Counting Blessings

This year has been full of unexpected blessings that often have come out of disappointments and mislaid plans.

Health challenges and the blessing of a week in a cabin in California during the winter in my part of the world ended and began this year.

Opportunities to be a guest teacher and meet up with young friends I have taught music to in the past welcomed me into new and different classrooms.  I now get paid to do something I enjoy the most –  reading and telling stories and singing and playing my guitar with children.

In April, a door swung open for my adult children and I to do a transatlantic cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona followed two weeks later with a trip that included my husband and older daughter on to Israel in which we got to meet and minister to Holocaust Survivors and celebrate Israels 70th Anniversary.

Once home, we began the challenge to finish an upstairs apartment to launch as an Airbanb.  Things are never as simple as we think they will be.  Who knew that the 4 inch gray septic pipe in the garage floor was not connected to the septic tank? This necessitated a lot of detective work while my husband is recuperating from two work related injuries that gave him five pound weight limits on both of his hands. Thankfully, I have several homeschooling kids and a friend with a backhoe that I hired to help dig as we explored what we were dealing with.

Life has not gone the way that I planned this summer or fall. I am grateful that God has the greater plan and that I can trust Him to guide me step my step.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you declares the LORD. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.”  James 1:5 “If you lack wisdom, you can ask of God, who gives generously. To all without reproach.”  One of my favorite things we did this summer was to set these verses to tunes to teach children at our local Vacation Bible School. I had no idea that I would need to have these verses running through my mind as I sought answers and solutions to problems way out of my area of expertise!

I am so thankful that God directs my steps and that He provides in creative and unexpected ways.