Our "Just-older-than-the-baby" girl turned 5

back in September, and boy, did she plan quite the party. I still can't believe she's THAT old! 

 

(Elsie Mae and one of her favorite friends, Zoe.
Funny little side story? I almost forgot to invite Zoe because
Zoe's brother is in Elsie Mae's K/1 class at school.
Zoe is a year younger. And I forgot her name on the invitation.
Thankfully, Zoe's mama asked about it...
because it just might have ruined Elsie Mae's day if Zoe hadn't been there.)



A "Tangled" (Disney movie based on the fairy tale "Rapunzel") theme was her choice, we were in our new house with a loft to serve as a tower, lots of kids were here to party and to help - it was a busy and exciting day and I think Elsie Mae loved every moment of it. The very first game they played after the party-goers arrived was a "follow the leader-" obstacle course. Tim led... Brendan piped his flute... and they pretended they were Flynn trying to keep up with an amazed Rapunzel that first time she escapes her tower.

There are way too many photos to try and put them in a single post, so I'm hoping to post them over the next several days in "bite-sized" portions... and maybe add a bit of commentary along the way.

This might have been one of the more fun birthday parties I've planned... and I've done a few... but part of that was because Elsie Mae was so involved in the planning herself. She knew exactly who she wanted to invite, what kind of a cake she wanted, what games she wanted... and I loved listening to her dream and then help me figure out how we could try and pull off a party that looked at least a little bit like the dream she had in her mind.

  



Getting set up for a rousing version of "Eugene, Eugene, Eugene... Flynn Rider!" (aka Duck Duck Goose).



And the best part? If you ask her... she'll say that her real party matched the idea party she had imagined. God is so good - and this one little moment (in the grand scheme of things) of achieving even more than she expected, hearing the laughter, seeing her smile... makes me thankful - and very, very happy!

Stay tuned for the next batch of pictures!

(And thanks to Anna and Tim for snapping the photos!)

Wordless Wednesday ~ She's a boardgame character... can you guess who?

Self-Sufficient? Others Dependent? That is my Question!

I jotted the following "notes" down a few months ago... a blog post formulating in my mind, and as usual, I started off thinking with my fingers... based off of a book and some research I had been doing.

I even went ahead and pre-scheduled a posting date, far enough in advance that I would have time to think and mull and muse... and then write... never dreaming how appropriate that post would be for today, for the events that have transpired in our lives since my original wondering first began.

Here are the notes that I made for myself:

• thinking about sharing
• thinking about self-sufficiency and not being a burden on others
• thinking about providing for my family when things get harder
• thinking about those who reject offers of help... "oh no, we're ok, we can handle this" or "I don't deserve this sort of assistance," "I don't consider myself worthy of your help"
• joke about the guy who drowned - after refusing several offers of help b/c he was waiting for miracle
• blog posts stumbled upon re living "off grid" vs "dumpster diving"

It all started with my feelings hurt...

I had seen, from a distance, a clear need. I spent some time praying for that need, had the seed of an idea sprout in my mind, knew something specific I could do to help and to serve, actually had time and wanted to help, started preparing so that I could offer to help. I offered... only to have that offer rejected, rather abruptly. I was surprised, angry, frustrated, and as I have already mentioned, hurt.

God commands us to bear one another's burdens, to help each other out, to serve, to love... If we are going to do that, however, it requires that someone is willing to share their burdens or even to be carried, another is open to receiving help and being served, a person must allow others to, both tangibly and intangibly, love them... All of this requires humility and the admission that "I can't... without God... Who so often works through others."

Then, there were those blog posts I'd stumbled upon. The first is about a family who is deliberately choosing to live a more simplistic, independent lifestyle... on that is not so bound to our modern conveniences (electricity, city water, Walmarts and supermarkets, two cars/family, etc.). Part of the reasoning behind this change is a desire to provide, themselves, for all of their needs, living less dependent on modern communities. These folks are followers of Jesus. The second blog is by a woman who, in the past, lived anything but a godly lifestyle and is proud of that fact. She and her partner have three children and in the economic crash, lost their jobs, their home, their vehicles - and are forced to live in a "homeless" shanty community, scrounging food and other valuables from dumpsters. Yet she describes an amazing community where people pool the resources they manage to collect or earn for the benefit of all members... a community that is thriving despite the odds. And I was flabbergasted just a bit that, a bit too simplistically put,  those who claim to follow the Lord were rejecting community in favor of independence while those who made no pretense of the fact that they despised all Christianity stood for were living a New Testament church lifestyle as is described in Acts.

It is horrifyingly humbling to repeatedly have to accept the help of others. We've had to do a lot of that hard swallowing lately, as people have given and provided (are still giving and providing) sacrificially to help our family walk through the dissolution of our former organization. Pride resists walking into an office and receiving yet another anonymous gift or generous offer to delay or defer payment. Please don't misunderstand, we are overwhelmingly thankful and appreciative, for sure... but frankly, we'd really rather not be in this position to begin with. We didn't ask for it. We didn't make poor decisions and now are walking through consequences. We had this thrust upon us - divinely thrust upon us; we'd infinitely rather be the ones assisting, helping, sacrificing... instead of the other way around.

I think I'll close with a joke my dad told me once. He grew up in the flood plain of the Mississippi River, and floods were not uncommon, so I don't recall exactly, but I think that may be where this joke came from. A man is sitting on top of his house, watching the flood waters rise and wondering what he is going to do. Some guys come by on the backs of horses and offer to give him a ride to the shelter in the next town. He declines, saying that he'd prayed and was sure the Lord was going to provide a rescue. The water continues to rise and a bit later, some neighbors paddle up in their rowboat, offering to give him a ride to safety. Again, he refuses, confident that the Lord has a different plan for him. The water mounts even higher and it starts to rain once again. The water rescue team comes by with their motor boat and life jackets, offering to help. The man insists that he is fine, that God has everything under control and that no, keep the life jacket. After all, they might find someone else who needs it much more than he will. As the rain pours and the water begins to creep up the roof, the man finds himself perched on the peak and a helicopter rescue team drops a ladder, yelling for him to grab ahold and climb up. A final time, he rejects the offer of help. The next day, only the peak of the roof remains unsubmerged and there is no sign of the man. In the night, he'd slipped off the roof, washed away in the tumultuous waters and drowned. When he stood before the Lord, he asked Him, "I just don't understand, Lord. I prayed. I believed and trusted. Why didn't you rescue me?" And the Lord answered, "I tried to. First, I sent horses... then a rowboat... then the motor boat with life jacket... and finally a helicopter. What more did you expect me to do?"

Funny, but it makes a poignant point.

How do you accept the love and support of your community?

How do you choose to let others serve you?

How do you react when others reject your attempts to serve?

Multitude Monday - 1000 Gifts ~ my mental wanderings this weekend...

Child trafficking… in the Bible.  A horrifying, terrifying, abominable practice then and now, “wrecking” lives and families. Yet in 2 Kings 5, we see how God used it, and how a little one gently let Him use her and her life…

• to change Naaman’s life, probably the lives of Naaman’s servants who were with him, possibly the lives of his family members, and who knows how many others who marveled at his story...
• to testify of His glory and power to “pagans” and those who knew better…
• to confront Jehoram with his "forgetfulness..."
• to reveal Gehazi’s double minded-ness…
• to touch, challenge and change, eternally, who knows how many who have studied and meditated on this story.

I want to know more, though, about the little servant girl. She has no name… only an unselfish wish. And that wish sprang from one who had every human reason to only, ever think about herself first. She’d obviously been forgotten, overlooked or considered unimportant at least oncee, and more probably many times, before. The word used to describe her, “little,” in the original Hebrew means

“least, lesser, little one, smallest, one, quantity, thing, younger,” (from Strong's)

Most commentaries I've read, Sunday school lessons I've attended or sermons I've heard preached tend to try and gloss over this little girl’s reality. People tack on the ideas that Naaman (same guy who flies into a rage a few verses later when things don't go as he expected) and his mistress were possibly, probably, good masters… that she was right where God wanted her to be… that she’d grown to love and truly desired to serve those who were in authority over her… that she’d learned to be content and actually preferred her life with her kind masters… We prefer to try and “infer” from the context lots of things to make this story… her story... more palatable.

But we don’t really know any of that. We don’t really know much of anything about this little girl:

• she served Naaman in serving Naaman’s wife,
• she had been captured in a raid,  forcibly driven or hauled off to a foreign land, and then given or sold as a piece of property - I can't imagine that the experience was a pleasant one,
• she was responsible to “stand before” Naaman’s wife... and wait... and then do... whatever Naaman’s wife might require of her,
• she obviously remembered her life before,
• she possibly came from a family of faith because she spoke favorably of the prophet Elisha even though her earthly king would not have been a fan of the man,
• despite her circumstances, she wished to see her master’s health restored.

Naaman, like the little girl, clearly an observable and very great need. He, however, also had the power and influence to do something about his area of want. Unmistakeably unhappy with his present situation, he also had to be aware of and okay with her circumstances. Based on the way he spoke about her, those outside of his immediate family circle were familiar with the fact that a captured Israeli servant girl existed in his household. I see no hint or indication that he tried return her, or search out her family, when he went to search out Elisha. He could have, but he was clearly thinking specifically of his own needs and expectations. She "stands before" us as having a very different spirit than the people she served.

Which, spiritually, is a better place to be?

Furthermore, it is curious, this little girl’s response to her master. Her disposition was so totally and completely opposed to that of her former king, Jehoram. She thought of others first, shared truth, and openly, unreservedly, served.

The king of Israel, on the other hand, saw only doom and gloom. He sought to avoid service - even the simple sharing of information - and the responsibility it implied; he oozed pride and power – thinking immediately that Naaman had come to him for healing, and not seeing that Naaman was seeking and had come for help to find God in finding the one of whom his slave girl had spoken; King Jehoram saw only hidden motives and manipulation in Naaman’s quest for help, considering the possible implications and probable outcomes for himself. Apparently the possibilities that immediately came to mind were not ones he desired. He, who seemed to have everything, surrounded by people who lived to serve him and comply with his every wish, cannot compare with a petite damsel who knew at least some measure of desperation, desolation and deprivation, who’d been torn from her family and trafficked... and who now lived because she was expected to listen for, hear, and then immediately seek to fulfill, the every wish of her master. A total contrast.

Again, which, spiritually, is a better place to be?

While I’m thankful for the fact that my God takes human cruelty and sinfulness, turning it for His good and His glory, I don’t like it. A large part of me resists the very real reality that people are born to lands where they are immediately sentenced to lives of poverty, hunger and want – of every sort. I detest the truth that slavery exists, human trafficking thrives, people profit from prostitution, corruption cankers and contaminates... I, in a sense, support these things by my very reluctance entertain the idea that I might need to change, accept responsibility and consider alternatives... asking how I can do my part to try and halt some of the horrors that abound in this fallen world.

Truthfully? I am convicted by the fact that when I unpeel the layers and look deep within, I often see more of King Jehoram or Naaman in my thoughts, actions and responses to the uncomfortable realities, tragedies, and evil circumstances abounding today…

~ well ~ 

... at least more than I see, feel or follow through with a response

similar to the one evidenced by a tiny, trafficked, thoughtful, thankful... Israeli maid.

