LORD HAVE MERCY. Is it Friday, yet?  On Wednesday, at work, I sent out a cute little meme about it just being Tuesday.  One of my sweet friends, from Ohio, was kind enough to say,

 “But it’s Wednesday, right?”

 It’s just been these past few weeks, that all the days are running together.  SO, I would like to officially say to Friday,

 “Thank you for showing up.  I appreciate that.”

Wednesday night at church, I got some sweet news. There are 2 little girls in my Wednesday night Bible class that are living at our local children’s home.  They are twins.  And precious. And spunky. And are so smart in God’s Word.  I fell in love with them the 1^st time I met them.  They told me before class started, they were being adopted.  They were so excited.  They told me what their new name would be.  They hugged me & I told them I was so proud & what great news to have in our class that night.  One of the girls said,

“Yeah, but who’s going to bring us candy now?”

We sorta have candy, gummies, chocolate, cookies, or whatever else I can come up with, every class.  I reassured them I knew they would have a wonderful Bible teacher at their new church & hopefully, she would bring candy to class.  What a joy for these kids.  They told me this would be their forever family. Goodness gracious.  What a true blessing.

It made me think of how many blessings you can have, that comes out of trials. No matter how grim a situation may seem, God has a plan.  The Lord promised Abraham & Sarah a baby. (Genesis 18:10)  They waited about 25 years, after that promise was made, before Isaac was born.  The apostle Paul was locked up in prison for preaching the gospel.  He still found a way to write letters to the churches & help them, even while he was in jail. (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, & Philemon)  Lazarus died, while they were waiting on Jesus.  However, Jesus turned sadness to joy, when he raised Lazarus up. (John 11:43-44)  Joseph was thrown in prison & waited 2 years for the king’s butler to remember he interpreted dreams.  After all that time he was released from jail & gained Pharaoh’s good favor. (Genesis 41:12) And do I have to even mention Noah building the ark?  It took him about 100 years to build the ark. Then he gathered everybody up & God shut the door.  (Genesis 7:16) Then, he waited for it to start this raining stuff that no one had ever seen or heard of.  That took about 7 days.  (Genesis 7:10) Talk about some good endings to bad situations.  God can & will take care of us.  Sometimes we may just need to wait through the problems in life.  God uses hard times to develop us into the people he needs us to be.  So, don’t get too discouraged with hardships.  They won’t last.  I saw this saying one day & loved it.

God recruits from the pit, not the pedestal.

I love this, because it lets me know, even when I am in the valley, God’s plan is still at work. I know God has been at work in my 2 little friend’s lives.  He is putting them in fertile soil to grow & bloom.  They may have had to wait, but the Lord has always taken care of them.  I hope you know today that the Lord loves you. I hope you know how blessed you are & how God can make any mess a beautiful message!  You just have to be looking for the good, not the bad.

Can I end by saying THANK YOU LORD FOR FRIDAY??? The sunshine is glorious.  I am very delighted that you decided to stop by today.  I hope you have an amazing weekend.  Until next time, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.

**For those of you keeping up with my Dad, he is still in “rehab”.  He has good days & bad days.  His blood has still not thinned out to the doctor’s liking.  His sugar is getting better controlled for the moment.  We are hopeful he will be able to go home at some point.  Prayers are much appreciated!  Love y’all.

photo credits : clipart panda, http://www.imighthavestolethat.wordpress.com, pinterest