12 Lord, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
This month has been one of great highs and lows for me personally, and it caused me to reflect on how differently I handled such times when I was child versus now as an adult.
When I was younger, struggles in my circumstances would have caused me to withdraw, cry, and feel helpless and hopeless. I would have chalked that up to the fact that I wasn’t a Christian at the time, I suppose, if it weren’t for the fact that I watched my daughter’s responses to our cat going missing earlier this week.
Our indoor cat got out Wednesday night (without his collar) when a family member left the door wide open for too long. Brody’s absence wasn’t discovered until the next morning, when I realized he wasn’t tripping me to get his breakfast.
As I juggled figuring out what was going on and piecing together how things happened, I also had to get my son on the bus and make a plan with my daughter as to what to do next. However, in the 20 minutes it took to get my son out the door and start looking in earnest, my daughter had gone from sound asleep in bed to wandering in the woods calling mournfully for her cat and crying in despair.
I recognized that hopelessness. I’d felt it at times before in my life. So, I enfolded her in my arms, we went before the Lord together and prayed, and I reminded her that we hadn’t even begun looking for him yet; there were lots of resources still available to us for finding him. I think she felt comforted by knowing I was in charge, because she soon went back inside, settled down and waited, doing her usual things.
As an adult, I looked at the resources still available, and determined that I wasn’t going to allow myself to think he was gone until 48 hours had passed. Seeking God’s leading in what to do next established peace in my heart and left hope intact.
As I spent the day doing those next things and then finally settling in to wait myself, I was amazed that within 30 minutes of finishing everything I could think of, Brody showed up, safe and sound, although a little shook up from the experience.
Sometimes these little road bumps are in our lives simply to draw us nearer to Him, to remind us that He is the establisher of our peace and He is in control.
As we write, let us be mindful both of how our own approach to Life has changed over the years and of how God’s provisions can set us free from worry if we let them. Then, write what you know.
