The Reminder – Through a Pile of “Homework”

In the wee hours yesterday (Wednesday) morning I began writing this but soon the kids were up, homeschooling began, Ruby’s new speech therapist arrived followed by both Ruby and Birdie’s Occupational Therapist coming for back-to-back therapy…and the day breezed by.  Then as dinner finished Dw and Elijah headed off to church and I sat at the counter to work some more on this post.  My  heart full as I paused to take it all in…two were still finishing up their chores…Johnny’s washing the table, Isaiah’s doing dishes as Elizabeth wheeled Ruby in to the library to play the piano and sing with her while Nehemiah is over by the fire teaching himself guitar via a YouTube video and Birdie is watching him saying, “Miah! Miah!”   And I had this beautiful worship song playing…

 

Honestly, whether you are familiar with this song or not, I encourage you to watch the video, read the words and worship.  Our God is so very good and it has become my new-old favorite!

When I had been praying about what to share next there were about five to six posts in my head…so many thoughts but my heart kept feeling strongly that I needed to share this Memorial Box story.  I felt that I needed to remind us all how very much God loves us, how very, very, very good He is to each of us…and to remember that even in the midst of struggles we are always on His mind and that He definitely has our back – often showering us with unexpected blessings along the way!

First though…as I mentioned a couple of posts back, we were blindsided by life in early January.  Thank you to all who have prayed, sent texts, messages and reached out.  We truly can tell that many of you are praying for us.  It’s going to be a long haul navigating this so thank you.

Anyway, on to the Memorial Box story…Dw left for Uganda and little did we know that life was about to take us by surprise….

Actually the morning Dw flew out I received a text from my friend, Harmony, who happens to be teaching the “Instapot class” at our homeschooling co-op.  Elizabeth is in the class and it is by far the most amazing class ever!  Each week Elizabeth takes our Instapot and Harmony brings all the ingredients and teaches the kids how to make wonderful, delicious gluten free dinners!  All Elizabeth has to do is bring it home, plug it in and before long the house smells delightful and dinner is ready!! After being gone all day to co-op it is this mama’s joy! No need to even think about dinner – it will be ready!  I’m telling ya’ – our co-op is the very best!

Anyway, Harmony’s text that same morning he left asked if Elizabeth would like to do some homework for the class.  I actually had to read it four times because I didn’t know what she meant. I was so confused.  It was then that I realized what she was asking…Harmony (isn’t that the most beautiful name?) wanted to know if she brought the ingredients over, would Elizabeth like to have some meals to make while Dw was gone?  Really?  Wow. I was dumbfounded!  Of course we said yes and she said she would bring the “homework” a couple of days later.

Well the day she was to come didn’t work out for her and she actually came a few days later.  She brought ingredients and the recipes for six gluten free meals!  Six!! Who does that?  Harmony’s family eats gluten free as well and she had everything labeled in bags (some for the freezer) with the recipes so Elizabeth just needed to read, follow the directions and put each gluten free meal together.  Seriously I well with tears at how generous, thoughtful and over-the-top my sweet friend is!

fine-dining-food-presentation-1327952

And the most miraculous part?  Unbeknownst to Harmony, she actually delivered the “homework” a few hours after we were blindsided.  The Lord knew the timing would be beyond perfect. I was reeling, Dw was asleep in Africa and there was no way I could call and wake him…and after Harmony explained the meals to Elizabeth she and I slipped into the library and dripping with tears I shared what had just happened.  Harmony spoke such wise words of comfort – I knew they were directly from the heart of God.  She was truly a ministering angel that day.

All of this friends has made me think of the promptings the Lord gives us, things like: call the woman you haven’t seen lately, send this friend a note, ask the neighbor if they need help, make a meal for so-n-so, drop a bouquet of flowers to this elderly couple because actually  – we never know what someone is going through and we never know when the Lord will use us to minister.

italian-soup-1-1557447

There are a million reasons Harmony could have had not to do what she did…starting with the reality that she is the mom to a large adoptive family as well!  Her life is wild too!  She could have pushed the promptings aside.  Yet, she heard the Lord whisper and generously acted on it, sacrificing time and resources.  Then the Lord knew what day would be best to bring it all and when the first day didn’t work (because the Lord knew what was coming)  the very day I really needed her was the day she came –  a couple hours after it all happened.  Our God is so very good – using tenderhearted, generously amazing friends to minister.

In our Memorial Box we are going to put a little dollhouse plate of food to remind us of the day my precious friend Harmony brought us a bundle of delicious meals while ministering to my grieving soul!!  Our astoundingly faithful God was working through a willing friend who had no clue at the time what was unfolding in our world.  Our faithful God is so very good to us.

Now GO be His hands and feet to those around you!!

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>