Vocabulary and Vacation Time Lessons

Okay, so I did want to hole up this morning, like a turtle cloistered in its shell, but I made myself shower and then make the bed. I did it, by faith, and then I was glad.

Next I'll be going over new vocabulary words with Abby, thankfully saying good-bye to last week's words of holocaust, annihilate, recluse, cloister, pandemonium. There's been enough pandemonium, nationally and world wide, to last us for quite a while. But we also had two important vocabulary words that I treasure right now: omnipotence and omnipresent. And even though I don't literally see God everywhere, He is- and He's powerful and capable of taking us through any kind of storm that comes our way.

I've decided to also mentally and pictorially re-visit our vacation time we enjoyed this summer because I think there's more lessons for me to glean. I remember coming home from our week at the North Shore feeling changed; not just refreshed, but literally renewed. I had a new way of looking at things, and a new hope that I was not as lost as I had felt I was.

And now with the way things are in the political and economic world, I need to know, more than ever, that I am not lost, that I am not rising or falling in security and strength according to the world's estimation of how things are. One minute the news tells us that we've passed a bill and things should go well, the next minute the headlines shout out that all is plunging like a roller coaster car falling off its tracks. I could feel very lost right now- if the news, the world markets, the leaders of this world dictate my future. But they don't.

So here I am, ready to go through Abby's lessons for the day, and it seems God has a lesson plan for me as well. According to those wonderful memories of our vacation, He is taking me through the simple steps of seeing something in its reality and acknowledging the application for my life.

God is reminding me of the turtle we fell in love with on our vacation. We picked him up and held him, and he didn't creep back into his shell in fear. He poked his head out and I think he was actually smiling. He must have known that the strong loving hands that held him would never let him fall or crash.

And that's all you have to know, sometimes: that when the world is shaky, God's hands are not. He holds you, firmly, lovingly, and you are therefore more than okay.