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Beautiful Song

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What I Know

October 27, 2010 By Chantel Brankshire

27 Oct

I don’t know about tomorrow. Sometimes I wish that I did.

I don’t know whether or not the sun will shine, or it will rain again.

I don’t know if times will  get easier or if we’ll lose all we’ve got left.

I don’t know if anything will change, or if everything will. Sometimes I wish that I knew.

But I don’t know even a tiny detail about the future.

What I do know is that I serve a God who is more than faithful.

I know that He is able.

I know that He is good.

I know that He does not forget.

I know that His way is best.

I know that He stands behind His promises.

I know that He is Jehovah Jireh– the God who has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we can’t even imagine.

I know that whatever happens today, whatever happens tomorrow, He will take care of us.

Most of all I know that He knows.

He knows our needs before we ask.

He knows the desire of our hearts.

He knows what we can take.

He knows the little things that mean so much to us.

He knows what is best, more than anything.

He knows about tomorrow and He holds it, and each day of our future- in His hands.

jehovahjirehTroubles come like rainstorms sometimes. They come in torrents and soak everything. They leave a chill that lingers after the rain is gone.  But the same water that drenches the land, waters the seeds so that life may go on. So that when the sun shines, new life will spring up. Flowers will bloom and birds will sing again. And every little droplet becomes a diamond of hope in the sun.

“Worry is blind. It cannot see the future.“

But He can. God already know exactly how it’s going to turn out. And out of our circumstances, out of our failures, out of our troubles, He sees how beautiful He is going to make it in the end.

And so I trust Him. With yesterday’s brokenness, today’s fears, and tomorrow’s unknowns. With the sorrows and with the joys. With life’s unpredictable twists and turns and with the uncertainty that it brings.

I trust Him with my heart. My life. My family. My home. My abilities. My everything.

And He gives, and gives and gives. Wisdom for this moment. Strength for today. Bright hope for tomorrow.

I know this. I’ve tasted it. Experienced it. Lived it. And I know it is true. And that is all that really matters.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: ebenezers

How God Provided During Our Extended Unemployment

September 11, 2010 By Chantel Brankshire

11 Sep

Scott and I were unemployed for the better part of two years. Almost no income for months at a time made everyday life difficult. With many in the nation unemployed, finding any kind of job wasn’t easy. For so many reasons, we shouldn’t have made it. But we did.

Our little savings inevitably ran out long before work showed up. We pinched pennies in every way I could think of. We did without a lot of things that usually no one even thinks about. We lived on next to nothing. But one day, there was just nothing left.  Scott and I looked at each other and one of us finally said it. “We’re not going to make it this time, are we?”

That was a terrifying moment. An empty bank account and a nearly bare pantry were intimidating. But the unknown was what weighed the most. Though we were applying for literally every job available in the region, there was no way to know if we’d get work tomorrow or a year from then. We couldn’t pay rent and utilities with air. At the end of the month, I knew the bits of money we’d earned doing odd jobs that month would still not be enough. There was just no way we could pay our bills and eat on that amount of money.

I can’t tell you how many times we prayed for something to happen, for a change. And especially for grace to accept no change.

And something did happen.

I still can’t explain it. It felt as if somehow angels had stretched our little bit of money to be just what we needed. Not more, but just enough to pay our rent and our electric bill. After the first month or two, I knew it would be hard but we’d be okay.

But God didn’t just leave it at that. It seemed like every time things got really impossible, God provided unexpectedly.

Once a bright green envelope addressed in handwriting I didn’t recognize showed up in our mailbox. When we tore it open, five $20 bills fell into my lap along with a little note. Tears blurred our eyes as we read it: “God will provide all your needs”. It was the amount we needed to pay our bills that month Most people had no idea how bad off we were. I can only wait for heaven to tell this unknown friend what their gift meant to two worn-out hearts that day. There was no return address.

Things like this happened more than once. Unexpected money from unexpected places. Random jobs here and there when we needed it most. Extra coupons and free produce when our grocery money was low. Boxes of “samples” of Scott Personal Products on the very day we ran out of toilet tissue.

The little ways that God used to provide for our needs is endless.

In the time of our greatest need, God provided.

  • Physically, for “He who gave us life, knows well our needs to sustain it.”
  • Mentally, for “if any of you lack wisdom…. it shall be given him.”
  • Spiritually, for “He is able to keep us from falling.”

