As I sit here this morning, I am so thankful for God’s provision in my life. In the last two days I have lived an emotional journey. I shouldn’t say “I” because I’m not alone. Every single person that lives near me, every single coworker, the majority of my family have lived through these tumultuous few days. It has been rough and this morning I feel like I am coming down off of an adrenaline rush. This crash is going to be something. I can feel it in the twitching in my face and the drooping of my eye but in my spirit I feel God’s presence telling me it will be ok. My children are safe. Our moms are safe. We are safe. I have a peace this morning that I am ashamed to say I did not have yesterday. Yesterday I let the stress take over as I rode around and saw the devastation around the county we live in. The trees completely through houses and both of ours are standing with little to no damage. My mom had a tree land on hers but when Adam started cutting it off the wisteria vines that were wrapped around it gently lifted it off of her house. It was almost like God’s hand gently laid the tree down on my mom’s house so it did not cause any damage. Our daughter Kathryn in Augusta had the same experience. Two large old trees came down on either side of her house and the only damage was the power supply pulled away from the house. My heart aches for friends who have lost everything. The picture on Facebook are devastating.
Tal and I are prepared for crazy situations because I am nutty that way. I want to make sure we have food stored up, water on hand and a generator just in case. Hurricane Helene caught a lot of people off guard. I never dreamed I would be having a conversation with my husband about how many hours a day we can run a generator with the gas we have on hand to make it a week with no power. My weekly treatment medications are in my refrigerator and are temperature sensitive. They are not cheap, this 3 month supply was billed for over $53,000. I have 9 doses left. I don’t know about you but I don’t have that money laying around to replace that. The stress and anxiety I have been holding in has had a powerful hold over me. This morning it’s different. Why you ask? Because Melynda stopped trying to be in control and just gave it to God. This morning before Tal cranked up the generator and turned on ESPN (my nemesis of TV stations 🤯) I heard God in the songs of the crickets, I felt God in the coolness of the morning and I surrendered all of my worries and stress over to Him. My goodness, the peace I have as I type this is so much better than the stress I’ve been holding in. I pray that no matter what you are going through that you can find that peace.
Just like all of our neighbors, Tal and I have a lot of work ahead of us. There is storm debris all over our property that we will be cleaning up in the weeks and months ahead but that is ok. We have been planning on renovating the house and that will be sooner rather than later. We have learned through this there are things we want so we can be better prepared for next time. Isn’t that what life is about? Living, learning and improving our response to situations until we take our final breath. I just wash my knuckle-headed self would learn to trust God from the start and not try to do it myself.
During the storm I prayed; after the storm I prayed but tried to take control of everything. Melynda needs to learn to take a breath, relax and trust God completely. I’m such a knot head 🤦🏻♀️
As you read this it’s my hope you are safe with a roof over your head, food to eat and you have the peace that only God can give. If you don’t have these I pray that someone brings a little Jesus to you today.
Thanks for reading ~ Melynda