Skip to main content

HOPE - My UP Word for 2015


Sometime during the Spring of 2014 I almost lost my HOPE.  I was tired of all the chasing our rebellious son all over town.  I was tired of the daily catastrophes to resolve.  I was tired of asking every day - "What do we do now?" 

I literally threw my hands up in the air one day while chatting with a friend and said I give up.  All of this mess is out of my hands.  I give it up to God.  I will search for help no more.  I will chase no more.  I will pray.  I will stop asking that question every day.  It's all up to God and my husband.

One of our boys had started done the spinning out of control path of school skipping, casual drug use, curfew breaking, brushes with the law, and breaking every family rule you can think of or haven't yet.  We had tried family counseling, pastoral counseling, a big brother mentor, revision of family rules, new school situation, taking away this, taking away that, parenting seminars, books, web pages of advice, extending our time on furlough, and much prayer.  We visited therapeutic schools and were ever closer to the drastic decision to send our boy to one. The biggest thing holding us back was cost, guilt, and feelings of failure as parents.

It was hard.  I didn't always follow through with my decision, but I was getting there.  I refused to let a year go by in the States only to be able to say we had lots of fun chasing our son around town in the wee hours of the night.  We had to move on for the sake of our other boys. 

We had to have HOPE that God was in control, and that HE would work it all out.

God indeed made a way for our boy to be accepted into a therapeutic boarding school in November.  It took a lot of phone calls and work.  Hands on stuff.  But working together with my husband and with God's divine leading showing us the way to go. 

My theme word for this year is  HOPE.  I have great hope the God will use the time that our son is away at school to work a miracle in his heart and give him a fresh start on adult life.  Over the course of this year I plan to write more about our experiences.  I am ready and willing to share more personally with other parents in need by email. 

Our story is not yet finished. We don' know how the last chapter will end.  But we are thankful to have passed the roughest patch in the road and to still be moving along.

Christmas 2014
Hopeful for a New Year


Glad that God is rewriting our family's story
Labels:
Location: Sobradinho - BA, Brazil

Comments

  1. Tim and Vicki ReinerJanuary 2, 2015 at 2:18 PM

    God will use this for unimaginable hope in the lives of others. I am praying He does that!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for stopping by! Leave me a message if you would.

Popular posts from this blog

My Promise Verse

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take:  when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. This verse has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager. When I was a high school senior at a Christian school in Virginia, Job 23:10 was chosen as our class theme verse. At our graduation commencement, the valedictorian and saludatorian in their addresses that day divided the verse in its two natural parts as a basis for the core of each one's address. I was the salutatorian of my senior class that year.  I chose to speak of how God would one day reward our faithfulness and thus, we should always strive to remain true. For many years though, the first part of the verse haunted me in a way. As a missionary especially when times were lonely or difficult, I assumed it was my "trial" or "test," and as such must be accepted in all humility. As I have grown older, I have begun to look more toward the pearly gates and have reconsidered the thr...
2 comments
Read more

Core Memories: Furlough 2018

  I happened upon an archive of old home video from our furlough in 2018 while transferring items to a new laptop.  Oh, what fun to watch!  Decided to put them in a little video collage.  Making important memories while in the USA with our grands is important!  It takes a little effort and a little intent.   Enjoy! In memory of Papa Potter
Post a Comment
Read more

Old Film, Same Message

A missionary colleague recently uploaded some old films made about the work in Brazil by Baptist Mid-Missions many years ago in the 1950's. Yesterday I was able to watch the first of the series.  All I can say is "Wow!  Things haven't changed much in Brazil.  And things haven't changed too much with the work of missions in Brazil either!" There are still donkey carts in the street.  They have better wheels nowadays! There are still people who live in grass huts and high apartment buildings, too. Bicycles are still many people's only means of transportation, if they are that lucky! Many roads in the interior towns are still paved with cobblestones, if they are paved at all. And yes, chickens are everywhere, even in big cities. Brazil still needs missionaries! That's right, Brazil is not evangelized and in no need of foreign missionaries today.  It still needs workers to spread the Good News of the Gospel and the Risen Saviour!  Sadly that part of t...
2 comments
Read more