Back to School!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! The girls are back at school today. They were super excited and I know they will have a great year!

Kaylee-1st grade, Madison-4th grade

Yesterday, Madison's BFF Audrey had a Birthday party.
Here was the cute cake that her Grandmother made her. Her Grandmother is my friend that owns a bakery.
Here's all the BFF's dancing to the music.
Remember how I was telling you that Kaylee is my organizer? Well, she had to stop and take a minute to arrange the confetti on the table just right. LOL!
They had a Hannah Montana impersonator there, and she taught the girls how to do the Hoedown Throwdown. They had so much fun!
(I think Lily was just trying to figure out the whole time if this girl was really Hannah! After she left, Lily said, "Where's Hannah?" She wasn't too sure what to think about it all.)-------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday at church, we talked about praying again, specifically about "Why Didn't God Answer My Prayer?"

We talked about how God always hears your prayers and he always answers them, but sometimes it might not be how we expected him to or what we expected to happen. That doesn't mean he didn't answer us....we just have to be open to see His answer.

We talked about what matters when we pray. Our relationships matter, our motives matter, and the way we live matters. Our faith also matters. Not the amount of faith we have, but rather the object of simply having faith. Most importantly though, God's will matters. Sometimes, God's power is made known in our weakness. God wants us also to see that His grace is enough to get us through those hard times.

I thought about that alot. I can think of 2 specific times that I have begged God for a certain outcome and He did not answer my prayer in the way that I had hoped. One was when my Mom was dying and He did not make her better. The other has been for my anxiety to simply go away. I can honestly say though, that these two issues have been the two things that have brought me closest to Him. They have been the things that made me have to rely on my relationship with Him just to simply function. They've made me more compassionate, more loving toward those who are ill, and most importantly they've strengthened my relationship so much with the Lord. I know I would not be sitting here typing about what I learned in church if these things had not happened in my life. I believe that every time I learn something new about Him, every time I tell you what He's doing in my life, His power is made known! His grace is enough! We can search and search in our lives for things to fill those empty voids or for things to make us feel better, but absolutely NO THINGS in our lives will ever do. Our Pastor said that what matters the very most in prayer is that we have an honest relationship with God through Christ. It starts with Christ--He is the only way.

Who would I be right now if my Mom were still here and if I wasn't close with the Lord? I would probably still be working full-time, expecting my Mom to pretty much raise my girls for me. I don't think Morgan and I would be as close as we are now. I know we wouldn't be in church. My girls wouldn't be learning about the Lord. I wouldn't know any of you! I wouldn't have met my best friend, Veronica. I would still have no patience for sick people. I will be honest and say that before my Mom died, I had gotten everything that I ever wanted. Not necessarily material things, but life had just been pretty easy. I was confident, or cocky, depending on how you look at it. I pretty much thought I knew everything. I didn't approach people with love in mind, although I've always had a loving heart. I approached everyone by comparing them to myself. Everything was about ME. Yes, I wish I could've learned these lessons without having to lose my Mom, but that is not what the Lord had planned for me. And having the anxiety issues has definitely knocked me down off my high and mighty pedestal, that's for sure!

So, although the answer wasn't what I wanted, it was done according to His will, and I know that He always knows what is best. He sees the big picture and how things are going to work out. He knows how these events will lead to other things in our lives. His plan is always perfect!