Laughing in Church

I almost laughed out loud twice in church this past weekend. I thought I would share the story here not only because it is funny but also because it illustrates how much God loves us and laughs with us too. 

I arrived at church with a lot on my mind. We are going on a trip soon. We are driving 529 miles north to my parents’ house to drop off my daughter, and then my husband and I are getting on an airplane to attend a military course. Spouses are invited for the first week for professional development, while my husband's course is three weeks. After I complete the course I am flying back to my parents’ house to pick up my daughter and drive us both home. In addition to thinking about all of my travel, I was also thinking about my wardrobe. Somehow I need to turn my homeschool mom uniform of well-worn workout clothes, jeans, t-shirts, ratty cardigans, and tennis shoes into a week’s worth of business casual attire. Just that morning I had opened a package containing ankle boots I had ordered on-line (they don’t carry my size 11s in many stores), and they didn’t fit! My toes were squished and my heels were sliding all over the place. Back to the drawing board! Finally, I was also thinking about how to find healthy, gluten-free food (I was diagnosed with celiac about a year ago) while traveling, staying in a hotel, and attending classes all day. 

With all of that on my mind, I sat down at Sunday School. We were reading from Genesis 12 and 13, which is where God calls Abram to go and promises to bless him. Our Sunday School teacher stopped us at Genesis 12 verses 7 and 8 where we see Abram, in the midst of his travels, stopping twice and building an altar to worship God. She challenged us to think about our minivans and our travels and what it would look like to stop and worship God in the middle of it all. And I laughed. What a timely word!

Then during the church service, our new pastor read from Matthew 6:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith? (Matthew 6:25-31).

Two timely reminders in one day! What could I do but laugh! I can be a worrier, and I often go to those verses for a reminder that God will care for me and I don’t need to worry. But I don’t think I have ever read them when I could have answered the question “what are you most worried about?” with the answer “well, I am worried about what I am going to wear and what I am going to eat”.

Thank you God for providing not just the food and clothes I need, but also providing laughter and the right words to steer me onward!

First dandelion of the year in our yard.

Do turkey vultures count as
birds of the air?

There is a songbird in this picture,
you will have to take my word for it.

I finished making cookies for a Valentine's party
in time to go shopping again. Hopefully these
boots look as good with dress pants as they do
with these leggings from my homeschool mom
uniform LOL.