Praise

Monday, the kids and I decided it was a beautiful day to go to the park and have a picnic, feed the ducks, and fly kites! I wasn't really sure I remembered how to fly a kite but decided surely it couldn't be that hard! We went to Kroger first and got picnic supplies. The kids (and mommy) are loving these buggies with the car on the front of them. Grocery shopping is getting a mite easier these days.



Then on to feed the obviously starving ducks. They absolutely about pecked our hands when we didn't give them bread fast enough. Stingy critters.





Then it was off to fly our kites. It was so much fun, y'all! We played with those kites for almost two hours! Loved it!






So, what does my post title have to do with flying kites? Absolutely nothing but I wanted to share our fun day with everyone before getting to my more serious side of this post.


Tonight at church, a visiting preacher preached about praising God through our storms and through our battles and through our valleys. Because God doesn't want our praise only in the good times. He is faithful through the good and the bad and He expects us to trust and praise Him through it all.

I'll be honest (I usually am). I have STRUGGLED with this for the past month. I have struggled with doubt and unbelief and definitely with praising God through this storm. Up to this point, I don't think I've questioned God in many of the things that have happened to us in the past 8 months. The month of February was truly ROUGH and, quite frankly, confusing. But why did that make me doubt God? I mean, God has been so faithful to me through every storm that we've weathered. He's proven Himself to me time and time again. You know how it is when you have been so faithful and true to a friend or family member but as soon as a rumor of some kind gets started....they doubt you? Even though you have proven your character over and over, they doubt you? It's such an awful feeling of betrayal.

And I must say that when the preacher preached tonight, I felt rebuked. I felt like such a terrible soldier for the Lord. I felt like I betrayed Him because I doubted so much. Instead of remembering what God had done for me in the past, I wondered if He would let me down this time? If you haven't been following my blog through our whole journey or if you have been following since the beginning, I encourage you to read or reread last July's posts. I read them again tonight and cried! God kept me when I couldn't keep myself. God was the One who dried my tears and calmed my fears. God was there every single step of the way and He still is. Why in the world would I doubt him???


And I'm not even sure how to end this post. I have so many thoughts and emotions running through my mind...thoughts of rebuke to myself for not trusting and thoughts of thankfulness from remembering all that God has brought us through. Not only that, but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will continue to lead us through if we'll only TRUST.

I guess I'll leave it at that for tonight. :)