What is your life's purpose?

If you wrote a life purpose statement, how would it read?


I am working on putting into words what it is I want my life to be about.  Have you ever pondered that question?  I will let you know as I spend more time pondering it myself.  Just can't get that out of my head at the moment and so I thought I would share with you . . .


To share just a few of the manifold ways the Lord has provided for our family over these past few days:

*Yesterday mid morning.  Tirzah and I had walked down to one of our favorite parks and to the left of the park, there is a little trail that takes you down into this largely wooded and hidden area.  We have ventured there many times before and Tirzah loves walking down there, I think she feels like quite the little adventurer (which she is!)   Anyhow, upon coming out, my hat hit the branch of a tree and then all of a sudden I heard this buzzing at my hat.  I swatted at it, not thinking anything of it, until I had a stinging pain on my right hip: a yellow jacket!  That darn thing was just clinging to my shirt and was stinging me again and again and again in the same spot.  While I was tending to that side, some of his friends came and attacked me on the left side, getting my shoulder once and my neck several times in the same spot.  It was just AWFUL to say the least!  I had never been stung before and I did not enjoy my first encounter.  Sweet little Tirzah was so precious.  There she stood, watching her Mama do a "bee dance" and she didn't know whether to cry and panic or to smile and join along.  She was so obedient to my cries of: "don't come near me!!"  Perhaps you are wondering how this is a provision?  And something to be thankful for?  Well, I am so thankful that Tirzah did not get stung.  That would have just been miserable and I can't even fathom the thought of watching your little one get stung and stung and not being able to help them very much.  Second, I am so thankful I didn't have an allergic reaction, for what would I have done then?  And thirdly, I am so thankful for my wonderful family whose texts and calls made sure I hadn't gone into an anaphylactic shock!


*The Lord's continued protection over Daniel and his men.  He is heading out today on a several day mission, so please continue to keep them in your prayers.  Especially as we get closer and closer to their re-deployment (that means their returning to the US), our cry is that everyone will make it home safely.


*Since returning home from CO, I have been challenging myself with letting go.  It seems that most days, I have a tendency to have all the waking moments planned out.  Especially with a toddler.  I guess I am fearful of all the moments we have together and that feeling of: ok what am I going to do with her now?!  But I don't want to be like that; I don't want to mother like that.  That is definitely not how I want my life purpose statement to look!  So, with these 2 weeks here alone by ourselves, I have been trying to not plan away but just to take the day as it comes.  We always venture outside in the mornings, rain or shine, (since the rainy season has begun here in WA!) but I have just allowed the afternoons to unfold at their will.  And I have really seen Him provide in those simple moments.  We have found a new love: tape!  Tirzah and I will just sit at the hand-hewn table for hours, her with a sheet of paper and markers in front of her, and me, with either a cup of tea or coffee and a book, and I will peel off a piece of tape and hand it to her for her to place it on her paper.  And it is like the most simple yet most satisfying thing for this little girls of ours.  She just delights in the works of her hands and I can't help but wonder, if she feels this glee over clear tape on white paper, how does the Lord feel of us and this mighty World He created?!

It was the other day where I had nothing planned for the afternoon that the Lord provided in abundant ways.  Right before Tirzah woke from her nap, a knock came at the door: it was Ally.  Our seventh grade neighbor who forgot her house key.  This isn't the first time it has happened, and I can't quite discern yet if she really has forgotten it, or if she forgot it on purpose, or if she is just staying that to come and hang out!  No matter, I like having her here.  Well, she stayed for 5 1/2 hours!  Tirzah woke and we all had tea together.  Then another knock came at the door and the little neighbor girls from up the street were wondering if Tirzah could play.  Precious, right?!  They are 9 or 10 years old and just love her.  So they took her to the park for a little bit while I watched from the window and finished my cup of tea and Ally laid on the window seat and read.  Tirzah came back and then another knock on the door: my other neighbor needed me to watch her 6 month old baby boy for an hour or so while she got some work done.  So the 4 of us, Elias, Ally, Tirzah, and I hung out on the floor together for an hour.  Baby Elias left, Ally's mom brought her her Subway sandwich for her to eat over here while Tirzah and I ate our roasted chicken and quinoa.  And after Tirzah went down for the night, Allly and I popped some popcorn and watched a touch of Home Alone together on the couch.  Really really sweet.  And I wonder if I had had it all planned out, to a 'T', this one afternoon of ours, would I have opened up our home and our time so willingly to all these people?  Or would I have just wanted to stay in "routine" and lost out on so many blessings?  Routine is not a bad thing at all, don't get me wrong, it's just sometimes the way I handle routine, can become a badly addictive habit which inhibits life and peace and togetherness instead of sewing these truths.  So all in all, I am thankful for the challenge to cease striving and to know that He is God; to know Him because of how He provides in even the smallest of moments.