Surrender | Encouragement for Today

The Love Letter

There was a young couple who met, fell in love and married. As in all good love stories, they adored one another. Joe and Sally had a wonderful marriage. The only problem they faced was the war. They were in the middle of a world war and Joe knew that he soon we be called to serve.

The call came, and Joe accepted the call with honor. He was scheduled to leave in two weeks, and he wanted to make each moment count before he left. The couple had one small child with one on the way. He spent a lot of time with William and was hoping to spend time with the new baby someday.

Joe left. Sally and William heard from him almost daily. Suddenly the letters stopped. Two weeks passed, the four and soon eight weeks had passed without hearing a word from Joe. Sally was obviously concerned. She prayed and honestly assumed the worse.

Joe had indeed become a prisoner of war. He was told that he had the chance to write only one letter during his captivity. He carried a torn up piece of parchment paper with him for weeks, praying about what to write his expectant wife and son. Finally, with tears spilling down his face and hitting the paper, Joe wrote the letter.

Four weeks later, Sally trudged out to the mail box and there it was…a letter from Joe!! She ran into the kitchen, weeping with joy at the arrival of the letter. She ripped it opened as little William and her mother stared.

“Dearest Sally, William and family,

Daddy loves you more than words can adequately describe. I am a prisoner of war and I have one piece of paper to write one letter on. It is the only letter I am allowed to write and the last letter you may ever get from me. So, I have carried the blank paper around for a long time, praying about what to write to all of you. Sally, I love you with all my heart. Words cannot describe the unconditional love I have for you. I need you to love the children with all your heart. As William grows, let him know how much he is loved by his Abba Father. Teach him these things when he gets up in the morning, walks at noon along the creek and does his chores before bed. Our little unborn baby needs to be taught these things as well when she(hope) or he is able to understand. Spend time with them, tell them that I will love them forever. Talk to the banker about the money we have, pay off the bills, tithe weekly, share what eggs you can with the neighbors…..”

The letter went on to tell Sally everything she needed to know about life. As if Joe were right there with her. Sally read the entire letter, wept openly and folded it up, placing it near her heart. The next day, when she went into the bank, she got the letter out and did exactly what it said. When she and the children had questions (it was a girl, Grace) she unfolded the letter to see what Daddy said about the situation. Joe had not missed a thing. He had given her all the love and guidance she needed to go on. Everything had been filtered through love. She almost felt as though he was standing right there beside her as she made each and every decision.

And then the closing said…”I love you all, and will see you again soon. We will all be together someday. Everything I have written, all I have said with all the love I have in my heart for you….my wife, my children, my family, my friends, strangers…until we meet again..love to you…Daddy Joe.

Wow, what a letter of love. Can you imagine receiving this letter? Well beloved, we have gotten a letter like that….it is from our Father, our Abba, our Daddy…He has given us all we need to live out this life here on dart. His advice is given because of His deep love for us. Like the letter from Joe, He is right beside us..guiding us with His Holy Spirit.

Oh yeah, Joe did make it home! And so will Jesus.

Be blessed~

IN CHRIST ALONE
Isaiah 55:8-9

*google image, NIV Bible*

I had to Give Up!

I have told a number of “storm stories” due to the fact that: a.) we’ve lost our home twice to storms b.) there are great analogies about storms and life, c.) everyone experiences them at one time or another.

That being said, spring has sprung and with it those lovely spring storms, (note my sarcasm ). We have a funny story from our 25th Wedding Anniversary, and I hope we don’t have one from our 35th coming up, but I do have one from last Thursday!

It was our son’s birthday and we were at his home celebrating. We had to drive from his home in another town, to ours. We had kept track of the storm system, or so we thought, and knew we were in the clear.

Well, we weren’t in the clear. We drove down back country roads with water covering them and the rain was falling so hard my husband couldn’t see 2 feet in front of him. I know, we should have turned around, or pulled over…but we were concerned that with the rain falling as hard as it was we had better keep going!

Now, people who love us are understanding of my apprehension in storms, so my text messages began to arrive in the midst of it all! Basically to ask how I was…only to find out rather than taking refuge in our closet, we were driving in the area where a “rain wrapped” tornado was aloft. And since all the power was off in this area…the only light we had was the horrible lighting and our headlights.

So what do all good storm watchers do? I scanned the sky for that rain wrapped tornado! And of course, with every flash of lightning I saw one!!( not really) Although we both appeared and acted very calm, my heart was sending me another message.

“Give Up” was what I heard in my spirit, and what I said out loud. We began to laugh and figured that “third time might be a charm” and there was not a whole lot we could do about it anyway. We just kept driving through it and gave it up.

A peace fell over us like I cannot describe. It had not stopped, but our fears were surrendered. We laughed. We got home safely, only to see our poor pup at the window of a very dark house. He seemed no worse for the wear.

But we gave up….I gave up. I surrendered.

All was well, but even if something had happened…it would have been ok. It always has been, no matter what the storm brought before, it was always ok. I didn’t say it was easy, pleasant or that I wanted to experience it again…but it was ok.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..”

So what do you need to give up? What do you need to surrender? Might as well do it, it might be the season for laughing!

Blessings dear ones~

IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

*google image, NIV*