So lonely I could Praise the Lord...

This message from Katie was really spot on. Especially today on Mothers' day.

" Hello Tersia,
I raised my head when I felt my daughter silently embrace me as I lay sobbing on the chair in my room. I hadn't noticed she'd entered.

"Are you OK, Mommy?" she asked.

I nodded and we embraced. As I held her, I could feel the fear in her small frame and wanted to assure her that all was well. I managed to blubber

"Yes, Mommy's OK, I just miss my family."

It was the Fourth of July, a day we normally let pass silently by without much fuss. Life in Mexico continues on as normal, since it's not a holiday here. Our kids were small. They wouldn't know what day it was or the significance. It would have been easy to forget about it.

I shouldn't have opened Facebook or email today. After 3 years away, I knew what I'd find, but somehow I had hoped today would be different.

Our extended family were pic-nic-ing together, posting happy family photos of watermelons and homemade ice cream, of happy faces and group selfies of people I hadn't seen in years, of my beloved grandparents with their great-grands all around them. All of them, but my children, anyway.

No one had messaged us a holiday greeting or tagged us in the photos. They were having fun, making memories with the people I loved and missed the most. I enjoyed seeing their joy, but at the same time I felt forgotten and left out. Even worse, I felt like my children were being deprived of those fun family times and memories as well.

I thought I had given myself the chance to grieve my loss in private, but my daughter had found me.

In that moment, I had a choice.

If I chose to mention their oversight in not sending greetings I could make my daughter harbor bitterness towards my family. If I chose to complain that we couldn't be with them and of how unfair life was, I could influence her to be upset with God for allowing such circumstances.

Sadness is not wrong. Desires to be with those you love and feelings of loneliness are not wrong. But allowing them to create an excuse to choose bitterness and complaining is wrong.

I knew that even in my sadness and loneliness I could choose to praise the Lord:

To praise the Lord that he will never forget or forsake me. He is always near and is the healer of broken hearts (Psalm 147:3).

To praise him for allowing my family to have happy times together.

To pray for their joy and their day together.

To praise him for the fact that my immediate family is here with me now, safe and healthy and close.

To praise him that I can make memories with them, even in the absence of the others.

To praise him for all of the opportunities he gives my children because of where he has placed us to serve him.

Have you ever felt this way? Alone, lonely, even forgotten by someone you really cared about? It hurts. But how you choose to respond to that hurt can set the tone of your heart, your day, and your home to pouting, or to praise.

For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. 1 Samuel 12:22-24

The Lord will never forsake you. Bask in the glorious knowledge of his love and favor, and choose to Praise the Lord!

God bless you today, Tersia,

Katie

P.S Loving you long distance is a book from Katie I still need to read.