He uses 'weak' things...

I've felt so especially 'weak' lately, my faults seeming magnified in front of me. I've ached over my mistakes, the tasks I've left undone, or visits I haven't been able to make (2 friends in the hospital last week) and my heart has only hoped for Heaven's pardon.

Sunday afternoon when I got frustrated with one of my children, my own faults and shortcomings seemed more than I could bear and a literal weight set in on top of me. Now how to accomplish my tasks? It seemed my strength was sapped. Completely.

Thankfully a kind Lord knows and sent a friend to visit the next day. By the end of our fun and stimulating conversation I was lifted again - felt fresh and renewed like the flowers she had brought me. But of course by late night, when all my responsibilities were not done and exhaustion was setting in so did my feelings of 'weakness'.

My husband came to my rescue and said he would teach the seminary lesson this morning. And through the things he taught, as I quietly made the breakfast he usually provides for our family and the students, I learned the lesson I needed to remember.

"The Lord can use the 'weak things of the earth' to accomplish His great works." We studied Gideon whose 'family was poor in Manasseh', who said he was 'the least in [his] father's house'. He only had 300 men, but their hearts were right, and with the help of the Lord, they defeated the armies of the Midianites.

After class I sat down to type a quote from the seminary manual for the students to keep. As I reread it, I recommitted myself to remembering and believing it. "The Lord can do remarkable miracles with a person of ordinary ability who is humble, faithful, and diligent in serving the Lord and seeks to improve himself. This is because God is the ultimate source of power."

I do believe it. With all my heart. "The Lord is my strength" has become our family's familiar saying when we have to arise at 4 am to accomplish the days work, or when my husband is called to operate late into the night after an already overfull and exhausting day, or when we do not know which of the 5 most pressing needs of the hour we should try to accomplish first.

We have come to know that turning to the Lord for help, strength, and wisdom beyond our own yields great and real rewards. Somehow He always parts our own personal 'Red Sea' and and sees us through.

Thankful to remember that this morning.

Love, CaMarie