Spring has sprung. With it comes alternating warm sunny days and cooler stormy ones. Sweaters and sun-bonnets, that is how we roll here.
With open window and soft breeze, 2024 slipping into second quarter, and my big 5-0 celebration officially at its end (see social media for details!!), I find myself reflecting on the year’s course thus far… benchmarks met and missed, unexpected experiences good and bad, and, finally: are we set to meet plans ahead? The answers are a mixture.
After New Year’s and the challenges of 2023 behind, I had high hopes of relaunches, new launches, and projects in mind. Though, after lessons learned in the past, I set no hard-and-fast deadlines (lest I go crazy), I had hoped for a progression – moving forward was key and not stopping that motion was pivotal, even if it meant plans came to fruition later than expected, as long as they were being worked on.
Plan 1: relaunch the This Homeschool Life book series after re-reading through and editing the material check … by mid-February X… by mid-March X… before my new ad campaign went out check(mostly) [The updates went live today!! Click on the main page or right-column images of each installment to get your copy!]
Plan 2: Put together author kit, workshop, reach out to homeschool organizations and plan table set-up… X X X X due date is irrelevant at this point because personal life plans are just as scattered!!
And on that note… personal life is just as hickldy-pickldy… mostly good, but some bad. Prep for some financial freedom, seeing my daughter and her baby-bump in person, having friends visit and enjoying some local adventures have all topped the list so far this year. Then, as if in an odd offset; a consistent cycle of fybro-flares, heart issues, and what we believe may be cracked ribs from a coughing fit recently, have kept me down more than up. We have the exciting plans of travel back East to see family before summer, then up north in time for our first grandbaby to be born in the fall… while at home, the list of soooo many things which need to be tackled, not just in business but also in the day-to-day, is daunting at times.
As a homemaker, we often put a lot of stock in making our home, well, a home. Cozy, clean, organized. As my attic and garage overflow in gluttony, my seedlings not yet started for a hoped-for garden we worked so hard at last year, and daily to-dos often half done when pain levels rise… I begin to feel useless, like a failure, like I simply can’t. Can anyone else relate? Whether you have pain struggles or clingy toddlers or something else in-between… A homemaker’s life is anything but static and the list of to-dos often outweigh the list of ta-dones.
In a particularly self-defeatest mood this morning after a very pain-filled and restless night which led to missing my wake-up alarm and fumbling around with a groggy brain, I still determined to plug-through my Bible Read-through plan. David and the ark, David and his battles, David and Psalm 60… even with the throbbing and fuzz my brain was this morning, something finally cracked through.
Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! With God we shall do valiantly; It is he who will tread down our foes.
~ Psalm 60:11-12 ~
David wrote this Psalm regarding literal battles he was fighting. He reflects on punished sin and celebrated repentance. To be honest, I don’t know the deepest depths of this Psalm, I haven’t dug into research and commentary on it other than it’s tie to the 2 Samuel narrative I explored today, yet, as I read verses 11-12, I couldn’t help but see the semblance of a spiritual connection…
Not to incorrectly exegete the text or mis-interpret/mis-represent David’s literal trials and triumphs, but, what if these words can encourage us today with our internal battles and those battles of a spiritual nature.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
~ Ephesians 6:12 ~
If so much of the Old Testament is actionable historical recording of God’s Truth, and so much of the New Testament is a testimony of the Spiritual relevance of the Old Testament – could we not take a Psalm like this one and apply it to the spiritual and internal wars we face? We definitely, first, must see the history and relevance of David’s experience… but then take his cry of the heart as it might relate to our own…
With God we shall do valiantly
HE treads down our foes
We are not David, we are not fighting his battles… but we are God’s and if God fought David’s battles, can he not fight ours as well? If God taught David and his men through their trials and triumphs, can He not teach us as well?
When I tumble into self-doubt, defeatism, and woe, I’m truly just looking at self and what is around me. My focus in not on my Father, my Lord. I am trusting in myself for my plans, my salvation and my hope – oh what a vain struggle that can be.
Yet, when I SEE how God is working, is redirecting, is leading even through my personal trials, suddenly it isn’t about what I can’t, rather, it is lifting it all to Him and trusting His course through what I can, what He is leading me to.
It isn’t how many deadlines were met or how clean the house is… it is about how faithful I was to follow His lead and His timing.
The books of Samuel and Chronicles both record the celebratory procession as David seeks to bring the Ark into Jerusalem. Rolling along on a cart, the Ark begins to fall. One of David’s men reaches to stop it from its descent and is instantly struck dead. David is positively unarmed by the event, halting all proceedings and temporarily diverting the Ark as he considers the severity of what has just occurred. It seems a harsh punishment, too, when the man was simply trying to help. However, God’s greater concern was obedience and David was so focused his own process of getting there, he forsook the obedience of God’s guidance to get there rightly. God’s process – not David’s. Once David submitted to this, the Ark was able to safely finish its journey to Jerusalem, carried by poles as originally intended, not bumping around on a cart.
God’s process and our obedience is of paramount importance. I’m not sure I always clearly know what that is for my own life or inside the minute details of a given day. What I do know, however, is how I am the first to tell the down-trodden to focus less on what they can’t do and more on what they can and how the simplest abilities such as cuddling a baby or knitting a hat, are still of immeasurable value if it is all you can – everyone has something they can and if today’s reading reminded me of anything, it is not only to take my own advice but also to remember how sometimes God redirects us by closing doors or putting up road-blocks in front of us when we are bumping along in our own idea of how to get somewhere, however well-intentioned.
When I bear these truths in mind, I have to say, Life right now is good. It isn’t what I expected at this point, I can’t even say I have my health (!!) but I can say I have my God and even the little things he lays before me day-by-day. I have hope and possibility but, most of all, I have eternity and, trusting His process in the now, nothing else holds any weight at all!
With God
HE wins
I get to find peace in His victories
Simply obey and follow.
Blessings,
***
BTW, are you looking for a Bible Read-thru plan? It isn't too late to jump in. Grab a FREE copy of this month's readings on the resource page of our site, or by clicking on the image below...
Before you leave, check this out as well....
My newsletter is also planning to relaunch with EXCLUSIVE content and behind-the-scenes info as well as early scoops on coming projects across our platforms. Be sure to sign-up in the subscription box on our side-bar!