Some Changes

I'm a bit of a worrier.  As much as I try to take my worries to God and leave them at his feet, I find myself falling back into the worrying mode unless I make a conscious effort not to.  I worry about lots of things.  Big things like the safety of my kids and my husband and our health and lately the economy and my husband's job. I also worry about lots of little things like my adequacy as a wife and mother and my ability or failure to keep all of the balls in the air. I worry about all of the other things most moms worry about, and a few more. The truth is that I have experienced God's richest blessings and really have no reason to worry. To alleviate the worry I even try taking control of situations that really are out of my control. Maybe that's what it is. A control thing. 

A couple of years ago the company my husband works for went through some layoffs. My husband was worried and I didn't even know it. He started "acting out" his worry in ways that confused me and I finally asked him what was up. He admitted that he was worried about his job. For some reason, at that moment, God gave me faith to believe everything was going to be okay regardless of what happened with his job. Shortly after that I was doing a Beth Moore Bible study on Luke and came to chapter 12.

In verses 27-28 it says, "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!" I shared the study with my husband and I think at that moment, although probably subconsciously, we adopted that passage as our family mantra and have reminded each other of the passage on a somewhat regular basis.

  

Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell any of you about the current economic situation. And my husband's company is struggling like so many others. His job is safe today, as far as we know, although he's been told that he'll have to take a 5% pay cut starting next week. There are lots of people we know who haven't been so lucky and are facing unimaginable worry and stress (unlike me - worrying about what might be.) I've done all I can to "control" the situation - I have a good education and a resume showing nearly 13 years with a fortune 500 company. But somehow that doesn't bring me any comfort or stop me from worrying.  The truth is that it doesn't help because no matter how you slice it, no matter how much I try to control the situation, I'm really not in control. The thing I need to keep reminding myself of is that I know the One who is. And that if he clothes the lilies in such splendor, he will care for me and my family even more because I'm His child and he loves me.   

I started my blog on a whim because a couple of friends encouraged me to, but I hadn't put a lot of thought into it and pulled a name out of a hat without much thought. It just happened to be my name, and although I'm relatively happy with it as a name for me, I've never been really happy with it as a name for my blog, so today marks a change for my blog. The new name is "Consider the Lilies." I hope that it serves as a constant reminder to me and to anyone who visits here that God is really the one who is in control, and that all we need to do is trust that his heart for us is a loving one that wants only the best for us (even though it might not seem that way through our worldly eyes sometimes.) 

In addition to my blog name change, I also have one other small reminder to Consider the Lilies. I mentioned in a previous post that my loving husband gave me an iPod touch for Christmas. Well, I'm sure you can probably guess what he had engraved on it. I cried when he gave it to me. I had a hard time getting a good picture because it's so shiny and because it's late, but here's a picture of my new iPod along with some from our Christmas (including the sugar cookie decorating I promised.)  I pray that you experienced God's richest blessings this Christmas - especially the ones that didn't come wrapped in paper and ribbons - and that you got to share them with the people you love the most.  I also wish you all the happiest of new years in 2009! And don't forget to Consider the Lilies. 

  
  

The big boys each got a Nintendo DS for Christmas, so the last week has been filled with lots of this:

  

And this: