Joy in the Journey

     So many times in life I have had the experience of life's circumstances raining on my parade. In fact, I have been living in one of those circumstances as we speak.  (This is going to come as a shock to many of you-because I only told three people  that do not live in my community).  Since July of this year, my family moved out of our home and began to share space with my mother- in- law. We are going through some legal issues with our home. I have kept very quiet about it, grieved privately as I packed up our precious memories. That is the best way to put it because really, we do not have a lot of valuables, what we have is a bunch of junk to an on-looker, but in the eyes of our  family members, we have boxes and boxes of "treasures  of the heart". Instead of drowning in sorrow,

 I chose to continue on. To continue focusing on  things we were doing. We began a small business.We were growing, and stretching, in ways I never dreamed. One of those ways came to me as a total surprise. One of the smartest moves I made about a month ago, was to hire my husband to run the technical side of my business. He is such an asset to what I am trying to do. Then, I hired our son, Joshua to work for me too, and it has grown from there. I know it sounds so silly to "hire" family, but it has been such a unifying experience. Deep in my heart, there is this longing to be working together with my husband, in every aspect of life. It seemed like the longer we lived here in South Dakota, the more separate our lives became. We still functioned as all families do, but the main difference was I was always doing my own thing and he was always doing his. The unity we experienced working together on the business reminds me of when we were in Florida, 9 years ago, ministering, singing  and praising God side by side every Sunday for the first 11 years of our marriage. Now don't get me wrong, singing will always be my first love, but having the privilege to mesh our work worlds together has been such a sweet blessing. I enjoy every moment of it. Creating, thinking, brainstorming, tracking work and progress on projects, it is actually very fun! Who wants to go to work every day with people they do not like? Not me! Even better to go to work with a person I dearly love! I have truly found joy in the journey.

 I am so thankful for what God is doing, and this is not a sad time at all, it is actually a very blessed time. I have nothing to be sorrowful about!

It is now four months since I wrote this, and the journey has taken us yet another direction. Now, I am completely focused on home care services. With no extra side jobs, I keep being reminded that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord. The Lord keeps gently nudging me to follow His lead and to trust Him with all the details. He shut doors and he opened another. I continue to serve the Lord with gladness as I go about my daily life, and God is blessing that. I had a lot of anxiety today because I had an evaluation, all these "what if's" came into my head. I prayed all day. I prayed a lot. I prayed and I cast down all kinds of imaginations of what could happen. It was a blessed day. I refuse to look down because the Lord is the lifter of my head. He is my reason for each day that I live. Yes, I make mistakes, yes, I fail. Yes, I have disappointments. But He never fails and for that I am thankful. 

Blessings to all of you and may you find Joy in the Journey!

Ruth A. Hidalgo

How Do you Deal with Disappointment?

Disappointment is a part of life. We all experience it. How do you handle it? Do you talk to a friend?

Do  you confront it head on? Do you go for a walk? Sometimes talking it out makes it better, while, at other times, it seems that talking just digs a deeper hole. How are we are to even get to the point that we have peace in the midst of disappointment when the hole gets deeper and deeper talking? The way of obedience makes it worth the while. Rejoice! That is actually a commandment from God. Rejoice evermore for this is the will of God. God wants us to rejoice, My youngest son just learned this memory verse in his school lessons: "In everything give thanks". I Thessalonians 5;18

 These two scriptures do not say rejoice only when things are good or give thanks only when you are happy. There is a reason God gives us the instruction to give thanks and to rejoice, I think it is because it is not in our natural human nature to do so. The first thing we naturally do when things are going wrong and we are feeling disappointed is complain about it. Did you know that every time you do something in the natural, it releases something in the spiritual? Imagine the angels and demons fighting in the spirit realm.. you are helping the angels every time you obey, it gives them ammunition by which to defeat the enemy. It is hard to imagine spiritual warfare, and we really do not clearly know how it happens, but the truth is there is a spiritual side to every word we speak.  So if  you want to be free from the bondage of disappointment? Then OBEY and rejoice! Sing! Find SOMETHING  to be thankful for. When you do, then it releases heaven on your behalf. Imagine it. It is like a ten-ton brick is being lifted off of your shoulder. Who wants to go around carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders? NO ONE!

 The burden of disappointment can be so overwhelming. Just Do it. Try it. Choose to say OUT LOUD  what you are thankful for. It will feel weird at first because it is not the natural thing to do. But as you do it, you will have joy flowing up from the inside out. God takes over. You know it is God because really, you still feel sad about whatever it was that was bothering you, but miraculously, you are able to still be thankful and rejoice. This is how to  cast your cares upon Him. He takes "the load of disappointment" as soon as you are willing to obey and do two simple things. Rejoice and be Thankful. Give it a try. It will help.

