A Thanksgiving Poem

The one thing that I am thankful for this year is the one thing that a year ago brought so much sorrow..
This year I am thankful for all the pain, deceit, and tears that brought us to our new tomorrow.


What was intended to bring us pain and bring an end to our story
Was the very thing that brought God all the glory


A year ago, we were thankful for a lot but drowning in pain
A year later, we can smile and reflect on what we had to gain


Peace and trust have come back into our life
The days are easier with not as much struggle and strife


Life is far from perfect but perfection is not what we need
Just a little appreciation is what we need to succeed.


So today as I am thankful for the pain that brought us here
Glory goes to God who told us not to fear


He had this all worked out in that master plan of His
Looking back, His presence in it all is hard to miss


During the pain and during the trial
We stood in a lot of denial


But as the plan was slowly laid out
It was all God! There is no doubt!


Nothing in our wildest dreams would have us here
I thank you God for telling us not to fear


You had us all along in the palm of your hand
You gave us the right people to help us up to stand


I thank you God for allowing the pain
And to Him goes all the glory for this gain.

The Middle. . .

A year ago today, our family was happy!  We had already been told we were staying in Altus for one more year and our son’s football team in little league went undefeated and won the championship the day before!  Life was good!

Today, our family is happy!  We are pretty sure Dibble will have us back for at least one more year but those talks haven’t happened yet because we made the play-offs, having just rattled off 3 big wins to take third in the district and the team hasn’t made it to the 2A play-offs before. Life is great!

Both statements are true.  It’s where the story begins and it’s where the story is now.  It’s the middle that is unbelievable.  I won’t get into the whole story of the middle but I can tell you these things:

1.      In the middle, nothing went as we had hoped for, prayed for or planned, or so we thought. I believed this statement 100%   Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  But when nothing was going as we had hoped for, prayed for or planned, I did doubt this verse until I realized, the desires of our heart are not specific coordinates.  The desires of our heart, don’t have names of towns but are more about what we think that town can bring us.  Our brain processed our heart’s desire to be Frederick but our heart ‘s desire was to have a team and a community like we remember having.  At the core of everything that happened and the crazy events that happened in the middle, our hearts desires were given to us.

2.      In the middle, we found out who our real friends are and how important our family is.  Proverbs 20:6 “Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one that is truly reliable.”  In all of this, friends we haven’t seen in years  from high school, stood by us which was awesome!  Some friends we haven’t known long stood by us.  Some stood by us until we moved and we haven’t heard from or seen since.  Some we were sure would be there for us, weren’t there! Some held the knife that stabbed us in the back. But our family has stood by us 100% through it all!  Our family shared the burden and our family supported our decisions.  We couldn’t have gotten through it all without our family and the friends that stood with us!

3.      In the middle, it was easy to lose hope.  Proverbs 13:12 “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”  We were truly heartsick.  Everything we wanted  or had was being ripped from us.  Others making decisions that were having huge impacts on our life and we felt powerless and hopeless to do anything about it.  We weren’t depressed.  It was deeper than that.  We were heart sick.  Even when God’s plan finally revealed where we were going, we didn’t feel it was a dream fulfilled but slowly we started to see the small things that were better that began renewing our hope and this morning I can tell you this team and this town has exceeded our expectations in so many ways!
4.      In the middle, we developed  resolve.  1 Cor 15:58  “Be strong and immovable, always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”  Even on days when all hope is lost, you know you must move forward.  You may not have hope today but you learn that by taking a step today gets you closer to having hope for tomorrow.  Not giving up and moving forward even when there is no prize to be working for that can be seen but working each day on forgiveness and acceptance of the situation keeps you going even when the pace seems like you are only moving backwards.  There will be setbacks and there will be times of amazing break-throughs.  You never know what the day will bring but you will make it through any of it if you keep working on your resolve.

5.      In the middle, we found joy.  James 1:2 “When trouble comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."   This is one of my favorite verses when I am going through problems.  Looking at the problem as an opportunity rather than an obstacle helps.  But during the middle, there were times when our family was incredibly joyful throughout our pain.  Laughter would erupt in our home and we had several days where we were over the top with joy even though our circumstances were only getting more difficult!  We also had days were there wasn’t a joyful noise in the house but there were days it was easy to find joy regardless of what was happening.

Where our story begins was joyful and where it is now, has been amazing but the “middle” where the work had to be done just to get here, were some of the darkest days of our life.  The desire to quit and give up had to be fought each day.  Trying to trust God and believe He did have a plan for us was more than difficult on some days and on other days our faith would grow enough to see us through the days we were too heart-sick to carry on.  To anyone going through “The Middle” you will get through it.  Don’t worry about the friends you lost, embrace the friends and family you do have.  Don’t worry about days where your faith is small like a mustard-seed, it’s enough to see you through.  On days where your prayers and answers from God seem like he does the opposite of what you want, just know His ways are better than yours.  On day’s you are heart-sick just know there will be days of joy even through the darkness and then through it there will be a day where the dream God has for you will be revealed and in time you will see that dream is better than the ones you had in mind!