more thankfulness

I hope you’ve been getting your daily Thankful Vitamin from Rebecca and Julana. What an uplifting blog theme for November!

I want to add my item of thankfulness to theirs today. We’re one day away from being done with the whole ‘move mum’ thing and I’m thankful for God’s faithfulness through this time.

If you’ve read here before, you’ll know that at the end of September, Mum put a down payment on an assisted living suite in the town where I live (vs. 45 minutes down the highway where she’s spent the last 20 years).

That put us on a wild ride of sorting, boxing, garbaging, recycling, and taking loads and more loads to the thrift store to clear out the apartment Mum had lived in for 20 years. It would probably be one of the seven wonders of the world if it became known - the amount of stuff one little lady can squeeze into a 1000 sq. foot suite!

Many times during the process I nearly despaired. What would we do with all the furniture - good and serviceable but really not worth very much to anyone else. And then there were the appliances, and all the dishes, pots, pans, craft supplies, stocked pantry, fridge and freezer. More than once I lay awake mulling over all this, falling asleep only after I had once again committed the whole endeavor to God.

Yesterday my brother and sis-in-law came with a rented U-Haul and, bless their hearts, took away the last of the appliances and furniture and many many boxes. Now all that’s left are a few boxes and some odds and ends of furniture that we can take to the thrift shop with the car...and a suite that needs a good vacuum and scrub. That’s on my list for tomorrow.

This morning in my quiet time I read:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose hope is in the Lord
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Jeremiah 17:7,8 (NKJV)

I would say - yes! Most of the things I allowed myself worry over never came about! Where I leaned on God, my trust was well-placed.

What ‘heat’ are you in right now? What would be your ‘year of drought’? I encourage you to stop worrying and trying to figure it all out. Instead, trust in the Lord. Of coursed you do need to do the next thing. But you also need to wait for Him to work. Sometimes that will mean seizing the opportunity (like showing someone what’s left of the furniture even as the movers are there; he ended up buying the TV stand right on the spot). Sometimes it will mean waiting (like just not feeling ‘right’ about giving the apartment key -- when he asked -- to one of mum’s neighbors to show the appliances to perspective buyers. It turns out we didn’t need buyers; my brother took each and every one!)

Often during this time I felt this project was out of my control. Often I had to lecture myself with reminders of Who was. But the end result has been a crop of peace and the feeling of a job well. That’s a way better than high blood pressure, a stomach-full of ulcers, and a legacy of broken relationships because of my up-tightness.