Time for a New Reel in the View Master

You remember View Master's don't you?  Red with two eye pieces you look through?  Stick in a round card, a reel, with little square pictures in it, usually words underneath describing what you were looking at.  I liked the one God had placed in mine years ago.  I loved pulling the handle down and viewing the images!!  Click.  I knew just how everything was going to go.  But now.......


We are a family in turmoil at the moment.  The thing is it's nothing huge so we can run in and fix "it".  It's a pile of little things which makes it SO much harder to tackle!  Just when you think you've got one beat, three others are jumping you from behind and two more are lurking in the corner, in the dark, waiting.  They're insidious.  Money, work, clutter, teen issues, a house that is just too small, a mom that has had to go back to work--tries to be a good sport about it, but is a disgruntled worker;  a dad who is ready to work on projects, not homework-----in a word or two:  hope deferred.  That's us.


GULP.  As I write that it dawned on me, literally, how accurate it truly is.  AND where that verbage comes from.  Proverbs 13:12  "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." NIV.  WOW! 


There are indeed tons of spiritual applications here and I can draw them out easily.  But you know what strikes me the most RIGHT NOW.  God gets it.  He understands this part of being human too.  He included disappointment right there in the Bible, so when I got disappointed and overwhelmed He didn't scould me for it He simply said He understood.  And then he moved on to the next verse.  He also said when your longing was fulfilled that felt AWESOME! (Yeah, I paraphrased.)


  Now I feel completely comfortable going to the Word looking for comfort for my 'sick heart' over stuff that someone else might try and tell me I should look at the 'bright side' over.  God didn't.  He said--"hope deferred makes a heart sick".  He didn't tell me; "but look at how many years you had at home with your kids!"  Or, "at least you have a nice house."  Or, "You could always take your kids out of that school, or not take a vacation," or fill in the blank.    He has lots of instructions and guidance, but right here He just says---I KNOW that hurts when you don't get what you hoped for and it feels great when you do.  Period. 


For today that's what I needed from my God.  Just like someday's I don't want my husband to try and 'fix' the problem just listen and tell me he's sorry I have one.  Thanks God for speaking that so clearly into your daughter's disappointed heart this morning.


I'll be back; I'll pick up the reel You now have laying on the table and slide it in the View Master.  I'm sure the pictures will become pleasing over time as well.  It'll be just as fulfilling; it just won't look like the ones You gave me a few years ago and I'll need some time to get used to the new scenery.  However,You are good about letting me get my balance when things look blurry.  Thank you Father.  Click.