Bread Crumb Thoughts

It has been an absolute joy having my mama here this past week. She leaves this afternoon and I want to cry just thinking about it. I never cry (maybe once or twice a year)...something most of you already know about me but, as I have gotten older I am noticing that when my heart hurts, my eyes well up with tears much more than they used to. There is nothing like the love between family and I am so blessed that my husband's family lives out here in NC with us. It would be SO lonely if we were out here with no family. Now if only I could convince the rest of my family to migrate out here.

My mom and I have such awesome talks about the Lord and how He is working in our lives and the lives of people around us. In one such conversation we were discussing the trials we have faced in our lives and trying to determine at what point God brought us through them and when the relief came. In a way I am going through a bit of a season or trial right now, so as I sat there I thought about how God is guiding me through this and I likened it to being given a trail of bread crumbs. For me, relief from life's hard times is rarely resolved in one fail swoop but, more often God gives me bread crumbs of hope, encouragement, light, strength, peace and joy to remind me that He has not forsaken me and that He is still carrying me through. He doesn't remove me from pain and suffering as these things are unfortunately a part of life, but He walks through it with me. When I was pregnant with our daughter I was beyond overwhelmed by the things we needed to buy and save for. There was no way in my Earthly thinking that I could fathom how we could get all of our ducks in a row so to speak before our child arrived. Just when I felt like I was at an emotional breaking point or physical breaking point God would bless us with a package on the door step, a check in the mail, a work commission that was unexpected, an encouraging word from a friend etc. God didn't give me the entire piece of bread instantly like a genie and fix all of my problems but, he gave me pieces of the bread to guide me through the trial and get me to the other side. The same is true for this season. My mom and I picked her plane ticket out months ago long before we knew how crazy this time would be for me. Work has been insanely busy and my life feels maxed out in general lately. To top it off, I realized that I have Mastitis again and all last night I fought through intense fever/chills/aches and almost blacked out this morning from dehydration. I crawled to my mom's room (yes, literally crawled because I was blacking out) and asked her get Daisy off of the floor where I had left her because I didn't have the strength to pick her up. In spite of how awful I felt, I couldn't help but, be in complete awe of God's perfect timing! He knew that I would need my Mom here to help me when I needed it most. He knew I would need her ears to bounce off my worries and stresses, that I would need her love to encourage me through my heaviness and that I would need her hands to support me through my illness. I would never have known that these things would happen or that I would feel this burnt out and I simply bought a ticket that was on sale but, God knew and His timing is impeccable! This season isn't over by any means but, God is faithfully providing me with bread crumbs to lovingly guide me through. What a great and mighty God we serve! In what ways does God work in your life when you are in the midst of a trial or a rough patch?