Five and Six

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4: 4-9


5) Our Family in Christ - Over the past few years this has been a recurring blessing for Drew and I as often our church family has helped fill in the huge gap that exists due to the fact that we live so far away from all of our own family. We felt that way in College Station and again in Niceville. We hope and pray it will be that way here in Albuquerque as we continue to get to know the members of the church family here better. I have truly come to believe that God gave us a church family so that even if our earthly, biological families are taken from us or cannot be near us, we need never be without family. I'm so grateful for God's concern for our sense of community and family.
Today, I came to appreciate our family in Christ even deeper though. It was during my small group at MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers). We were having prayer time and I had mentioned a very sensitive, deeply personal prayer request. You could tell each lady understood where the request was coming from and I was so moved by the prayers that were lifted up. These women have only known me for two weeks and do not even know the person they prayed for, but because we are sisters in Christ the bonds were already there.

6) Doing the dishes. Now this may absolutely shock my mom and probably my older sister as well, but as I did the dishes tonight (something I absolutely detested as a child and honestly still drag my feet to do these days) I realized how blessed we are. We have such a well stocked kitchen. We have plenty of dishes to keep clean and an abundance of food to dirty those dishes with. So really washing dishes is just a sign of many blessings. I may never enjoy the activity itself, but I hope I always remember the blessings and maybe, therefore, drag my feet a little less.