Challenge Day 5: I am Tired; God is Faithful

I woke up exhausted this morning.  Rick plays basketball early (read: crazy early) on Friday mornings, so I knew it was going to be all me this morning.  I think that made me even more tired.  As I've been doing all this week, the first thing I did was pray.  Except this morning, I literally fell asleep... multiple times.  A song came to mind, so instead of praying words, I ended up singing it in my head:

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee,

Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not,

As Thou hast been,Thou forever wilt be.

Refrain:

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness! 

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above;

Join with all nature in manifold witness,

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

(Refrain)

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own great presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

(Refrain)

I didn't really grow up in a "hymn church", although my church now sings many of them. Yet this song came to mind. I knew the first verse, the refrain, and part of the second verse, at which point the song in my head would loop right back up to the refrain. But reading all the lyrics now, I love how the song ends. It's what I needed this tired morning, to keep me from turning into a crabby mommy: Thine own great presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow.

Day 5: Since God provided THEN...
So "Great is Thy Faithfulness" has been running through my head all day, a very ordinary day. And I found myself remembering all of the times that God was faithful, and thinking, "Since God provided THEN, I know I can count on Him NOW, in this very ordinary day."

Remembering:

As a high schooler, I once spun out on the highway on the way to a before-school activity. I ended up with my car facing the wrong way towards the ditch. I was scared. A neighbor I had never even met stopped and had a cell phone, and I called my dad to come and get me. Since God provided THEN...

When I first moved to the Twin Cities, I was a summer nanny, and I hadn't had the opportunity to make any friends yet. One Friday evening, I got bored and lonely enough to trust a college friend, and I cold-called the people she had been friends with the summer before. One became a friend, then a great friend, and he is now my best friend and my husband. Since God provided THEN...

My labor was 40+ hours from the start of my contractions, and the last few hours were painful and panic-stricken like I could never have imagined. But I made it through, and there she was: My firstborn child, just right, my own little Maisy. Since God provided THEN...

It was our 10-year-old foster daughter's first huge, prolonged meltdown, starting around mid-morning and lasting on through the afternoon. Calls to our workers went unanswered, and Rick and I stared at each other, not knowing what to do, truly not knowing how we'd make it through that day. We heard a knock at the door, and it was our neighbor with tickets to a play that night and an invitation for our foster children to attend with her. Since God provided THEN...

It was the darkest night of my life. Our 12-year-old foster son's emotions and behavior had reached a tipping point. He held a hammer in his hand, looked at us with wild eyes, and told us he couldn't control himself anymore. We went to the ER, where the night only grew darker. Hours later, we all returned home - together. Since God provided THEN...

I can think of many more moments in my life to this point when God has provided, including the birth of Tucker, my sweet, funny, chubby baby boy. 

 Since God provided THEN, through moments happy, scary, sad, lonely, joyful, bright, and dark... I know I can depend on Him in this day, as extraordinary or ordinary as it may be.

It's no surprise or coincidence that in my Bible reading plan today I encountered Psalm 118:1-18, which begins like this:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.

Let all Israel repeat:
"His faithful love endures forever."

Let Aaron's descendants, the priests, repeat:
"His faithful love endures forever."

Let all who fear the Lord repeat:
"His faithful love endures forever."

In my distress I prayed to the Lord,
and the Lord answered me and set me free.

The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me?

Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me.