We Are “In Trouble” and Respect Dare 35…

Tears leaked, slid down dry cheeks, dripped onto my shirt.

Permanent kidney damage was likely for a dear friend of mine, one who spent time serving our ministry weekly. After 5 days in the hospital, she was home, still fighting the infection that refused to bow to modern medicine. She was worn. Tired. Sick.

I cried hard, not just for her, but for the others on our team, all precious to me, who are struggling. In the last two weeks, we’ve experienced revelations of addiction, major illnesses, death, and calls to service that are mind-blowing and exhausting. One mom, sensed the leading of the Spirit to check on a loved one – and had to apply rescue breathing and make a 911 call to save her child’s life. Another’s marriage is in shambles, another dealing with abuse, others with painful infections, many with financial surprises. And most of us are experiencing major relationship challenges.

Nearly daily, I hesitate to open email or text, for fear of what’s coming next.

And then… I remember.

I remember Job, and Moses, and Esther. I remember Jacob, Rachel, and Abigail. I marvel at Abraham and Sarah. I remember the 11 that were martyred – and specifically, Peter, whom is my favorite of them all, because I’m just like him in so many ways. Full of vigor, enthusiasm and drive, but when things got hard, he took the easy way out – and quit. I love that Christ called him back anyway, and he was willing to grow, to wait, to learn. Just like the rest of them in the Good Book, he learned to wait.

The man in Dare 35 is waiting. His wife is learning, so is he. If she is wise, she’ll ask for the help she needs and stop complaining so much. She’ll figure out how to do everything in a “fitting and orderly way” 1 Corinthians 14:40 style. He’ll learn to serve his family – by pitching in, by taking care of some things without her, and still have life balance, and do well at his work.

They’ll both battle resentment. And if they’re wise, they’ll learn how to make the most of the now they’re in.

I really liked how Leah addressed Dare 35. It’s a great reminder – I know how hard it was to go from being a full-time career person to full-time mom and part-time employee.

To be honest, I hate waiting. I have a college student who is in a waiting period right now also, and my heart aches for him. I know what it is like to know where you are going, and have to wait to get there.

But there is work to do in the waiting – and to not do it delays things even more. Sometimes we don’t even know what the work is, until we have hindsight as our teacher.

And it’s only been by doing ministry that I’ve learned how to wait well. We started Daughters of Sarah with the first class in March of 2007. Here we are, FULLY SEVEN YEARS LATER, and we’re just now in the beginning stages of “getting it out there,” in the way He wanted us to.  I was so sure early on how we were going to do things – but it wasn’t His way. So we had a number of failures and set backs so I could learn, so people could come  on board, so we could do things His way with the people He wanted, and not what we thought.  We’re still learning, but it’s all forward movement.

So often, that’s how it goes. We think we know, yet we are wrong. Things still happen, but not in the way we thought they would. If you had told me years ago that we’d have Daughters on video, I would have thought you were crazy. I would have told you there’s no way we could do that and still get the same results.

And I was wrong.

I wasn’t wrong about what God wanted, but I was wrong about the timing and the mechanism.

And at the time, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and I didn’t know how to do what He wanted to do.

But we do now.

And we finally have the results in from Part 1 of Daughters – they are good! And the class does just what it did when I taught it.

Without me.

So I apparently needed to grow in humbleness, also. 🙂

And the biggest learning for me? Micah 6:8:

7Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

I learned that my definition of “excellent” was not His definition of “good.” I learned that His way is the good way – the best way. He orchestrates what He wants in His timing. And I need to be busy waiting well. 🙂 That means I work, and wait for Him to lead, then just do the next thing.

That’s what we’re all supposed to do, is work hard, doing our best, learning what He has for us in the mean time (and it can be a MEAN time…) and wait well. In the waiting comes perseverance, patience, burden-bearing, learning to become a better friend, deepening our trust of God, and best of all, when the waiting is over, His will is always the best thing.

We spent all our money doing the taping, doing the editing, getting the Daughters videos produced, and had no way of distributing them, no way of easily making them available to you. I thought we were going to do a big “launch” this fall – but God said “wait.” So we did. And last week, we received a donation that was large enough to help us do the next thing. We’re still in BETA, and if you have a group that you want to start, you can do Part 1 now!  Just go to the website and the clunky way we have now of doing it is up and Part 1 is available. You’ll see I hid all the things on the Daughters “Method” page because we’re not ready for a big launch, but my guess is you’ll keep our secret until we are! LOL! We’ll have Part 2 in about 6-8 weeks. And know I’m working on Part 3, the class for those who have “done all the things” and yet still are in a marriage that is desperately painful. That will be finished sometime in the next year or two. Want to see the trailer for Parts 1 & 2?

Daughters of Sarah Trailer

What do you think of the trailer?  Let us know! If you are interested in joining our launch team for the course, please join below. We’ll have free access to the videos for the first 25 who join AND actively participate in the launch (by sharing our info about it on social media). Here’s the form (and don’t worry, we won’t share your email with anyone):

[gravityform id=”3″ name=”Daughters of Sarah Launch Team” description=”false”]

SO very glad you are on the journey with us!! It’s a marathon, isn’t it?

Love to you,