Ruth A. Hidalgo

When all you can say is Why Why Why??

Why?

Sometimes when bad things happen, it does not make sense. Seems like the news is chock full of stories of bad things happening to good people: Shootings, abductions, diseases, sickness, the list can go on and on. Sometimes the list is very real and personal: inability to qualify for the desired job  position, not being able to drive (due to special circumstances) to go wherever you want to go, not knowing where the next meal is going to come from when the bank account is low and there are bills to pay. It seems devastating, hopeless, and dire. You may have the sensation that "your ears are burning" because you just know everyone is talking about your awful situation. Or maybe it is just the opposite, you have the sinking hopeless feeling in your stomach because you are keenly aware that no one really cares; you are experiencing private pain that is real and serious, but you know deep down that there is no shoulder to cry on and that no one that really understands you completely. 

Plan A

Question everything! Pull the covers over your head and have a good cry. Call up a friend and complain (if there are any available to talk to).  Go for a walk and contemplate all the evil in the world. Shake fists in the air and scream WHY, WHY, WHY?????!!!!!! 

Plan B

So now that you are through with Plan A, it seems pointless and futile. Maybe you feel a little better after the crying and the screaming, but still, you are left hopeless, with no real direction to take. So you try a new approach. This one is the most popular plan in the world. It is called:"Fake it". So you put on your smile; hold your head up high, and go about your daily life. If anyone asks how you are doing, you cheerfully reply, "GREAT"! Or maybe your reply is more subtle, "good". It is still the same approach. Ignoring the hopelessness in your heart is not going to make it go away. 

Plan C

Plan A and B did not really help you very  much; sure for a moment there were som moments of stress relief, but overall, no real help to change the way you are currently feeling. The reason for this is that the plan that we put as "C" should really be "Gird up your loins" Huh? My loins? What the heck are you talking about? In bible times, if a man was in battle, he had to gird up his loins, that means he had to tuck in his dress so that it became like pants so that he could run and fight. I am talking about the warrior inside of each of us. We cannot handle all the why's in the world on our own. We cannot handle them with friends, we cannot handle them by pretending they do not exist. "Cast your cares upon Him because he cares for you" That should be the first line of defense to the whys of the world. Here are the effective steps to "Plan C":

•  Step one: Tell God about the situation.
•  Step two: Intercede on behalf of the situation.(That means pray about it) 
• Step three: Let God have it, do not take it back. Lay it on the altar and leave it there. 
• Step 4: Trust Him with it. He has it all under control.
• Step 5 : Thank Him (in advance) for taking care of the situation, I mean, not after the situation has had a happy ending, I mean as soon as you tell Him about it.  

I have seen plan C in action so many times in my life, maybe you can reflect on times in your life that you effectively worked out plan C. I have also seen Plan A and Plan B take over quicker than you can say "Bob's your Uncle" (to quote Mary Poppins .. :-) )  I am not saying friends are a bad thing, they are not. "Two is better than one, a three- fold chord is not easily broken". " Bear one another's burdens". As a friend, encourage your friend to implement Plan C as their Plan A. Do not fall into the trap of merely being there, or just being compassionate. Take action! Faith without works is dead. By trusting God with our burdens, our questions, frustrations; our WHY'S.. we are taking action: a very important step in faith. The next step to take is to believe that God is in control.  God takes the suffering and uses it for his Glory. Look at the story of Joseph: Can't you just see him sitting there in jail asking God WHY, WHY, WHY?? !! I want to be like Paul and Silas when I am faced with hopeless situations. I want to praise him anyway! God said that he can move mountains. The question is, do we really truly believe that he can do it? 

Challenge for today: Be a real friend:  Help friends implement Plan C. help them make it their Plan A. If you are the one in the tough circumstance, just start with Plan C. God is in control. We can see Him at work when we take it to Hm. Keep a journal. This is an awesome thing to do because it can be a way to reflect and see how God  has been taking  care of us all along when we forget. The Old Testament is sort of like a Journal, each book will repeat the same stories, telling what God did from one generation to the next. That is what we need to do, remind ourselves of what God has done.

I have teens researching colleges, planning their futures, and a husband who is very careful to follow the ways of God and not the ways of the world. Can they have both? (I mean the ways of God and college?) Of course! Do I know how God is going to work it all out? NO. But I can start with Plan C! Or should I say, Plan A? Have I confused you yet? Hopefully not. Hopefully, you are inspired and challenged to face your circumstances with a brave heart full of faith! He is with us always, even until the end of the earth!

Ruth A. Hidalgo