We’re friends, right? This morning as I was having a chat with Jesus about you, yes you, and I found myself wondering what’s going on in your life.
Each weekday morning I sit with the Lord to ask Him what to share with you and today I realized I rarely hear from you. I know some of you read my posts on Facebook or other social media and respond there, and others will email me or text me about the blog post, but very few of you actually click on comment and leave a message there.
I genuinely want to know what’s going on in your world.
How is your family? Are you happy with where you are in life right now? Are you going through something right now and just need someone to know and pray?
Proverbs 27:17 says,
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
We make one another better, but this only happens if we sharpen one another through relationship. In order to do so, we have to connect. I don’t want to be the only one talking here. I need to hear from you too. I want this relationship to be a give and take. I want you to engage in the conversation. As the saying goes,
No man (or woman) is an island.
So, today, I’m deferring to you. I want to know what’s going on in your life. Don’t comment on social media because if the post is shared by a friend of yours I may not see your comment. Be brave. Click the comment button, even if it’s your first time reading my blog, and let me hear from you. I promise if you do, I’ll be praying for you specifically by name.
Can’t wait to hear from you. Don’t leave me hanging. It can get lonely out here.
I’m currently a substitute teacher. I’ve interviewed for an additional part time job working with “at risk youth.” I feel like I could really make a difference with this position. I keep telling myself to put it into my Father’s hands. However, the thoughts keep bouncing back like a basketball thrown against a brick wall.
Elizabeth, I just prayed for you, for the Lord to open doors for employment opportunities and for you to have favor with those making decisions about the positions. At risk youth need people to come along side them and speak truth to them, to mine the gold in their lives and to be “through people” as I blogged about earlier. Keep me posted on the job situation. I’d love to hear how it all pans out.
Susan,
Thank you for the prayers! I got the job and started working this week as a lead teacher for at risk students in an after school program. Please keep me and my kids in your prayers.
Congratulations, Elizabeth! I’m so excited for you. Thank you for taking the time to reach back out to me and let me know how things turned out.
In my office getting things set up for a new school year. Excited to meet all my new students and reconnect with old. Can’t wait to see how I can pour God’s love into these precious people. I enjoy reading your posts. They fill me with good thoughts and questions to fuel my day!
Thank you for your kind words. I love knowing that God’s children are strategically placed in schools. The youth of today have so many negative things thrown at them an nay-sayers telling them what they can’t do and aren’t good at and pushing them down. I am so very thankful for the teachers who pushed my children to be all they can be. I loved the years I taught in the classroom. Praying for God to impart to you all your students need this year and to fill you up for all you pour out to them.
Hi, Susan! We’re going through a stressful patch at our house right now, so thanks for asking. My father-in-law just passed away, and my husband is executor of the estate. We are the closest family to my mother-in-law though we live 2 1/2 hours away from her. She insists she can stay alone in her home which has us all worried sick. My husband has spent a few weeks with her already, during his dad’s sickness and during the week of the funeral, but he will have to make frequent return trips handling aspects of the will as well as trying to make sure his mom is as safe as she will let him help her be. I know so many folks our age have to deal with the struggles of aging parents, so we are in no way unique. But this is pretty darn stressful and worrying. Other than that, we’re doing fine. My older son is about to start his senior year of high school, and his little brother will be a freshman. So our plates are a bit full right now. And how are you doing? I hope you and your beautiful family are well, and I’m praying for you and your Hopes!
Mary, I feel your pain with aging parents. While my mom is not a widow, she does have to care a great deal for my daddy. He has issues with his legs that have made him very dependent on her. My mother-in-law is a widow and lives in my husband’s hometown. My brother-in-law is also 2 1/2 hours away, while we are 7. It’s hard. You don’t want to take over their lives if they are still able to manage, but you worry. The good news and the blessing is that the Lord looks over us and all we love. Our saving grace is my parents have great neighbors and my mother-in-law lives in an assisted living facility and has friends , who are younger, who step in when we can’t.
With regard to your son, hold on tight, because your life is about to hit the fast forward button. I never knew the senior year would be such a blur. Now mine are a sophomore and senior in college. The days may seem long but the years go so fast. For me, the days seem to fly by too. Praying for you as you live in the sandwich generation, taking care of loved ones on both sides.
We are busy. I have some exciting news about the ministry I’ll share soon. Some of my Hopes are struggling. It’s the battle of restoration from the life, two steps forward and sometimes one step back. I’ve come to learn regression is part of progression and I just love them through it all. Thank you for asking and for praying for my girls.
At O’Hare Airport. Returning to ATL after a 3-day trip to western Illinois and Iowa that required a three hour drive across Illinois. After 34 years of consulting I am well into my 2nd million miles of air travel. In May I asked Stonebridge to pray that my future will be local work with a 10-minute commute. Would appreciate your prayers as well.
Steve, I’d be honored to pray for you to be able to put work roots down locally. Consider it done!
