In the Light of His Glory and Grace

This is what the girls are doing right now. They came in my room a few minutes ago and asked to borrow my bible and a notebook so they could read and take notes. God in them is just blowing me away!

This week has been full of a lot of drama, and absolutely incredible blessings. I have discovered (or been reminded) that living with teenage girls means lots of drama. Emotions are all over the place all the time and I am being challenged in so many new ways. All 3 of us struggle with reacting before thinking...and we're all working on it. I have never had sisters, so I am also learning a lot about how they interact and when to step in and when to just let them work things out. I am really working on keeping my composure when they explode at me, even though everything in me wants to explode back. (That one is hard!) And...well, let's just say that I am learning a lot. :)

So far I can say every stressful, frustrating moment is very worth it. These girls make me laugh and smile a lot. And, we have had several really sweet moments this week.

On Wednesday I went to the Hope House with Shannon and Carisa to start getting things ready for Reading Rocks. Linda asked if she could come and help, and was a huge help! (Bonita was meeting with her discipleship mentor at the time, but came over after to help us finish up). While we were cleaning we found their very first Kids Club name tags, from 2004! (Carisa keeps really great records, haha). The date on the name tag was about a week before they moved in with me. When I mentioned that to Linda, she said: "Wow, that was a really bad time for us. If it wasn't for you and God...well I don't even know". I wanted to cry at that very moment but I just smiled and said to her, "I thank God every day for you". She smiled and we went back to cleaning. Simple and short, but I don't think I will ever forget that moment.

Thursday was Teen Club and Jeff showed a scene from the movie "Fireproof". The girls were enthralled by the clip (and apparently the entire lesson as they are still talking about things they learned), and Jeff let them borrow the movie. They came home and immediately started to watch it. Unfortunately, they feel asleep before it was over, but they have told me every detail that they have seen so far and plan to finish the movie soon...they want to see how it ends! (They tried to finish it again tonight but then J and E invited us to dinner at the last minute so the girls had to pause it again. They will finish it soon!)

I didn't realize what an impact the lesson and the movie had on them until last night. I was gone all day on a crazy adventure (supposed to take a bus to Baltimore, ended up in DC, lots of traveling and hilarity with my friends Sammi and Ashley that I will tell you about soon), and didn't get home until late. They spent the day with their mom and we were all pretty tired by the time I picked them up (it was around 10 p.m.). I had planned on pretty much going straight to bed, but God had a different plan.

It all started with Linda simply asking me to help her learn what to say when people ask her why she believes in Jesus. The girls apparently spent the day with a lot of people that made fun of them for being Christians and they just stayed quiet. Linda was hoping that next time she would be able to say something back (in a nice way). So, we talked for a little while about why we believe what we believe.

That led into talking about Jeff's lesson at Teen Club, which was about purity and marriage. That, of course, led the girls to asking me about my life choices. Linda asked me, "I know that you are waiting for the right guy before you get married, but what if a guy never comes along? What if you never get married?" Then, for the next hour and a half we talked about what it means to be the Bride of Christ and how while I may or may not ever get married here on earth, I know I will one day have a wedding...and I can't wait. They were SO involved in the conversation. I can't even begin to describe how incredible that time was. As we all went to bed I immediately went to my room and just praised God. There was really nothing else to do. God is SO good.

We got up early this morning (7:30!) and went to Sam's Club with the AIM leaders to do some of our own shopping and help them with theirs (they have to shop for 40 people for the whole week!). We didn't get home until around 11, but I was so impressed with how wonderful the girls were helping shop, carry and put seemingly endless amounts of food away. They never complained once!!

The rest of the day we just hung out. I read and slept (still so tired from yesterday!) and got a few bills and stuff paid. I don't really know what the girls did for most of the day, except that Bonita decided to wash the dishes at the exact moment I was in the shower, so I got a cold shower, haha. Saturdays are becoming very boring, and I need to keep them that way. The girls seem pretty okay with it, so I'm hoping we'll keep this up for a while.

Tonight were invited at the last minute to go out to eat with J and E and had a really good time. When we came home I headed to my room to finish planning my lesson for Children's Church tomorrow when Bonita and Linda came in and said they wanted to read about some of the stories in the bible that we were talking about last night. They also asked for a notebook so they can take notes on what they learn and write down any questions they have for me.

I can't believe all of this has happened in less than a week. Its been amazing.

The drama and the frustrations...they fade away pretty fast. I can't believe the life that God has chosen for me, it just doesn't make sense. I know I shouldn't really be, but I am just shocked at how blessed I really am.