The best part of the day

The end of one busy blessed week and the beginning of another. How good the Lord is! I am always so humbled and amazed at how much He cares for us! I have so many "best" parts of each day...family Bible time each morning and evening, teaching my children, cooking with my girls, reading to my little ones, playing, working, cuddling, laughing, talking with my husband each night, visiting with our neighbors...oh so much. But the very best part of my day is that first hour when I alone meet my sweet Lord. How weak and undeserving I am. How I need His strength, grace, and wisdom each and every day. And how wonderful it is to begin my days asking Him for all He so willingly and freely offers.
Often times I am convicted of sins or areas I know I need to change. The longer I hold on to those things, the more bogged down I become. How free it is when I go to Him like a little child telling Him how I've been wrong and asking Him to change me. It makes me want to cry and sing all at once! :)
Monday I spent a good part of my prayer time praying for our new school year. While I have now been home schooling for over 8 years and thank the Lord daily for the blessed privilege of teaching our children day and night, I often have worries or can get discouraged over a certain area of our day.
I was particularly concerned over one of our children as he has struggled more than the others in most every subject. We have taken it slow and given lots of praise balancing it with teaching him the importance of being diligent, but this child was just especially on my heart. Much of that morning I asked the Lord to help me in teaching this child and to give him understanding and a desire to learn.
I told Daniel that nothing short of a miracle happened. This child's worst subject by far was spelling. We have tried everything and while we could get him to remember a few words one day, the next he couldn't recall them. Last week he was so excited to learn his first list. He had them down perfect...PERFECT...all on his own with little to no help from me by Thursday!!! He even memorized 3 extra Bible verses in his free time and taught them to one of his younger siblings. The look of sincere pride and joy on his face was priceless! And I instantly remembered what I had prayed.
Thursday morning, little Samuel woke up a bit earlier than usual...4:30 am to be exact. That wouldn't have been so bad if I had gotten to bed before 1 am the night before. :) Some things in the ministry came up and we just ended up getting too bed late. Since it took Samuel until 5 am to finish eating, I didn't see the point in trying to sleep for another 30 minutes as I usually wake up wwaaayyy more tired when I do that. So I got dressed and thanked the Lord for the extra 30 minutes I could have with Him. I asked him to give me extra grace and strength that day as I knew I hadn't had much sleep and we had a long day ahead. I knew I could ask Him this as He has done this so many times before. It's not so much not wanting to feel tired that bothers me but the grumpiness that can come when I am tired :) And how thankful I was to really feel good all day long.
Great is His faithfulness!
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Daniel heads back out to the village tomorrow. It's been very hot and humid the past few days. September and October are usually the months the hurricanes come. Uncle Samuel has been a tremendous blessing with all the help he daily gives with the work here and how we enjoy his fellowship as well. The children love having an "older kid" to play with and to throw them around a bit. :)

This coming Sunday we have 4 people wanting to get baptized and we will be having our first church wedding.

Work for the night is coming....So many needs, hurts and heavy burdens the people here bear. How wonderful to see one seek the Lord and watch their heart soften as the come to know the one who sets them free! Thank you for praying for our family, our church, and the people here. How the Lord loves to hear and answer prayer!