Eyes were watching me while I juggled three kids through the checkout line. Charlotte kept bringing me candy as fast as I tried to put it back. Eva had already started scanning my buggy items, leaving me unsure where she had started. Tyson sat in his carrier with his foot propped up on the side, sucking his pacifier. Life is good to him. While I corralled my groceries and Charlotte from the snack shelf, the bouncy balls lost their hold and started bouncing all over the aisle. The eyes that had been watching leaned in and whispered in passing, “Good luck today.” I belly laughed.
For the twelfth time, we battled strep throat. Enough was enough. The doctor advised us to go ahead and have them removed. At surgery, he made the statement, “This procedure will provide pain with a purpose.” I was ok with that. Sometimes, healing brings pain. But on the other side comes relief and joy.
I wasn’t, however, expecting Charlotte and Tyson to get sick at the same time we were caring for Eva and bottle-feeding the seven puppies. Every three hours, around the clock, it was medicine, consoling for pain, and wiping noses. I had columns for each child’s medicine, and Chuck had premade bottles for the puppies, so we were ready to go on demand.
We were organized to the letter until I sent my folks my grandmother’s birthday card and my grandmother’s anniversary card for my parents. It brought laughter everyone enjoyed and probably needed.
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I can remember one moment vividly. I called my mom and asked for prayer. Prayer will immediately change your home’s atmosphere, even if it comes from someone miles away. Why do we hesitate to ask? It’s as if God only answers the enormous problems and doesn’t hear our small cries for rest and order. God will deliver whatever we bring before him. His word gives me great confidence in His ability to work a miracle on any level I need.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t already offered a “help me” plea to God or that I didn’t think He would show up. But I knew our arms were heavy and our eyes were sleepy. It is in these moments that we need prayers that lift us up.
The yard needed to be cut; dogs needed to be fed, sips of water every couple of minutes, crummy cries from little ones, and hunger from tummies. Everyone and everything needed us at the same time. Although we feel hard-pressed, we must never forget that we are not crushed (2 Corinthians 4:8). We are able to lift our eyes to the hills from whence cometh our help (121:1).
The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like hinds feet, and upon my high places, he will cause me to walk victorious… Habakkuk 3:19
As I busied myself with the next person in line, I noticed Eva had drifted off to sleep, and Charlotte had quieted. Tyson was happily playing, and I could finish cleaning the kitchen. Peace had found me.
In the book of Genesis, God asks Cain, where is your brother? Cain arrogantly replies, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Sometimes, our assignments are not glamorous. For example, in 1 Samuel 17:20, David leaves the sheep with a keeper. This man was never heard of, but he made it possible for David to go fight Goliath. Cain had his own agenda. Even though the blessing was available for him also, he had no desire to be a keeper. We all have keeping assignments. The job is hard and dirty at times. It is hidden and rarely praised.
I know you’re willing to be seen, but are you willing not to?
Jim Stockdale
I am willing to be in every social club and at every event, and I am willing to take all the important calls, but am I willing not to? Someone has to make the sandwiches and check off homework. Someone has to tend the sheep. The toilets and the floors wait for no one. Our first place of ministry is in our own homes, to our family. You cannot save the world to lose your own.
I think we will be pleasantly surprised when we get to Heaven and see all the times we missed God looking for miraculous signs. There are keeping assignments that no one sees, yet they tend the sheep-fold more than any other. And we see the hand of God show up marvelously.
Once everyone was on the mend, I decided it was a splendid weekend to set up my Home Sweet Home booth at a local craft fair. The kids were feeling much better, and the fall breeze was perfect for some nice fresh air.
It was a great day full of passersby and pleasant music from local bands. At the end of the day, after we unloaded and made it home, I checked sales on the computer only to realize that low signal and user error had caused over half the sales not to process.
Exhaustion and disappointment clouded any common sense I might have had left at this point. It had been a long two weeks, burning the candle at both ends and now this. My spiritual thermometer was low, and my mature side became silent. All that hard work and time lost were all I could see. It felt like a constant one step forward, two steps back. I expounded on it all very clearly to God the next morning.
“Where are you?! I do all that I know to do right, go the extra mile, am a good steward of the money that comes through my hands, and show up where I am needed, and yet this is what I get!” I know anyone reading this has never acted like I did. After I finished, I just sat there.
It was impressed upon my heart to grab my journal and start writing. As I wrote, I saw my miracle.
I was there all along. Didn’t you see me? I was there when your tent caught the air and soared to the trees. All the bystanders ran to your aid and helped secure it back down. I was there when a friend walked up and told you they had covered your family in prayer the past week. I was there when other vendors remembered your children from previous craft fairs and made Tyson his own crocheted stuffed animal and the girls, gummy bear earrings. I was there when the lady walked up and thanked you for teaching her how to believe for the impossible, she said, “I have started asking, and I am receiving.” And I was there when someone slipped an unexpected tip into your pocket.
With tears running down my face, I saw my keeping assignments magnified. I saw the goodness of God through my tired, disappointed eyes. I am a keeper. Tend to what God has set before you. Watch him show up.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. Psalms 121:5
