Enjoy Today

Since we lost everything in January of 2008 we have had to learn to live one day at a time. After eighteen months, I can say that it is very liberating to have found that everyday has good in it. Fretting over what might happen or what has happened will only cause you to miss the good God has in store for you today.

Many days God showed up unexpectedly and blessed us with some opportunity that we could not see coming. It took effort on our part to enjoy what God had provided for us because we still had many things to worry about.

Today is a good day if you can learn to find joy in it, you have found a great treasure

Accepting Your Limitations

When I was a child there was a Framed copy of the Serenity Prayer, which read:

God, give us grace to accept
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
that can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.

Sometimes in life, things happen, that bring to you limitations. You can spend a lot of time fretting over those things or you can accept them and move on. During the financial crisis we experienced, I had some new found limitations. Those limitations will give me direction and purpose if I allow them to.

When water is placed in a glass. The glass provides limitations. Those limitations define the purpose and direction of the water and make it useful. Without those limitations the water would run into the floor and be wasted, as the water prefers no limitations as it seeks the path of least resistance.

Lesson # 102

Anger - Anger has never been my strong suit. Sometimes I should be mad but I am not. The scripture says be ye angry and sin not. Anger can be a driving force if you don't let it cause you to sin. Sometimes as the Rascal Flatts song 'Stand' says you bend till you break, decide you've had enough, you get mad, then you stand.

We have had some of those moments the last fifteen months. I don't like going to that place yet so many times I have found that it pushed me to get things done that I had put off or to make decisions that I had put off. Even Jesus got angry! It is possible to be angry and sin not.

Lesson Learned #99

How Can I Help - When we lost everything, many friends and family wanted to help. It seemed at times that there were not enough money in the world that could save us. Some said, let me know if there is anything I can do. Some showed up with offers of a helping hand that seem to come at just the right time.

One person paid the rent on a moving truck and storage for our things we had no place to put. Another gave a gift card to Walmart. Some dropped off some food. We had others that checked on us from time to time and mysteriously things would appear unannounced like a washer and dryer to replace ours that broke.

Lesson Learned # 54

Discouragement - Most discouragement is not because of what is happening around you now. It is because of what you think is going to happen or not going to happen in the future. This is the most difficult to deal with because God has not supplied the grace yet for some future event.

I learned that this was a signal to me that my eyes were to far in the future. If I could bring myself back to the moment. Sometimes I would realize that the moment was actually good. I was with my family. The weather was good or perhaps an interruption in my schedule actually presented opportunities that I was about to miss.

As soon as I began living in the moment I found that God's grace would surround me and new opportunities would arise. During the past year I have enjoyed some really good days. I have learned to live in the present.

Lesson Learned # 104

Get it off your chest - When you go through a traumatic situation such as we have, part of the healing is to get it off your chest. Having someone to talk to can be very helpful. Although, there are few people who know how, or who are willing to listen without giving advice or interjecting their opinion of what you should have done. If you have someone in your life who can hear you out, go for it.

If you don't, I have found that writing it down, or in may case typing on the computer allowed me to vent and say whatever I wanted. If I say something stupid, I can take it back by pressing delete. In addition to that, pray. Prayer has brought me through many difficult times.

That being said, after the loss of our business, home, farm, and reputation, I had no desire to pray. Months went by before I really had any desire to talk to the Lord. The nice thing about it is that he didn't get mad about that. He waited patiently until I was ready. With God there is no variableness or shadow of turning, which means he loves me the same and works on me at the same pace everyday and all day.

Lesson Learned # 25

The Family Meeting - Many overlook the power and strength that comes from your own family. Even if your children are small and you think they don't understand their prayers can encourage in a way that is beyond explanation. We have always resorted to a family meeting and prayer to help us during difficult times.