Once again, I ask myself:

"Which, spiritually, is the better place to be?"

this week's gratitude list:

(#'s 1650 - 1676)

temperatures ranging wide

auctioned workers

ice cream sundays

clean houses

on line chats

challenging editorials on hard topics

time to talk

thinking, praying and talking about the future

a mischevious 16 year old boy who's sense of humor is subtle but terribly funny

silly girl who listens to the same songs over and over and over and over and over...

little hands and little feet poking and pulling on me at night

bad cases of bed head that lead to laughter

brushing long blonde hair... lots of it!

upcoming field day at the stade

kids excited to compete

listening to a sweet little girl worship her relatively recently discovered Jesus through song at church

silly songs with "Ekah" in the Land Cruiser on the way home

thinking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas

a favorite blog site gearing up for posts once again

letters from churches and pastors that encourage

a humbling example of gentleness, patience and deep faith when prayed for relief is not rapidly realized

dusting away mental cobwebs to help kids with physics problems

her amazement and need to share that physical touch is her love languge

homemade salsa cut and prepared by 6 and 8 year old hands... all by themselves... they even tried to clean up their mess and the salsa was completely scarfed... oh so quickly

the fact that those two wanted to help fix dinner on a Sunday afternoon

cast iron skillets to cook flat bread

realizing we are on the last candle before we actually need another new one

Wrights Broadcasting Truth to Niger, Fall 2011 Prayer Letter

SEEKING, ASKING,

WAITING, LISTENING…

these should always come before our planning…

   
2 Kings 3 describes the continuing war between Israel and Moab, as Moab rebels against Ahab’s successors. The Israeli leader, Jehoram, was considered an evil king, but nothing like his father Ahab… or his mother Jezebel. When Moab refuses to pay tribute, Jehoram allies himself with Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. They concoct a scheme, begin to implement their plan which included an arduous march through the wilderness, and en route, discover that sufficient water for both men and beast is just not there.

“But Jehoshaphat said, ‘Is there not here a prophet of the LORD, that we may enquire of the LORD by him?’

    And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, ‘Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah.’”

    - 2 Kings 3:11

It is at that moment that Jehoshaphat asks: “Is there not a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD by him?” Jehoram has no answer… he does not know the Lord, although he does not worship Baal the way his parents did. Finally, a servant of the Israeli king answers: “Elisha, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.”

Why do we take off following our own schemes, plans and maps only to find ourselves wandering through a metaphorical wilderness without the necessary sustenance to survive? Why is it that only then do we think to inquire of the Lord, stopping all forward motion and taking the time to call upon Him? And even more importantly, why do you think this happens so often… Why don’t we learn this lesson once and for all?

As we continue to find ourselves in an uncertain, unknown situation regarding the future, we don’t want to make that mistake. We don’t want to be guilty of making our plans and starting off before seeking God’s face and His will for our steps, not only over the next weeks and months as we undoubtedly make many life-impacting decisions, but also His will for the steps of tomorrow… and each next day…

EVERYONE

Has lots of questions… including us!

There are some facts of which we are certain. Some of those THINGS WE KNOW include:

1. Things will never be the same, and we are content with that fact;
2. We are not out of the woods yet;
3. We are now serving as missionaries with Faith Baptist Mission (FBM);
4. EBM – Niger continues, at least for the near future;
5. We still have numerous and incredible, God-given ministry opportunities wide open to us; and
6. We have the permission and blessing of our home/sending church to stay (finances permitting) in Niger for 1-3 years before returning to the States to reassess with our pastors and church leadership our future plans.

However, there are also some key THINGS WE AREN’T SURE WE KNOW, things such as:

1. Exactly what is our current support level? We’ve received sufficient support for October and November, but that includes many onetime gifts and emergency funds. We still don’t have a realistic or accurate feel for what monthly support giving will look like.
2. When we will know more details about the EBM dissolution, or the long-term future of EBM assets world-wide.
3. Political stability (knowing there are no guarantees) seems to have returned to this country and we generally feel safe as we live and work in the city.

