Your Work Alone

Jesus, I come to You tonight simply wanting to be with You!! You are an awesome God that only does good and desires to bring glory to Your name alone. Your love never fails and Your grace is overflowing in abundance. You are enough for me!!!
Lord, You have given me such sweet honesty with others over the last couple of weeks. This is a theme of refreshment that keeps coming up in my pondering of Your goodness. You encouraged my heart and challenged me through my sweet "coffee time" with my mom when she was here. The honesty and humility is only a gift from You. Thank You for our relationship and the assurance I have that she lifts me up daily. What a blessing and evidence of Your faithfulness to have a mom that seeks, trusts, and pursues You. Thank You for her growth and continued dependence on You. Honest questions and hard truths over lunch with Rachel was truly a breath! Even being a bit distracted by Taylor and Nora, thank You for the conversation and prayer.  You are working and helping me realize I don't have to have everything figured out. I'm not guaranteed tomorrow, so all I seek to do is honor You in the moment that You have graciously granted. Rachel is a gift and her life is a joy to watch, be around, and be a part of. Realizing how you've grown and developed our friendship over the last 6 1/2 years is amazing!! From our very first conversations til now, Your Word and truth have been the foundation of our heart connection! Finally getting a time worked out with December was an answer to prayer. Thank You for a friend that shares so many joys and struggles. Our strengths and weaknesses are quite similar. The times of encouraging each other through them and pointing each other to the cross are precious to me! May we "spur one another own toward love and good deeds" (Heb. 10) as we meet together and pray together. Last night's community group was so real and honest that I had a hard time settling down when we got home (in a good way). Discussing how we can seek to help the unity in our group and in our church was so rich. The work that You have done in all of us to bring us to one mind is only by Your grace and only for Your glory. Continue growing our encouragement for each other and our accountability. And there's the priceless, amazing conversations with my best friend, my love, my mate!! I am overwhelmed with the man You've given me and the marriage You have grown and continue to grow between us. There are questions that we come before You with together. There are disagreements that we reconcile at the foot of the cross. There are sweet moments of care and affection that are only because of Your beauty and goodness. There are supportive and sacrificial moments that definitely don't come natural, but Your hand is molding us to be more like Jesus. The list goes on and on of how Your hand is on Matt and I. You are making us more and more dependent on You. You are the only reason that there are selfless times. You orchestrate our time together and our time apart. May our marriage reflect Your image and likeness. May You use it to show the world Your love for Your bride!!
Lord, the blog I read today on Desiring God about treasuring my children was exactly what I needed. Help me, Father, to treasure them and drink in the small moments BUT not dwell on them and make them my focus. I have no idea how to balance it all, but I want to point them to You! Thank You for helping bedtime seem less stressful. For giving me patience and an eye to overlook when reading to the girls. I get so frustrated when they don't listen to the Jesus Storybook Bible. I think it's because I am focused on the task at hand and sometimes missing the precious girls that I'm reading to and tucking in. Keep helping me to love on them and show them grace! And, I thank You, Jesus, for the season of life that the boys are in and simply reading verse by verse through the bible is enjoying. Talking to them about Enoch walking with God (Gen. 5) tonight was a moment to treasure. May Your Word be truth filled with joy for them to live by and not just facts that they store in their heads.
God, I thank You that soccer is over. It was fun, but the extra time at home will be nice. Help us use it to enjoy You as we enjoy each other. Thank You for keeping the boys safe and only one broken bone during the season (which had nothing to do with soccer)! Thank You for the friendships that grew and the ones that started by all the time spent at practices and games. Help Matt and I to always seek You before having our kids involved in anything. We want everything we do to help all of us be more in love with You and more about Your name and fame. We can never do this on our own! Help us, Jesus!!
God, thank You so much for choosing me, pursuing me, loving me, and calling me Your own. I am so aware of my wretchedness and conscious of the times I'm not loving You or trusting You. As frustrating as this is I'm seeing that it helps me be all the more be awed by the fact that by the blood of Jesus I am Your daughter! Only a good, perfect God could take a mess up like me and make her a princess. May I only boast in Your kindness and care. May I always stop to ponder the many ways that I am not and YOU ARE!!!
Father, You have me and are working out things in me that are all for good! This is the comfort that I must stand on! This is the place that I want to be! May I be found in the shadow of Your wings, in the refuge of Your presence!!