More busy days

Yesterday was a long and busy day. I woke up early, 6:30 am! I don't make getting up this early a regular habit. My mom was already gone for the day and David's nurse wasn't here yet. All of David's machines were off and he was sleeping. It was so quiet that I could hear the clock ticking from 3 rooms away. As I did the tasks of getting ready, I didn't turn on the radio or play any CDs. I loved the silence of the morning. I wanted my worship to be silence. After I was ready to go for the day, I still had about 30 minutes before David's nurse arrived and I could leave. I bundled up in my coat (it was like 10 degrees) and took Jackson (the dog) outside to play. Everything was frosted over and the sun was starting to come up. I love when the ground is frozen and it crunches under my feet. The stillness and quietness outside was amazing.

As I was sitting in all of this stillness and beauty of the silence, I knew that I needed to spend it with God. It has been a while since I felt that strong of a longing in my heart to worship Him with silence. I prayed for my day...I prayed that God would give me strength, wisdom, patience, protection,courage and His love to make it through the day...I knew it was going to be long and stressful. (It is always the long days when the enemy is working overtime speaking lies into my head.) We had a long ministry staff meeting yesterday. It was long, but good. It is always good to have "face time" with the people who are serving alongside me on staff. Most days it seems like we don't get enough of that.

Small group last night was awesome. I love the discussions we have about God, His word, and our lives. It is good to have the deep discussions about life with other Christians. Some nights it reminds me of the classes I was in at school, but it is so much better! The coolest part about Small Group has been to see community at work, the group is faithful about praying for each other. Our leaders challenged us to come up with a few year-long prayer requests to share with the group. Things that we want to see in our lives in this year. I can't wait to see how God is going to use this to grow our faith in Him and knit us together as a group.
God used my time with Him in the early, quiet hours of the morning to speak to my heart. I am reminded, yet again, that God's love for me is unreal. He loves me more than I can comprehend. He knows all about me, and loves me anyway. His love is unconditional. I mess up and He STILL loves me. I do not deserve this kind of love. I don't have to do anything, just accept it... and I do.