Thank you for asking. I read your blog every day you post something, and I appreciate your thought-provoking insights. I often forward your post to my husband and/or my sister. Sometimes I also share one on FB. I am especially challenged by your posts on being a “through” person and on stepping into the fight against trafficking in whatever way I can. I am a very quiet, reserved person, and I tend to live in the “right here, right now,” so I do not really have a lot of long-time or life-long friends besides my immediate family. I am definitely a “through” person for my seven (grown) children, but other than that, I am kind of isolated. I am at a place in life where I have some major decisions to make, and it’s scary. I have been a homeschooling mom for a very long time (my oldest is almost 33; my youngest just turned 18), and now I am moving into a new phase of life. I earned my nursing degree in 1981, and I just got relicensed to practice nursing. I have not begun job hunting yet as there have been things I’ve wanted to do before starting a job, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that there will always be something else to do. Am I just avoiding the challenge? Perhaps. Please pray that I can hear God’s leading about if, when, and where to work in nursing. Thank you.
Susie, I became an empty nester last year. That’s a season when so many think they’re done, but I found it to be a time of new beginnings and a season of adventure with the Lord like no other season in my lifetime. I’m excited for you and can’t wait to see where the Lord leads you. Please go on my free resources link on the website, http://www.susannorris.org, and find the one for medical personnel. You may very well be a front line person in the anti-trafficking movement by doing nothing more than your job as a nurse. One recent study showed that 88% of the survivors surveyed had been seen by medical personnel and no one questioned them at all about their safety or reached out to help them in any way. How exciting that you could turn out to be that light in the midst of their darkness. Wherever the Lord has you, I know you’ll be a blessing to those you serve. I’m praying for you, Please keep in touch with me and let me know where you land. God has BIG things ahead of you, girl. Hold on tight!
Hello my sweet Susie-Q! Just hopping in to say I love you and cherish your friendship! Pray for my family…you know we always need a good word with the BIg Guy…..especially my crazy crew! 🙂
Will do, Laura. God is faithful and He knows what you need and how and when you need it. Love you too!
Hi Susan, loved your post about being a through person!
My husband and I are ‘churchless’ right now and have been for over seven years. We used to serve in ministry at a church, my husband on the board plus other jobs and I was head of a children’s ministry. Painful things happened on top of becoming ‘burned out’ and the pastor decided he had no need for us anymore and we left. We were also shunned by all our friends there and that hurt worse than having to leave. We have worked through the hurt and anger and have forgiven all involved.
As much as I want to become part of a church again, my husband has little interest. We have visited many churches and have not found one that is close to home; two we liked enough to go back to are both an hour away – more in the winter. Please pray that we find a church that fits, and near home! Thanks!
Bless you, sweet friend. I totally understand because our church has become a triage for people who have come through similar situations. Healing takes time and the willingness to risk. I’ll be praying your husband and you come into agreement on where to land. Praying for healing for you both.
Just returned home after med school shopping with my daughter. Such an exciting time! On the other hand, we are dealing with our son’s increasing bipolar symptoms. Psych problems are so challenging to work through. Some divine wisdom would be so very welcome.
I can only imagine the two extremes that you’re dealing with and how you’re trying to find the place of rest in the midst. I have not personally had to deal with a family member who has been diagnosed with bipolar, but I have walked along side friends who have. It is not easy. I will lift you and your family in prayer. Please keep me posted. I really mean that. I want to pray for him, for your family and for God to heal him from the enemy’s torment.
Isaiah 53:$ says, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” I believe psychological illnesses were a part of those infirmities He took to the cross. Therefore, we can ask the Lord to take your son’s bipolar diagnosis to the cross and deliver him from it. Hang in there. Find support for yourself as you walk through this. No one is ever intended to walk through difficulty alone.
Hi! I haven’t been reading here lately but I really like your blog and what you post. It’s very informative and inspiring. Thank you for opening this path for the rest of us to know about h.t. For me I have been doing ok but could be better. Just many changes going to happen and I don’t know if I want these changes in my life because I’m okay, but not fully challenged in my faith. My husband has decided that he wants to go into pastoral ministry. Can I say that I am selfish, honestly I want to deter this… I feel awful but I’m not ready to be what people want me to be… Please pray for me to be obedient in what God has called my husband to do and for us to surrender our lives to His kingdom work. Thank you!
Mel, thank you for being so transparent. I know what it’s like to feel like you’re not up to the task God has called you to and wanting it to go away. I ran from writing Rescuing Hope, from working with sex trafficking and from taking a more recent step, establishing a nonprofit. Saying “yes” makes you vulnerable. You feel like one of those ducks on a ledge at the fair just waiting for someone to shoot at you.
If the Lord has called you and your husband into pastoral ministry, then He has a boat load of promises you can trust. My encouragement to you is to cling to the Word and trust what it says. God will equip you for whatever He calls you to do (Hebrews 13:21). He will never leave you alone to find your way on your own (Deuteronomy 31:6,8). He will guide your steps and direct your path (Proverbs 3:5-6). And one of my all time favorites, if He calls you to it, then He’s on the hook to make it work (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
Keep me posted!