God's Plan

I am well acquainted with the life story of a woman who was born on August 24, 1947.  Hence, she just turned sixty-six years old a couple days ago.  Her life has been a fairly simple life.  She was born in IA of parents of humble means.  She also lived in South Dakota and Minnesota as a child growing up.  Her childhood was not marked with popularity or extraordinary talent.  Sometimes childhood was difficult in fact.  She was blessed, however, with parents who regularly took her to churches which were based on God's Word.

After graduating form college she moved to Wisconsin where she married her husband in 1971.  He was the love of her life.  They raised three sons.  There were struggles from time to time during the child rearing ears.  Yet they clung to their God and to each other.  These three sons eventually married and had children of their own.  This was a blessing to the woman and her husband.

In 2006 this woman's husband was diagnosed with a devastating neurological illness.  The next four and a half years were a struggle, as she watched her husband deteriorate step by step.  In the meantime in 2007 she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through eight months of treatment.  This woman often felt as if she was too weak for the assignment of care-giving.  She felt so inadequate for the task.  She didn't understand why God had allowed it.  Yet that was a good place to be, for it taught her that she needed to depend on the Lord.  It taught her that strength could be found in the Lord alone.

Since her husband's death in very early 2011 she has had to learn many new lessons of dependence on the Lord.  She has learned that the Lord has been with her all the way.  She has learned that God has always had a plan for her life and has good plans for her future life.  These may not be the plans she would have chosen, but this is the path that was given her to tread.  It is a path that God wants her to tread with joy even when the path is rugged and difficult.  She also knows that the Lord has an eternal home ready for her but only after her work on earth is finished.  She knows the Lord has ordained the number of days she will live on this earth, as He did her husband's days on earth.  (Psalm 139:16)  She often succumbs to fear, but she remembers that God has told her not to fear.  Hence, she seeks to rest in the Lord and not fear the future.  She remembers how much the Lord loves her and even delights in her.  She remembers that God has said He will never leave her or forsake her and that God is in her future.

Dear caregiver, I am sure by now you have guessed that the woman I am referring to in this post is I, the author.  Dear caregiver, the Lord is working in your life also.  He is with you step by step.  He is also in your future.  Nothing happens even the difficult moments that are not filtered through His love.  Trust your future to Him.  Rest in Him.