And, of course, there are also many THINGS WE DON’T KNOW, AT ALL:

1. Will we be able to afford the significantly increased health insurance costs on our current support?
2. How will our support monies stabilize over the next year?
3. Which churches and ministry partners will be able to continue our support through the remainder (1-3 years) of this term?
4. How long will the EBM dissolution process will take?
5. What will the future look like for current ministries?
6. What will become of EBM assets (including the studio, the new office building and our new home) in Niger?

Yes, we have much to keep us awake nights, wondering… each one of these “items” can start us thinking through a whole list of possibilities, outcomes and consequences, especially if we try and carry the weight of all these knowns, maybe knowns and unknowns ourselves.

We are thankful for the One who carries our burdens in such a time as this.

PRAISES AND PETITIONS

Praises

• Overwhelming helpfulness and sensitivity by literally EVERYONE! Our home church, FBM, our missionary community in Niamey, our Nigerien friends, our ministry and prayer partners (and the list could continue) have been so generous and willing to help meet our needs through this time.
• Special support gifts, which help to make up for lost support $$ in our EBM account and no salary in the month of September.
• Good health.
• A wonderful house and home, which we are thoroughly enjoying.
• Tim’s very short commute!
• The oldest seven children are all enrolled in school – and everyone has adapted and adjusted well to an academic year we never would have, foreseen.
• Our niece Leandra is here with us, working at Sahel Academy and at the Remar orphanage
• Ministry opportunities abound!
• Studio is going well, but things are a little slow:

            i. Hour of the Gospel and Sabon Rai programs are recorded each week;

            ii. Through the Bible is airing nightly, Monday – Friday and is fully supported for     the next few months; and

            iii. A post-dubbing film opportunity later in the year.

• Church at Harobanda, where we are assisting Nigerien church planters:

            i. Tim is preaching each month, a series looking at biblical examples of how figures from the Old Testament drew near to God… and how He drew near to them.

            ii. Richelle continues doing literacy work with the ladies in the church. Two of the women are beginning readers!

            iii. Brendan and Rebekah are both teaching Sunday School classes. Brendan has the upper primary school-aged/teen students while Rebekah works with the very youngest group.

• Evening Bible Institute and Tri-M Modules, taking place in October and November.
• Recent baptism service at the Beniera churches. Tim was honored to participate!
• Another year of the EBM French school is now in session.
• FBM has accepted us as missionaries.
• Most of our supporters have been able to stay on, although some may only be able to do so temporarily.
• Our home church CBC – Midland MI - is facilitating the printing and mailing of this prayer letter. Please email us if you are willing to switch from a paper to electronic format.

Petitions

• Consistent support;
• Clear vision and direction for future ministry;
• Humility and patience as we wait for God’s direction and His timing;
• Spiritual growth through this difficult time;
• Knowledge necessary to make correct decisions and the gentleness necessary to carry through with those decisions in a way that honors and glorifies God;
• Our friends and former EBM colleagues, many of whom have special needs as well;

• That we remember and do not resist this fact: God is doing something new… and the old may no longer be compatible with this new thing. We don’t want to miss, resist or dread the new that God is doing because we believe the old comfortable, or “good enough.”

----------------------------------------------------

Back to the story in 2 Kings 3:

Have you ever noticed that several times in the Bible that a “servant” passes along essential, very key information to others that points them towards God? It was a servant who knew just who to ask- Elisha- if the kings wanted to know God’s will. That’s exactly where we want to be. We want to choose humble service and absolute obedience so we’re in the best place to see and know the will of the Master. In the account of the water turned to wine at the wedding in Cana, don’t forget that the first ones to see and recognize the first public miracle of Jesus were the obedient, unquestioning servants. God’s Word clearly says “...but the servants knew.”

Thankful to be serving our Lord together with you,

Tim, Richelle, Brendan, RebekahJoy, Nadia, Anna, Victoria, Jonathan, Elsie Mae & Mary Michelle Wright

Mullings and Musings

• "Into the Light" (Hard, but life changing truth here...)

