This is a few things I've noticed.
Overall, I've all seen a lot of struggles with parenting and marriages. In the last two days John and I have received phone calls from two couples wanting us to mentor them. One couple was younger--one is quite a bit older. I know that economy issues are a huge part of that. We have friends losing their jobs. Our best friends are losing their house. Even John and I had the conversation about what we'd do if he lost his job. For a new era of hope ... there isn't much of it around here in rural Montana.
I think overall a lot of moms are struggling too. I've handed my author copies of Blue Like Play Dough out to a few friends and my pastors' wives. I've had many people come up to me (or call) with tears in their eyes. They think they're the only one struggling. They feel like they're alone. I think it's a time when women need to bond together. We need to be here for each other. We need to help those who are struggling even more than we are.
When we think that we can't give and serve, that's exactly what we need to do. We need to mentor young women, spend time with our friends, and meet with other couples. Yet in this recession it seems we're going fast and faster just to survive. We have to choose to give when all we want to do is collapse.
Right now our family is fundraising to go to the Czech Republic. CHALLENGING but good, too. It's bringing us together, and it's helping us to trust.
At the pregnancy center where I volunteer, we are seeing a TON of women coming into our resource center needing diapers, baby items, etc. What we used to go through in a year, we're using up in a couple of months. Also, giving is down. When the need is greater, there is less for people to give.
Of course, like I say in Blue Like Play Dough, it's the hard stuff in life that molds us into the people God desires us to be. When things are scary, we learn to hope. When the world is filled with more questions than answers, we learn to trust. When everyone around us seems to be on overdrive, we learn patience. When we are looking for something to fill the gaping hole that the pleasures and entertainment of the world used to fill, we learn self-control.
Yes, it's true, the world is changing. And for many this is a scary thing. But the one thing I do know, God never changes. He's just as good today as he was yesterday. He can be trusted. He wants you to turn to Him ... and it's in His hand the transformation will begin.
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2 comments:
Tricia,
Thanks for saying what many of us are thinking. These are scary times. Our kids feel it too. Today at the neighborhood grocery store, my 10 year old didn't want to use the restroom. I waited outside the door for him.
He feared that a "bad guy" might hurt him. If it's not bad guys, then it's something else: the economy, broken marriages, kids on meth.
I have to remind myself regularly that God is in control.
Blessings, Lucy
We counsel families with financial troubles, and members of our own extended family are going through the foreclosure process. We struggle with being open and sharing that issue and problems we are having with our teen not because we are embarrassed to have problems, but because we don't feel comfortable sharing the problems of those close to us without their permission. It's really difficult to request prayer and to get help for our situation and live authentically when we feel like we're hiding these situations. I know others feel the same way. It's like we are all keeping terrible secrets between ourselves and God. I wonder what God would do if we all shared our problems openly like the early church did?
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