Two Joys and a Struggle
Along the lines of the ice breaker "Two Truths and a Lie and Five Joys and a Jitter," I suggested this group share "Two Joys and a Struggle" with one another.
For us, we face Sunday mornings with the expectancy that some things are going to go wrong, but God is greater than any struggle and will see the service through.
Last week, no sooner had my husband pulled off our 1/2 mile long driveway onto the first street towards church than a black bear lumbered across the road in front of him. When he slowed to grab his phone for a photo that bear took off!
An hour later I followed and as I entered the church lobby that were children screaming "a bird, a bird is in here" and a mother and large group of children were trying to catch a beautiful white tagged dove. After a teenager caught the bird, she said, "This bird belongs to someone, what should we do with it." Fortunately, her mother quickly replied, "Let it go so it can fly back to where it belongs." Flash forward 3 hours and as 500 people were leaving church that dove was walking back and forth on the sidewalk in front of the church.
Our worship leader was out of the country with one of our mission teams and I noticed an unfamiliar young man at the tea/coffee bar with ear phones and went over to introduce myself. It was his first day at our church and he was a soloist on the worship team. I asked how I could pray for him and he said, "Please pray for my throat!" Oh lawsie. I prayed over him right away.
The morning escalated as both of our children's area "check in" computers ran out of name tag tape and there were no refills, so we were scrambling to get 97 children tagged. Fortunately, our daughter who is full of grace and welcoming, was heading up check in and she smiled her way though this.
As I went to get pens, both pen dispensers in the area were gone and when a little girl came out needing a band-aid, the first aide kit for that area had been moved. Tiny little devil darts of discouragement began to dampen a day that was already receiving drizzle. I will be honest, I absorbed very little of the sermon or worship time. I let the enemy steal my joy and peace over things that are not of eternal value.
Two people commented later that I didn't seem myself. There was a bear, a bird, a bad throat, no band-aide and a computer bumble the resulted in no Boojoyful. Writing to you now it's easy to list off five struggles, but I need to be intentional to find the joys.
Praise the Lord, my husband didn't hit the bear.
Priase the Lord, there was a teenager excited about catching a bird with her hands.
Praise the Lord it was a bird and not a snake!
Praise the Lord, the only medical problem Sunday was a little girl needing a new band-aid and I was able to find one.
Praise the Lord a woman saw me looking through some discombobulated first aid kits and volunteered to take them home this week and replenish them. Then she texted she even purchased a whole new kit to have on hand.
Praise the Lord, the new worship team member had an incredible voice and was delightful to meet. His other prayer request was for his wedding in November!
Praise the Lord our missions team landed safely in Romania.
Praise the Lord not one person complained about the name tags and I had a secret stash of stick on name tags for other events in my husband's office!
Praise the Lord for all the people who came into church excited to worship Jesus and learn about God's Word.
Praise the Lord for our greeter and welcome desk team who handled everything else while I was trouble shooting.
Halleluia, praise the Lord!
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4:4
The Song (Okay. this is this week's new favorite video of mine!)
"Praise the Lord" by Micah Typer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DXGozXslIg
