Sometimes it’s hard to see the blessings, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s hard to figure out where God is working in your life… even if you feel like your faith is strong. You may know in your heart that God is always working everything for good, carrying out His plan for you. But when things feel difficult or bleak, it can be challenging to find Him in our daily lives. That’s where I found myself last week… If I look at the big picture of my life, the blessings are everywhere: a strong marriage, 3 healthy children, a growing business, great friendships, a good church… not to mention a roof over my head and food in my pantry. Blessings! But my day-to-day was starting to feel difficult. Maybe it’s just January… I’ve always struggled in the first month of the year. It’s so cold, the Christmas excitement is gone, and I always seem to be trying to get back on the “healthy eating” bus in January. That, plus the work obligations were piling up, the kids were cranky with cabin fever, and I wasn’t sleeping well. I wasn’t feeling joy, y’all. Everything felt like I was trudging through mud. For no good reason. And then, one day last week, God showed up twice in two very big, and yet very little, ways. First - the mail key. We’d lost the key to our neighborhood mailbox. I’d turned our house upside down umpteen times trying to find this thing. I’d searched high and low and was fully convinced that it had accidentally been thrown away. It was gone. We hadn’t checked our mail in over a week at this point and I needed to do something about it. So I was going to have to find time to go to the post office downtown and get a new key. Something I had zero time for during such a busy week. That morning, as I was leaving to take my daughter to preschool, I grabbed a coat out of the closet. For some reason that morning, I grabbed a coat I don’t usually wear. And wouldn’t you know it – that mail key was in the pocket! Fitting in a visit, (and the inevitable long wait in line), to the post office was really going to add some stress to my day. Now I didn’t have to go! Praise God that I grabbed that random jacket on the very day I needed it most. Second - the hashbrowns. Do you ever do grocery pick up so you don’t have to go inside the store? I use it every week. Lately, there are always one or two items that are out of stock by the time I pick up my order so I have to remember to run by the store sometime during the week to grab those things. On this particular day, I needed frozen hashbrowns for my dinner recipe and I didn’t get any in my grocery order. I also didn’t remember to go pick any up. I don’t know what made me decide to look at the dinner recipe while brushing my teeth that morning, (something I never do), but as I looked at it, I was reminded about the missing hashbrowns. Hallelujah! If that hadn’t happened, it would have been 5pm when I went to make dinner before I noticed I didn’t have that key ingredient. Thank God I looked at that recipe early enough in the day to run by the store and get them. Now these may seem like two very small things. And they could easily be explained as coincidences. But I know my God is not a God of coincidences. I fully believe He swooped in that day and made the mail key and hashbrowns reminder happen to save me some stress. He knew I needed to see Him at work in my life during a stressful and frustrating week. That’s how much God loves us! He works in the big and the small. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. - Psalm 103:8 “Abounding in steadfast love” – abounding! Nothing is too small for God to take notice of. Nothing is too small for Him to help us with. I didn’t even ask Him for help in these two scenarios. He just jumped right in. If you look back over your last week or month, can you see where God was working? Don’t you find it so encouraging to see how He helps you with any and everything? I know I do. I’ll close with this verse, reminding us of our value in the Lord’s eyes. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. - Matthew 10:29-31
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AuthorChrissie Kenaston shares about her experiences as a wife, mother, friend, entrepreneur, etc., all filtered through the lens of God's grace. Archives
January 2023
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