Perfektly Mary

I was just flossing my teeth and stopped, stared into the mirror and realized: “I am beautiful”. When a 5 month pregnant woman can see past the blood pouring from her enlarged gums and see beauty in the unshowered face….that HAS to be God. You know what else is God? Tons of stuff! During the vigorous flem removal, I realized God has done so much for me over the past year years and more often than not I’m blogging about what I need, what I want, angst, angst, angst. But then, who would ever want to follow Christ if all of the Christians are constantly complaining? Couldn’t they do just as well on their own if the Christians are so miserable? What kind of God is that?

It makes it seem like we serve a God that doesn’t come through, a God that’s happy to just hear our pitiful complaints and pat our spoiled little heads. How often does God answer our prayers going unrecognized? How often does God display himself in the Powerful All Mighty way rather than the watered down teddy bear version that is portrayed? I think all the time, and it’s sad that He doesn’t get Glory for it.

So I just want to recognize what He’s done for me lately.

• Helped us sort through the mess of business and personal finances for taxes, and come out on top! We got a great tax return!
• We were able to pay off FOUR forms of debt with our tax return!
• We have a great house, in a great neighborhood and I finally feel like I’ve found “home” in Arizona.
• Our marriage - Woah! That’s the biggest thing. We went from domestic violence (on my part with Dustin), jail time (again, my part), daily fighting, being separated for a total of almost 3 months in 2007 to….this amazing understanding of one another and our differences. Somehow (God) I’m just so in love with Dustin again. He makes me laugh, I sympathize with his struggles, I can have compassion on his weaknesses and I find myself waking up at two in the morning to find that at some point in the night one of us reached over and held the others hand and fell asleep that way. Just 9 months ago we were sleeping in separate rooms! Only God can provide healing and restoration like that!
• Last week our $16 stretch fell short. With the last of the diapers on the kids, I called our life group leader at church and humbly (I was so embarrassed) asked if they could help us with diapers. Our church totally loved on us. They gave us $70 that night and I just got a call that more people wanted to give and there is even more for us to pick up today. I’m so overwhelmed with love. I know that it was their choice to sacrifice for us, but God was also at work on our behalf in their hearts.

Those are just some of the things that I have time for right now. But I just wanted to again thank God. He is so much more than a security blanket. He is worth serving. Worth sacrificing for. Worth praising.