There is nothing too hard for Him. No circumstance. No brokenness. No distance. No question. No confusion. Nothing that He is not able to provide just the strength and grace we need to face it.

It wasn’t just the mysterious money or the unexpected odd jobs and freebies that created this melody of God’s provision. He let me experience just how limitless He truly is when it comes to answering prayers.

Half way through our unemployed season, I was exhausted, discouraged, stressed. I’d been brave and tried to trust and hope for so long. I did believe God would take care of us, but my heart was just so incredibly weary of the daily struggle to just make it one more month. There were people who had big needs, and I had nothing to give. For some reason, that day, it was too much. I ran to my favorite thinking place to cry. I just asked God to just show me in some really tangible way that He still knew how hard it felt right now.

The next morning, I got an email from a stranger who lives far away. She apologetically said she hoped I wouldn’t think this very strange, but that she’d dreamed of a young woman who was distressed about not being able to buy food. In her dream, she offered to pray, and as she began to pray she suddenly recognized the face of the woman from a blog she read sometimes. It was my face.  She woke up and immediately wrote out her prayer and emailed me.

What she prayed for in her dream and that email where the three things that I’d cried for the night before. I was speechless. There was no possible way she could have known to pray for any of those things. Only God could have reached across the ocean and given her that dream to pray for us. It was exactly what I needed to restore my courage and hope and I will never forget it.

I learned a lot during our time of being unemployed. I gained a new perspective about frugal living and a new perspective about trusting God.

I learned that our perspectives are limited. God is never limited.

He can reach to the other side of the world and touch the heart of a stranger to intercede on our behalf. He can multiply the little that we have and make it into enough. He may allow hard times. He’s never promised that we will never struggle.

He has promised that He will be faithful and that He will provide for us. Today, I don’t just believe it is true. I know without a single doubt that what He said is true. We experienced it.

Hard days don’t last forever, even though they feel like they will.

Eventually, our days of unemployment came to a close.  And with my husband’s first month on the job, the random and unexplained ways that we “just made it” each month mysteriously ended too.

Not every day is easy now. But when things get tight, or when I feel like we’ll never get where we need to be, I go to my desk and pull out that little green envelope with no return address. I re-read that email. I open my journal. And I know everything is going to be okay.

Just exactly like He promised.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: my stories, surviving unemployment

Thankful All Year

November 27, 2009 By Chantel Brankshire

27 Nov

A long time ago, I started a little habit. I wanted to know if it was possible to find joy in every single ordinary day. What I got out of it was not just a list of little, happy things but a new perspective. Looking for thankfulness became my favorite game. Gratitude literally carried me through some of the hardest times of our life.

It’s not magic. It’s simply intentional gratitude. It’s pausing in the middle of crazy days to notice the way the sun makes raindrops look like diamonds. It’s spending a few moments on the front porch after dark just to enjoy the fireflies. It’s taking a deep breath when life is hard and thanking God for the sunrise.

 

thankfulallyear

I call this my joy journal. My record of beauty.

  • Because, the saying that says there’s a golden side to every cloud…its true.
  • Because the sayings that say that no matter how dark the day, there’s always a glimmer… its true.
  • Because the saying that there is something beautiful about every day…its true, too.

And it is amazing on days when my heart feels blue, what a pick up it is to go back and read my little lists of thankfulness.

Thankfulness isn’t about Thanksgiving Day or one single day out of the year. It’s about being intentional about being thankful all year long.

How we view life is made up so much of what we look for on the days when we feel the least like being thankful. Gratitude inspires hope and keeps joy alive.

So this year, I want to challenge you. Start a joy journal. Be intentional about daily gratitude.

Make it your goal this year to focus on beauty, on goodness, on blessings, and give your heart every reason- no matter what circumstances may bring- to be truly thankful.

Not just in November, but every single day of the year.

Filed Under: Happy Holidays Tagged With: thanksgiving

Thorns & Roses

October 15, 2009 By Chantel Brankshire

15 Oct

A long time ago,  a friend sent me this story. It touched me deeply.  Blogging was very different than it is now, and I published it here so that I would never loose it. I wish I knew who wrote it and could link instead to an original source.

But I don’t want to take it down because what the story is about means a lot to me still And I kind of think that a lot of others may need to read it this season as much as I do.

