Hard Times

As the New Year gets into full motion, I think about my plans for the year. In just 12 short days I will be heading to Haiti and serving Haitian Christian Mission with a team of 14 other members. We come from different states, backgrounds but are all there for the same purpose...to serve. We are not there to serve ourselves, we are there to serve God. I recently had a discussion with someone who was discussing the subject of praising God during the good times and she mentioned that we should also praise Him during the bad times. I, of course, agreed. We have to be thankful that we are alive each day. God is with us in each step of every process. Life happens around us and we often times forget that He is there with us. But He is the one CONSTANT in our lives. Jobs can come and go, people will die, homes will burn, cars will be traded in...but God cannot leave, burn or be traded in. In a sense "we are stuck with Him."   I am very happy to be stuck with Him. I have been through hard times in my life and I am thankful that God led me through them. Each situation in my life has led me to the person today. As a 16 year-old my father passed away from Lung Cancer. I never thought that I would ever get over that. My father was my rock. He protected me. I had no clue what I was going to do. But I made it through. I found out at that time who my true friends were. I had friends that I had been close to for over 10 years and they did not come to his funeral or even acknowledge that my father had passed. I see them now and still wonder why. I had people whom I had known for more years than that and did not attend my wedding...but that decision was up to me. I had come to the realization that if I had not heard from that person in the past six months, they were not going to be invited to my wedding. Just six months before our wedding there was a horrific earthquake in Haiti. That night my phone rang off the hook. I had texts from people whom I had not seen or talked to in quite some time. But as I look back these people were my true friends. Though we get busy, we are always there for each other. There are people that I expected to contact me and never did. There is one specific person that it took 3 entire days to contact me, yet when I spoke to this person, they wanted to talk about themselves. I had just been through the worst 3 days in my life and still did not know if my soon-to-be husband was even alive, but they wanted to talk about how "great" they were. I went three days without sleep. I hallucinated, I screamed, I cried..... I remember driving aimlessly at 6 in the morning...I did not know what to do or where to go. I just screamed in the car.....How could this happen to me?   I was all alone.............that is what I thought.  Five days after the earthquake, I was driving in my car again. I had attempted to call Daniel nearly every 5 minutes with no success. Then I said aloud "God, this is the last time I am calling him today,,,,," and Daniel answered the phone. I just cried and screamed....YOU ARE ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!  I had never felt happier in my life. Daniel and his entire family was safe and ALIVE!!!!!!!!! God had led us all through this tragedy. Daniel told me that after the earthquake he walked down the streets with his hands up in the air and a smile on his face and just being thankful that he was alive.....I felt the same way when I heard his voice.

He has led us all through tough times. He has been there beside us and carried us when we were too weak. One thing that I always keep in my mind.....When it is too hard to stand......kneel!!!!!