I love how God speaks.  Only HE could use a couple little boxes of raisins to convey His love to me! It sounds crazy, doesn’t it!  But sometimes He uses the little things to speak about something much bigger!

Lately, I’ve noticed that He’s been providing for me in these silly little ways…and it took me a while before I realized it was Him.  It started the other day when I was at Home Goods buying a gift card for someone to give to them as a gift.  I got home and realized that I had totally forgotten about a previous gift I had bought for this same person already!   I have an extra gift now!  So, I just stuck the gift card in my purse for the future.  The next day I remembered that I had wanted to bless my sister-in-law with a special Mother’s day gift, and not having any time to shop, I suddenly remembered the Home Goods gift card which was exactly what I had planned to get her!  Yay!  Perfect!  “What a coincidence,” I thought to myself.

Then, the next day I had bought groceries and when asked if I wanted cash back, I selected “yes” and got $20 out.  Now, this may NOT seem strange to you, but if you know me, you know I hardly ever carry cash…I do most everything with my debit card!  But for some reason, I selected the cash back option.  I had no plan for that cash.  That afternoon at my daughter’s volleyball practice, a mom came up to each of us wanting to know if we wanted to all go in on a gift for the coaches.  She said the recommended amount was $20.  “Yes!”  I remembered the cash back!  What perfect timing!!  I remember thinking to myself, “It’s like I’m prepared lately for things ahead of time without realizing it!”  This does not usually happen for me.

A few days later was Mother’s Day and we decided to go to the later service.  No sooner did we park the car and walk in but I felt SUPER hungry!  My Mother’s Day breakfast was long ago now, and I was feeling like I needed a second one!  Normally we are at the early service and breakfast is still sticking to my ribs!  But…this was later…it was closer to my lunch time now and my body knew it!  😉  We sat down and all I could think about was, “maybe I have some mints or some tic tac’s or something…”  I opened up my purse and was pleasantly surprised to see two little boxes of unopened raisins!!   It was like looking at a buffet in there!!  FOOD!!  🙂  A few days prior, I had put these in my purse thinking I would snack on them at work and totally forgot they were there!  Again with the little providing thing!  I was beginning to see a pattern…and I actually had to chuckle at this one! Were these just coincidences or was God saying something bigger to me?  I smiled.  Eating my delicious little raisins before church started, I already knew the answer.  God is just funny like that!

He’s providing…even before I ask.  He’s a step ahead of me and preparing the way so that when I get to the point where there is a need, He’s already provided the answer and the means.  It’s as if He’s reminding me, “Tami, don’t worry.  I’m already ahead of you.  I’ve got you.  I’ve got a good plan.  As you trust in Me, all of your needs from the smallest to the largest will be met even before you ask.”

All this because of a few silly little reminders from my purse! 😉

He has perfect timing too.  He even knew ahead of time that this week was not going to be one of my favorites.  😉  So what did He do?  He spoke this word to me beforehand.  Thoughts of those sweet raisins in my purse kept coming to mind.  Again…He’s one step ahead of me.

Song of Songs 2:5 “Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.”

It was 10:30 and I had just turned out the light to go to sleep.  My door opened and a light from the hall shone in.  Standing there frightened was my 8 year old daughter who burst into tears saying, “Mommy…my legs are hurting!!”  I sprang out of bed to see what was wrong and she was holding her legs crying!  I could feel panic trying to enter into my mommy heart!  I asked a million questions about the pains before consulting an expert…MY Mom…and it was SHE who said, “it sounds like it’s growing pains.  I used to get those as a kid, and boy did they hurt!”  She advised me to “google growing pains” and we discovered that all the symptoms my daughter was experiencing lined up with growing pains being the cause.  I gave her some children’s tylenol, we massaged her little legs and even had a little warm heating pad on them.  It was thirty minutes later and she was back in bed asleep.
I found out that according to WebMD, there is no evidence that growing pains are linked to growth spurts.  Instead they may simply be muscle aches due to intense childhood activities that can wear your child’s muscles out.  They are more common after a kid has a full day of sports.  From further research, I found out that although doctors don’t believe that growing causes pain, growing pains stop when kids stop growing.  By teen years, most growing pains have stopped.  My daughter had done a lot at the beach on Sunday with a lot of running and walking in sand, then there was P.E. at school and Softball practice on Tuesday…no wonder her muscles were tired!

Growing pains tend to begin around dinner time (which was true for her), and get worse at bedtime and then they may wake up with them in the middle of the night.  BUT by morning they are gone.  This was the case for our girl!  In the morning she felt great…and so did we! 😉

Growing pains.  That was a new one for us.

I was telling my hubby later the next evening that my shoulders felt sore from the day and with a smile, he leaned in and told me, “maybe it’s growing pains”!  Isn’t he a funny one…Ha!  But SUDDENLY a light went on in my head…Growing pains!!!  That’s it!!  I instantly felt a blog coming on!!  Forget the sore shoulders…where’s my laptop?!  Sometimes God can speak to us through the strangest things!

Most of you already know that this past year for us has been…well…different… to say the least.  We did not PLAN to walk the road we’ve been traveling on…and at times it’s been really hard to see what God’s plan was.  Could we be exhausted from so much use of our “faith muscles”?!!  Is it possible that we may have growing pains too?!! 😉  “Pressing on” can be hard at times especially when you are trusting God for what you don’t yet see.

I’m often reminded of Proverbs 16:9 which says, “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”  Sounds frustrating in a way…but if you know God’s heart to be one of love and a desire to bless, it’s actually a GOOD thing that He’s determining those steps!!  Sometimes God changes our plans because He knows stuff that we don’t!  🙂  Of course!  We all know that… but do we all know that He ALWAYS has a good end in sight for us?!  He is a loving Father so He wants what’s best for us…just as we want the best for our kids!

It’s easy to forget that though if we take our eyes off of Him…so it’s like walking on a path in THICK fog!!  We’ve been doing our best to trust God and see where the road leads us.   But, it has NOT been easy… and sometimes it’s felt rather painful… just like my daughter’s growing pains.  So we’ve come to our Heavenly Father sometimes in the middle of the night with tears in our eyes, “Daddy…can you help us?  We’re hurting.”  His answer is always soothing love, warm comfort (like that heating pad!), and REST for our aching muscles.  “Rest in Me,” He says with open arms.  “Trust Me,” He says.  “I’ve got this…and I’ve got you.”

Experiencing growing pains means that we are growing, right?  And that’s GOOD!!  This season has produced so much growth in us…if nothing else!  Let’s see… we’ve grown closer as a family.  I have heard that storms will either bring people closer or tear people apart…and we’ve become a strong little Pearson unit!  Our kiddos are learning to trust in God along with us on this journey…something that is SO IMPORTANT in this life!  We’ve also grown closer to Jesus as we’ve spent more time seeking His face…making it about loving HIM and not consumed by our circumstances. Our faith and trust in Him has grown as we’ve seen Him provide for us and bless us!  We are now seeing the fog clearing and things are beginning to fall into really cool places…many of which never would have happened had we NOT travelled down this foggy path!  Who knew?! 🙂

Well, I guess God did.

The best part of growing pains is that there is an end in sight…morning is coming!  God’s word tells us that “weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning!” (Psalm 30:5). God is so good at restoring and blessing and we are so excited to see what will unfold in the days ahead! We’re growing faster in this season…and that’s exciting!

Growing pains.

Who knew there’d be a blog in THAT?!?  Well… again, I guess God did. 😉