There were times when the teenagers would roll their eyes when Dad called, "FAMILY MEETING." However over the years they have seen God answer prayer after prayer on our behalf. As a result, we have many prayer warriors in our family. Once I happened upon two of my boys, then 14 and 12, praying for their dad. Needless to say, the challenge I was facing seemed small and insignificant after beholding that sight.

I learned that every member of the family is important and brings something special that only they could add. If you are going through difficult times, keep your family together by meeting and communicating what you are going through. Ask them for their prayer request and finish with prayer.

Many families are destroyed by hardship and difficulties but our troubles have strengthened ours.

Lesson Learned #101

Beware - As we have worked through this past year, we have faced many difficult days. Fighting against discouragement that can immobilize you and keep you from moving forward. There is that piece of bad news that never materializes, but was just enough to discourage you at the time you heard it. Even worse is the good news that brought you hope and lifted your spirits and then fell through. These wiles of the devil have the ability to jerk the rug right out from under you.

Why do these attacks work so well on us over and over again? I have found that it is because I am too focused on the future. When I say, "This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it," I can focus on what is happening now and find the grace and help to deal with today. Why would God give us the grace to deal with something that has not happened and that he knows will never come to pass.

Enjoy your day! The bad news probably will not come to pass and the good news may not either but you can make a difference where you are. Thank the Lord for today and enjoy the grace he will provide for you today.

Lesson Learned # 83

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away... These words of Job never meant much to me until after we had lost everything. At first I questioned the decisions I had made and wondered if I had made different choices would there have been a different outcome. I looked around to see if I am really that much worse than the people around me who seem to be doing fine. Then I would remind God of all the things I had done for him. Surely there must be some mistake or was this just the circumstances of a bad economy?

There was no getting around the fact that God had allowed this to happen. I began to ponder why would God give and then take it back. Is this fair. As I raced through the scriptures in my mind I stumbled upon the children of Israel and the story of how God gave them the promised land. They were told to go in and possess the land.

I thought of all the times throughout human history that they lost that piece of ground and regained it. The word possess leaped out at me, and it occurred that God did not want me to own my business, and home, and things he gave them to me to possess and he could add and remove the things he chose.

I am encouraged by the story of Job, that God has the power to restore all that was lost. I am thankful for the lesson learned that I am to possess not own.

Lesson Learned #44

When you are going through hard times you are looking for a break. You think things cant get any worse, and then they do. Our air conditioner broke and no funds to fix it. After a couple of days of the heat I went to Walmart and purchased a kiddy pool for $11.88 I got out my lawn chair a boom box and my Oakley sunglasses. I positioned my chair towards the best possible view. This is what I call Club Allison.

I learned that I could find much peace and relaxation there by the pool. I phoned Laura and told her we were among the few houses in the neighborhood that had a pool and it felt great. No one else in the family found much solace there but Madelyn(4) and I.

One of the older kids came home to find their dad lying in the pool and said that I had lost it. This pool was not as grand as the neighborhood pool at our home that was repossessed, but somehow I was still able to enjoy one of the best feelings on earth; drip drying in a summer breeze.

It was then that I learned that most of life is lived between your ears. You can be in the Bahamas and be miserable because of what you are thinking, or you can be broke and still find something to enjoy.

Lesson Learned # 17

During the first two months after our financial loss. We were so overwhelmed that we could not think of the future. We began for the first time in our lives to live by the moment. That meant sometimes going for a drive and burning gas that you knew you could not afford or scraping together change to eat out when we probably should not have.

There were days I would go for a walk and ask myself questions like:

Am I hungry?

Do I hurt any where?

What if this is the last good day I have?

I decided that I had better enjoy it. I look back on those days now and I don't know how we made it, except that God was taking care of us. I have carefully considered most of my days and although I made mistakes I was trying to make the right choices.

It is comforting to learn that God would take care of me when I couldn't take care of myself.
Over the last year I have looked back over the last forty seven years and realized that every good thing that happened some how came me way. I realized that the God who had given those opportunities would someday give more.