When life throws you a curveball…

Hi everyone,  I had to take a week off of our dream series because I was in the nursery on Monday and they haven’t got the lesson up on the website yet so I can listen to it.  I’ll be back next Wed, for sure.  But for now I want to share this.

I’ve been pretty quiet around here lately and I’ll share with you why…

Have you ever had life throw you a curveball out of nowhere?  One that you didn’t see coming? It isn’t  fun is it?

Definition of curveball is: something which is unexpected, surprising, or disruptive.

At the beginning of summer my husband and I were thrown a curveball . One that came out of nowhere. We own Mrs Fields cookie store in the Grand Traverse Mall.  We bought it right around the time of  Drew’s accident and when we bought it we had a manager who really wanted to keep the job and we were happy that she wanted the job. But as life sometimes does out of nowhere she put in her two weeks notice and left. Sigh…

Because this was NOT what I had planned for my summer I have to say I had a meltdown with God.  I call it my two-year-old temper tantrum. Let me side track for just a second, I believe God wants every part of us even  the ugly, negative stuff.  We can’t hide the junk from him because if we do  we can’t come to him with a pure heart.   He wants EVERY part of us, even the ugly parts.  He welcomes us just the way we are!

Anyway back to the story. I kicked, I  screamed, I  argued, I  cried and I poured my heart out to God about how I didn’t want to run this business.

This isn’t what I signed up for…

If this was winter I could do it, but no it’s summer and I only get 3 short months of summer and I’m going to be stuck inside all summer long…

Can you hear the tempter tantrum?

It was kind of ugly, I’m not gonna lie.

After I was done throwing my fit I asked God for a scripture and God gave me:

Exodus 14:14 AMP “The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest”.

I love when God gives me a scripture, because I’ve learned to trust that he means what he says, for example during Drew’s accident God gave me a scripture that He would heal Drew and I clung to that scripture and God was faithful. You can read about it here.

After I threw my fit and God gave me Exodus 14:14 the testing  started, was I going to believe He was going to fight for me or I was I going to take things into my own hands and fight for myself.  I will say there is something about having your back against the wall where you can’t really do anything to help you learn to trust.  We HAD to trust God!  The only thing we knew about running a cookie store was what we learned in a week in Denver at cookie school.  He’s a really good teacher.

Here is what I’ve learned so far :

1. I NEED to surrender.  Now that goes against my flesh. I’m a survivor.  The joy I’ve learned from surrender is incredible.  (This could be a whole blog post topic)
2. I have no need to retaliate and defend myself.  God will fight for me!  And he has time and time again. Exodus 14:14
3. I am stronger than I think.
4. I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13 ( I can’t do it, but asking Him to do it changes it all)
5. Life isn’t all good or all bad.  Good things can come out of situations we think are bad. Romans 8:28. James 1:2-4
6. Being a working mom and the pressure of work, home, marriage & parenting is HARD!  I have a lot of  respect and compassion for women who do this daily.
7. My husband and I have learned to work together and be on the same team. Crisis can pull you together or tear you apart.  We’ve learned to pray together OFTEN!
8. I’ve learned that planning and being organized is very important.  I have discovered that there is no perfect time to do something but I can accomplish more if I plan.  I also learned I have to plan my fun!
9. That my time isn’t my own. I have a tendency to be very selfish with my time.  If I’m a child of God, He’s in control and I am to be obedient to whatever season of life I’m ushered into.
10. We learned that this scripture is true:  Jeremiah 29:13,14a You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the Lord

Now please don’t get the wrong impression that once I surrendered, life has been a jolly good time.  It hasn’t been. There have been a few more meltdowns and a few more times of surrender but isn’t that the way we grow?

Has life thrown you a curveball?  Are you trying to take care of the mess your self?  Do you need God to fight for you?  ASK Him to help!  He so wants to be there for you.

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