Bearing Up

My job as a school nurse is over for the summer and it's a good thing.  I need the extra time to sort and store all the blessings God's been sending in the way of stuffed animals for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

My Operation Christmas Child regional manager, Leigh Fisher, asked each of us area coordinators to come up with a few "by faith" statements of things we are trusting God for in the month of June.  One of mine was "By faith I am trusting God to provide 5000 more stuffed animals by the end of June."

That means at least 1,250 every week starting this past week.  Today, by God's grace, the final total for the week came in at 1,614.

Just look at these cute Boyd's Bears.  Someone spent a lot of money for that collection and now they'll be a blessing to some little girls who I'm sure will be delighted by their fancy hats and dresses.

Someone recently suggested to me that maybe God planned the TY Beanie Baby craze back in the 90s to supply our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes in this decade.  That sounds just like God's type of planning.

I've been excited about leaving tomorrow for a one-day silent retreat with a few other folks from church.  I feel like I really need some extended and uninterrupted time with the Lord.

But today when I visited my Mom in the hospital she told me they're thinking of doing surgery because they can't find the cause of her problem.  So do I leave as planned?

I hate not knowing what to do, but I'm asking God to make His will clear to me. And I'm thanking Him for the truth of 1 Corinthians 10:13 "...but God is faithful.  He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear."

And I am so grateful that He who provides hundreds of bears will also bear my burdens.