The Body

What a day!  I typed this big long post and thought I had saved most of it while I was typing and then I got logged out and it disappeared into thin air.  I am too tired to retype everything I wrote before so I am going to go with what is most important.
The days have become mundane.  We are working diligently to get moved over into our new house.  It is only a mile away but I have been loading the pilot endlessly and taking loads over there.  God has given me a physical and emotional strength this week to accomplish these things but now I need to ask for help.  I am tired and worn out!  I have gotten alot done and am super thankful!!  Right now I rarely remember what is coming quickly upon us.  I am so busy trying to get us packed and moved that I don't feel as though I have time to even think about.  Life is doing what it always tends to do, sweep on by.  I feel as though this season is good - I know some of you may think why in the world would you want to forget right now?!?!  I don't - but crying and being sad 24/7 is exhausting and God gave me 2 amazing little boys that I love and want to cherish all the time I have with them while they are little.  Maybe this sounds, like I don't think about her or want to deal with it - not so.  I still have my moments - like when I took Carson to VBS for his very first time on Monday.  When I was walking out of the church I about lost it.  Then, back in May when he had his preschool graduation ceremony and they played the graduation song while they walked down the isle!!!  I think I am realizing the milestones are gonna get me - when I get to see my boys cross those milestones I think something inside me aches knowing I won't get to see her cross those milestones.  Even writing that makes me tear up!! She is so precious in every way and I am so thankful when I get to go to my doctor's appointments - we get to do an ultrasound every time.  Our doctor is great!  He lets me watch her in 3D.  She sucks her thumb and flips around in there.  I love it - those will be some of my most precious memories of her.  I just lay there and watch her.  I can tell she would have been feisty and my boys would have loved having her here to boss them around:)
On another note I want to pick up where I left off with JOB.  If you read my last post, I talked about how in the first chapter Job loses all his financial wealth and ALL of his 7 children but yet still he praised God.  In chapter 2, Satan believes that surely if he inflicted physical suffering on him he would curse God.  So, Job gets these ulcers and sores from head to toe.  Can you imagine?  This made me think about all the people I know that our physically ill and in pain on a constant daily basis BUT yet still they find JOY in God daily.  Amazing!  Next, his wife sees how miserable he is and asks him, Why don't you just curse God.  He replies, Why are you talking like a foolish woman.  Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?  Interesting thought huh?  What I really want to focus on though that really stood out to me is Job's friends.  He has these 3 friends that hear about all his suffering and leave their homes to "sympathize with him and comfort him".
Job 2:12-13
When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to WEEP ALOUD, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.  They they sat on the ground with him for SEVEN DAYS AND SEVEN NIGHTS.  No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

This amazed me!  These 3 men left their families, traveled who knew how long, to sit and weep with their friend.  Brian and I have seen this committement, this friendship, this love!  We have had some many brothers and sisters in Christ wrap their arms around us and love on us!  We have seen those that are not believers reach out to us!  Really?  I encourage you to think on this dedication of these 3 friends, these 3 brothers and what that must have meant to Job to have them there with him.  He has lost everything - his wealth, health and children.  He is at the bottom and they were there - there to just BE!  They didn't speak for 7 days and 7 nights.  I have to tell you from experience - we are NOT at the bottom - we have 2 wonderful boys, Brian is going to have a great job, we are moving into a rental close by, we are healthy BUT yet we are blessed to have these kinds of friends.  I personally cannot even begin to express what everyone has meant to Brian and I during this time.  We want to thank every person who has sent us an encouraging FB message, email, or done something for us, whether it be a meal, free babysitting, flowers, cards, keepsakes, and anything else I might be forgetting!!!!  So, take from this story what you will but I think it is a really good example of how we can really be the body of Christ to those around us!  God made us relational!  We need each other - we need support - even when we say we don't!  I encourage you if you know someone who has had a rough week or day just to go sit with them and BE there!  It means more than you will ever know:)  God thank you for creating us to be the body!  Thank you that we all need each other and cannot function without each other.  Help us ALL to be the hands and feet you created!  Open our eyes to see those around us hurting, those that need a hug, some flowers, a helping hand; those that just need us to BE THERE!  AMEN
I Corinthians 12:26-27
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
I Corinthians 12:12-31 talks all about the body!  Good stuff