Be of good courage baby

Awesome quiet time this morning.  Here's what I learned:

Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait for Him to act.  Psalms 37

When I asked God, what do I do while I'm being still, here's what I realized:  I should be waiting.  

What helps me be still? Getting my mind off the worries.  But how?  I could throw myself into my work, family, or some other fun activity.  I could turn my attention to God...I could think about His goodness, think about His love for me, think about His favor, read stories (biblical or otherwise) about His redemption and salvation of others in tough times to encourage me and build my confidence in His ability to bring us through...

I would have lost heart, fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in my life.  Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart.  

And then I started making my list, of all the goodness of the Lord I expect to see in my lifetime:

• the realization of all of our life's dreams concerning YML, Marriage Mission, Sweets Plus, Mommy's Helper...God gave it to us- He'll bring it to pass
• the manifestation of published books
• being able to witness/minister to millions of ppl around the world about what God said is true concerning what God said is true about fatherhood, faith, and family
• raising a beautiful family that honors God with their lives through leadership and service
• living long, healthy, and faithfully in partnership with my wonderful wife
• reconcilation of lost family members
• my mother (and mother in law) discovering her life's passion and living it out
• my siblings (and sibling in laws) each discovering and living out their life's passions
• my grandmothers (yours and mine) each being able to have their bills paid off and live the lives they've always dreamed, made possible by God's favor on their grandkids
• my friends accomplishing their life's dreams

Baby- once I started thinking about all of these things, the list just keeps growing.  And this more than compensates for the temporary tough spot that we're in financially.  In the grand scheme of things, this is just a blip on our radar.  God's constantly been in the business of blowing our minds our entire lives.  We're His special ones.  We're His favorite children.  We're good to go. 

PS- My life's purpose is to help others find theirs.  I know that.  That's why I love doing my leadership job- because I believe that when people discover where/how to lead- they're finding the sweet spot God created for them.