Consider it all joy...

Hi friends! 
As I mentioned in my last post, I've had to take a break from our home Bible lessons because we moved two weeks ago.  I am determined to start those up again this week (on Tuesday), but in the mean time, I wanted to give you all a quick update. 

If I could describe my last four weeks in two words, I would say intense and chaotic.  First we packed our whole house and moved in two weeks, but on top of that there has been a complication (requiring an exterminator) with the new house which has made settling in extra difficult.  And on top of that, Madeline, my little one, decided to start protesting sleep time and figured out how to climb out of her crib!  Any mom of a toddler knows this brings on one response from the parents...AAAAAAH!!!  She is 21 months old and I had every intention of waiting til she was at least two to make the wonderful transition to a big girl bed.  So, this came as quite a shock to me.  House in boxes and general disarray, exterminator issues, two little ones, and sleep training one all over again...in a toddler bed.  **deep breath**

Now, remember the title of my post?  "Consider it all joy..."   I am coming off of an amazing year of studying Acts and the epistles through Bible Study Fellowship and then a summer, 8-week Beth Moore study on the book of James.   God has done immense work on my heart and, dare I say, changed my life through these studies.  And a few months ago, I wrote James 1:2-4 on a pink post-it note and hung it above my sink.  Then I set it to the tune of "Happy Birthday" and memorized it. 

"Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials.  Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result.  So that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing." 

These verses stuck out to me because they are help to get through trials!  Trials have a purpose, they are a test of my faith and meant to make me more perfect.  So, as I was in the middle of these relatively minor trials (and I know they are definitely minor!!) God reminded me of these verses.  Of course, I was reminded AFTER I had already given way to a lot of whining and desperation.  But that's okay!  God reminded me of his perfect Word, and his perfect plan and his purpose behind all the odd things that happen to us.  I can say now, Oh, these things are a test of my faith?  Well, then I got this!  Really, this is a pretty easy test.  A few things have shaken up my world a bit, that's all!  The good news is...God has provided us with a beautiful little house to live in (which we will be settled into someday) and God has majorly blessed me with Madeline having a very easy transition to a toddler bed and showed me a lot about her personality through it.  But even if these good things weren't so, God is still good and I am still well cared for and loved by Him and I am learning to let that be entirely enough for me. 

So, all that being said, I am trying to get back to what's important for my time...and my lessons with Jenna are one of them.  A talk at church this morning on stewardship made me consider what I'm stressing about and instead put the important things first.  For example, the curtain project I've taken on for my new living and dining rooms needs to go lower down on my priorities list...and stop causing me stress!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to the last four weeks.  God is so amazingly good and I am determined to settle my heart and be faithful to his calling in my life everyday, no matter what's going on around me.