OT- Prayer Request

[anointedhsmom]

Brenda,

You and your family are in my prayers. I am so sorry for your loss and the situation with your family. Obviously they need the Lord and I have complete faith that Jesus will use you in a powerful way because of your heart for Him to use you. All He needs is a willing person and He will use you in some way. I pray that you receive a visit from Jesus himself and that He gives you the strength and peace to go forth with His words on your lips. You are salt and light to your family Brenda. You are redeemed of the Lord so rise up and He will carry you to do anything and all that He wants you to do. Lean on Him completely in your grief. He is the Wonderful Counselor and will touch your heart like no one can.

You are precious in my sight and His beautiful lady!

Praying for you,
Paige

[Samuel'sMommy]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I will be praying for you and your family during this time!

[water2wine]

Thank you guys for your wonderful words of encouragement and prayer. God has heard. My brother who is a new Christian but not victorious with everything yet. Went to the ocean spot where we used to live with our mom and where her ashes were spread to pray and beg God for mercy on my father. He took an entire day to go there and just pray. His heart is turned to witnessing. This gives me the perfect spot to have a talk I knew we would about getting some victory so he can be a good witness. That is a huge blessing. My sister has listened already to some of the things that I have said. I am not filtering anything about my beliefs and who I am for their comfort. It is all just flowing out of me. I have always shared and they certainly saw me make huge changes when I became a Christian but I have never had things just flowing from my speech this way. So God is hearing that prayer. We also have a neighbor of my dad's that is a pastor at an excellent church in the area (it is the one I always went to when I was visiting) that actually knew my dad for years doing the service. We originally tried to get the pastor that married me and is my dear friend but he is in Canada with his mom it appears passing. So God really filled that need.

Also a huge thing that God did for me was to end a struggle I had. Actually the answer came to me with the Story of Joseph. This is one we talk about a lot but was also one my littlest girls had in HOD. I was wanting to bring one child with me just so I did not have to go alone but I was struggling and prayed about it. God brought one word to my mind, Joseph, and I realized it would be selfish to put them through that and also would look like I was favoring one. I have seen the damage this does in my own family so I definitely do not want that for my kids. So instead right after I decided that God sent me a friend since sixth grade to talk with about it and two best friends, one of 25 years and one of 30 years, to come to the funeral with me. In fact one said she has her boat ready any time we need to escape and she lives in the same town my dad did and the other does not but is leaving Friday to spend the entire weekend there just to be there for me whenever I need her. God is so amazingly faithful to give us exactly what we need just when we really need it.

I leave early tomorrow for CA but I just wanted to share with you how faithful God has been in answering your prayers and to thank you so much for them. I never could have made it through this as well as I have without prayer. It has meant the world to me. So I just wanted to thank you. Also I ask one promise. No polls or anything like that on the new curriculum until I get back. I just don't want to miss anything.

[my3sons]

Oh w2w - I'm so glad to hear this! You are living out this verse...

14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
- Matthew 5:14-16

I'm so proud of you and the way you are handling this all! I'll continue to pray for you and for your family!

Love in Christ,
Julie

[gracelikerain]

Oh W2W,

I am so sorry for yor loss. Praying for you & your family.

hugs,

[water2wine]

I left my long ramble to Mary you can read as well if you have like an hour. But I just wanted to stop here and thank you all for your prayers. God brought me many blessings. I mentioned many already but one I just want to mention here because it applies to what I asked for prayer for really.

It is never more evident how lost people are for Him as when a loved one dies. They wanted people to speak at the funeral and honestly I had told them I was going to bow out because it was too hard to know what to say. See the last time I saw my dad face to face (thank God we spoke on the phone several times and I never told him how much he hurt me which I am glad now) he told me that I was ruining my children and putting too much on my husband by hsing. It was pretty horrible actually. It was just sort of out of the blue and very hard to hear. God put my old pastors words before my dad's on that day and it kept me basically silent which was good actually. But anyway being there where my dad lived in his house was sort of hard because of that being the last moment actually I saw my dad alive just as he let me off at the airport and I was having a hard time coming up with a speech so I just decided I would not. But an hour before we left for the funeral God just poured out of me the words and I wrote something that was very true and yet also very honoring to my father. God just showed me that the part of me that makes me kind of the rebel who would adopt four kids when everyone said I was crazy for doing it and hsing all six in the first place really does come from my dad. It turned into a talk about that and the parallel between what my earthly father had taught me and what my Heavenly father has showed me to teach my children.

That moment I think was the biggest witness to my family, though honestly it was not my intent at all, I was just saying what I knew God showed me to say. But it showed my strength in God and that God had given me the perfect words to say that not only comforted me but showed my forgiveness that is from The Lord, while it also honored my dad and comforted them. It also showed really that God spoke and I was only relaying that to them. Even they could not deny it because up to that point really I was broken on it and somehow God took that hurt and turned it into my strength and a blessing. It was a huge lesson that sometimes God allows us to be hurt by our family so we can come back and be a witness and that He will even turn that hurt into a blessing to show that our differences can really be our similarities and our strength for Him if we just allow it. I need to do that a lot more in my life. God really blesses it. Anyway it was the witness to them that came only from prayers of those praying for me to even have a witness to give and it came in a way I never would have expected but in that moment of doing what I even did not think I could do but God made it be through Him.

Thank you for your prayers. I am home and I am well. I did not accomplish all that I hoped but God did still work through me in my brokenness and some doors were opened. I am glad to be home though where things feel sane and I have my husband and all my six children that praise God know Him and know Him well. Your prayer meant a lot to me and just so you know they did not come back void.