A Devotional for me.

Today as I took the kids to the park, I felt really alone.  I’ve been taking the kids out alone for quite a while now, but I guess I am just missing having company while doing so.  I love being with my kids, don’t get me wrong, it is just that when we had fun outings back in Sugar Land, we usually went with another friend and her kids and it was recharging for me to be around friends while my kids were around theirs.  We are close to two weeks here and still no phone to call back to USA and I am depending on only catching someone on skype by luck.  This system hasn’t been great and after spending hours and hours trying to figure out the whole vonage thing, it looks like they have thought of everything to prevent the usage of it here.  That makes me really really sad.  I thought I had it all figured out, but no.   I like the thought of being able to pick up the phone and call someone and catch them whether on their cell or at home, now it looks like if someone is online then we can talk, but it parks me  in a chair during the most challenging time of day for us.. dinner, bath and bedtime.  I’m sure we’ll get used to it, but I really really wish it would work.   (*Last resort, now I will have to look into some International calling cards).

Anyway, as I was feeling a bit blue about all of this I caught this devotional waiting for me in my in box:

Trust in God’s Plans

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11

A friend of mine moved from the Nashville area to Chicago. She left behind her dream house. Although she was excited about her husband’s promotion, she didn’t want to move. She had found at the end of her rainbow a house that she loved, and it was in Tennessee, not in Illinois.

As they drove away, all she could see in the rearview mirror was that wonderful and cozy home. It had become her security and her identity. It was the place where she belonged. But in the process of that move and relocation, she discovered some important truths. “My security does not come from a house. Real security comes from trusting God. I will never grow if I always stay in my comfort zones. Spiritual maturity comes in learning to depend on God to meet my needs. Things should not be held too tightly. They can keep me from embracing what God has planned for me.”

God’s plan is the expression of his love. Never in our lives will God ever express his plan except as an expression of his perfect love. God always has our best interests at heart. He’ll take any situation a person is going through, even if it is a terrible one, and will use it for a good, overall purpose in one’s life.

When God is at work, it always involves risks and changes and new ventures. Why? Because God wants his people to live by faith. We need to trust in God, not in a company; to find security in God, not in a home; to depend on God, not on friends and relatives.

God’s plan is prosperous and hope-filled, one that will work for people’s benefit. God desires that his people trust in his plan. He has not abandoned his people. He nourishes hope. He will satisfy life. He brings fulfillment.