——

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes when she pulled open the florist shop door, against a November gust of wind. Her life had been as sweet as a spring breeze and then, in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a “minor” automobile accident stole her joy. This was Thanksgiving week and the time she should have delivered their infant son. She grieved over their loss.

Troubles had multiplied. Her husband’s company “threatened” to transfer his job to a new location. Her sister had called to say that she could not come for her long awaited holiday visit. What’s worse, Sandra’s friend suggested that Sandra’s grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer. “She has no idea what I’m feeling,” thought Sandra with a shudder. “Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?” she wondered. “For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life, but took her child’s?”

“Good afternoon, can I help you?”

Sandra was startled by the approach of the shop clerk. “I . . . I need an arrangement,” stammered Sandra.

“For Thanksgiving? I’m convinced that flowers tell stories,” the clerk told her. “Are you looking for something that conveys ‘gratitude’ this Thanksgiving?”

“Not exactly!” Sandra blurted out. “In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.”

Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the clerk said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.”

Then the bell on the door rang, and the clerk greeted the new customer,

“Hi, Barbara, let me get your order.” She excused herself and walked back to a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and what appeared to be long-stemmed thorny roses. Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped: there were no flowers.

“Do you want these in a box?” asked the clerk.
Sandra watched – was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers! She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed.

“Yes, please,” Barbara replied with an appreciative smile. “You’d think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn’t be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again,” she said, as she gently tapped her chest.

Sandra stammered, “Ah, that lady just left with . . . uh . . . she left with no flowers!”

“That’s right,” said the clerk. “I cut off the flowers. That’s the ‘Special’. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet. Barbara came into the shop three years ago, feeling much as you do today,” explained the clerk. “She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had just lost her father to cancer; the family business was failing; her son had gotten into drugs; and she was facing major surgery. That same year I had lost my husband,” continued the clerk. “For the first time in my life, I had to spend the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too much debt to allow any travel.”

“So what did you do?” asked Sandra.

“I learned to be thankful for thorns,” answered the clerk quietly. “I’ve always thanked God for the good things in my life and I never questioned Him why those good things happened to me, but when the bad stuff hit, I cried out, ‘Why? Why me?!’ It took time for me to learn that the dark times are important to our faith! I have always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of my life, but it took the thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort! You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.”

Sandra sucked in her breath, as she thought about what her friend had tried to tell her. “I guess the truth is I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.”

Just then someone else walked in the shop.

“Hey, Phil!” the clerk greeted the balding, rotund man. “My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement . . twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems!” laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.

“Those are for your wife?” asked Sandra incredulously. “Do you mind telling me why she wants a bouquet that looks like that?”

“Four years ago, my wife and I nearly divorced,” Phil replied. “After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord’s grace and guidance, we trudged through problem after problem, the Lord rescued our marriage. Jenny there (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she had learned from “thorny” times. That was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific “problem” and give thanks for what that problem taught us.”

As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special!”

“I don’t know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life” Sandra said to the clerk. “It’s all too . . . fresh.”

“Well,” the clerk replied carefully, “my experience has shown me that the thorns make the roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember that it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don’t resent the thorns.”

Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on her resentment.

“I’ll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please,” she managed to choke out.

“I hoped you would,” said the clerk gently. “I’ll have them ready in a minute.”

“Thank you. What do I owe you?”

“Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The first year’s arrangement is always on me.”

The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. “I’ll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you would like to read it first.”

It read:

“My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns.
I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more brilliant.”

Praise Him for the roses; thank Him for the thorns.

“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.”

Filed Under: Happy Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving

November 21, 2007 By Chantel Brankshire

21 Nov

thanksgivinghappy

A Thanksgiving prayer of Thanks

I’m thankful Lord, for joys
You’ve given me through this year.
They’ve brightened every moment
And brought me so much cheer.

They’ve given me a picture
Of your great, deep love
And your tender watch care
From your home in Heaven above.

I’m thankful Lord, for trials,
Painful though they may be,
They’ve brought me closer to your side,
And helped me to  better see

Just how much I need you,
In every moment of my day
To gently lead me always forward
In what I know is your perfect way.

I’m thankful Lord, for all you’ve done
To keep me  safe through this year.
I’m thankful for all little the blessings,
And for your presence I know is near.

-Chantel Harding Brankshire (2006)

Filed Under: Happy Holidays Tagged With: poetry, thanksgiving

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