"Grace and truth co-exist in the One who is the true light, who came into the world on a divine rescue mission to give those who receive Him the right to become children of God. This is jaw-dropping truth! We want to hide our ugliness, our brokenness, our darkness. But when we willingly expose it to the Light, we are healed and restored. 

This means confession and accountability are some of our primary weapons in the spiritual battles we face every day...."

• "...Functional Universalism, updated" (Reminds me of a sermon Tim used to preach on practical atheism... asking the question - does our daily practice line up with our doctrinal statements?)

"Many of us function like universalism is true.  Really.  Yes, there are many reasons why we can manage to live in a parallel universe to the lost all around us.  Selfishness, fear, a wrong understanding of holiness -- yes, all these play a part.  But when I get to the core of it, my friend's question was correct.I live as though there are no consequences -- I live as though we will all be happy in the end.

And Jesus did not."

• "Nancy sure didn't waste any time! (Nine Potential Pitfalls of Ministry)" (Thinking about where and how I tend to trip up and fall down... Which pitfall surprises you the most often...???)

" 'The longer I’m in ministry,' she began, 'the more I realize how vulnerable we are to falling. Only by the grace of a faithful God can we finish well.' Nancy shared nine autobiographical pitfalls she’s come perilously close to in the past thirty-five years of vocational ministry."

• "Debunking the Squeaky Clean Myth" (Excellent, challenging words)

"...And it taught me the lesson that I need to stop inviting people to my church because “there are a lot of great people there” (even though there are). Instead, I need to offer reasons to visit that have more to do with encountering the Living God.

I’m afraid we have led our neighbors astray by putting out an image of squeaky clean faith. Trying to convince others that we have picture-perfect lives because we are Christians doesn’t do anyone any favors. God hasn’t hired us to be his PR firm and even if He had, I’m fairly certain He would want us to be upfront about our brokenness so His image as the Healer could be put on display."

• "Mommy Sabbatical" (Have any of you ever tried this? How has it impacted you and your walk with the Lord?)

"No one to prepare meals for, clean up after; I eat when I'm hungry, and leisurely tidy up right away.  Decadent, organic, gluten-free, health&life-giving savory bites of greens, fish, tomatoes, sugar-snap peas, rice crackers, chocolate.  So much ice-water sipped in the sunshine; and the naughty indulgence of all the diet soda I want, right out of the bottle!

The only agenda is the call of the Holy Spirit.

Watch taken off; left on the bathroom counter.  Sleep when I'm tired; wake when I'm rested.  Sit on the deck and practice the words of James...or just watch the solitary cloud-puff meander by."

------------------------------------------

Photo by AC.

5 Minute Friday ~ Unexpected

Totally unexpected. I never dreamed a green, metal can filled with a yellow fizzy drink would become such a part of my life. Especially since I detested the stuff.

Growing up, my friends and I refused to drink Mountain Dew. In fact, we had a very descriptive, unmistakeable and unmistakeably unflattering name  for it. Then I graduated, moved a few times, finally landed in the state of Michigan... and met Tim.

Tim loves Mountain Dew. I can honestly say that it might just be his drink of choice. I first had an inkling of his obsession with this particular carbonated beverage when with every canoeing outing we took, there was an obligatory photo of a Mountain Dew can somewhere on the canoe, with the river in the background. I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that it was obsessive when he continued to drink his iced Mountain Dew after my 1 year old niece had sipped some... and left little floaties behind. And I've often said that was the moment I knew I had fallen, unanticipated, head over heels in love.

After all, any guy who would take photos of a pop can to commemorate special times and then drink floaties after little kids without blinking an eye, calling both serendipity (or "an unexpected pleasure along life's way") had to be someone very special and worth getting to know, a lot better.

Today, green metal glass bottles with Mountain Dew written in Arabic are the decorative accents in my kitchen... and today, I couldn't imagine it any other way.

"We cannot now expect miracles, yet we may expect mercies, if we wait on God, and seek to Him."

Matthew Henry wrote those words in his commentary on the first part of 2 Kings 4. I've been studying my way through 1 and 2 Kings the past few months. Interesting - some stories well known and familiar, the stuff of children's Sunday School songs I've taught my kids to sing. Others? I've wondered how I managed to miss them as I've read through my Bible in the past because they are wild stories, yet I have no recollection of them.

Earlier this week, I was meditating on the miracle of the widow, her two boys, a merciless creditor, God working through a prophet... and almost endless jars and jars of oil. It is a well-known-to-me-from-my-childhood, well-loved, Bible story - maybe because I remember seeing it acted out once in such melodramatic fashion!

A young (I’m assuming, because the Sunday School pictures of her sons always indicate a young family) widow of one of the prophets comes to Elisha in a desperate situation. Her husband died, owing money. She is now being hounded by an unforgiving creditor who, in laying claim to what was owed, planned to take the woman’s two sons & sell them as slaves. She is fraught and distressed for good reason when she seeks out Elisha.

I loved musing through Elisha's response. He asks two questions and then gives her very specific, detailed instructions.  

1. First, he asks, "What shall I do for you?" I love this clear reminder to the widow, who is probably looking at a great man as her salvation, that the man Elisha can do nothing… Elisha, the servant of the Most High, the conduit of His Word and His Plan, however would do something. She could have hope because with God, no situation, nothing, is impossible. 
2. His next query: "What do you have?" In this statement, I hear him asking "How has God already provided? Tell me where you already see the evidence of His great grace and unbounded mercy."
3. Then he instructs her: "Borrow empty vessels from your neighbors..."  What an excellent reminder to this woman that she lives in community. She clearly was surrounded by people who'd not only been commanded to care for widows, but who, (I gather from their response) were very willing to help and encourage if she would but ask. God works mightily through the generosity of His people. The miracle God is about to do will  happen through their tangible love... their charity.
4. The second part of this first instruction,"[borrow] – a lot of them..." pushes her to get as many jars as people are willing to share. That understood imperative emphasizes an important point: the measure of the miracle will be measured by her hopeful faith.  I think this is where Matthew Henry's quote (that I used to title this post) is so relevant. Sometimes we ask in great faith, expecting a miracle... demanding that God do for us like a magical genie in a bottle. Why do we forget that God's unfathomable mercy and boundless grace are already mighty miracles, and we have unlimited access to them? We simply need to take advantage of that truth.
5. Fifthly, he tells her: "Take [the jars and her boys] into the house and shut the door." Often, the greatest miracles God performs are the ones no one sees immediately, the amazing works He accomplishes behind the closed doors of a human heart. We long to see visible amazing... and we must frustrate God with our lack of patience as He covertly works His will in willing hearts. I wonder if the woman or her boys were tempted to run out and open the door, calling community to come and see as soon as they realized what was happening? I wonder if the neighbors even dared to imagine the miracle occurring just on the other side of that door... or did they instead gossip and criticize?
6. "Pour out the oil into the vessels." When Elisha told her to begin pouring, the woman had to realize that what she knew she had could never be enough. Her everything was insufficient. But she had to initiate, to act in faith, stewarding what God has already provided and then trusting Him to continue provision according to His perfect measure.
7. Next, Elisha directs her to "Set aside that which is full." Elisha tells her to keep track of the way God keeps filling her vessels with His oil, His provision, His power… all to meet her very real need.  
8. Now, the exciting command: "Sell the oil!" When God provides, don’t just sit and hoard it – use it to meet real needs, fulfill obligations, etc! He gives solutions so problems are solved and so that there is no doubt Who provided and Who receives the glory for the answer.  
9. Finally, Elisha concludes with the reminder: "Pay your debt." This must have been a clear instruction to the widow to owe no man anything… but to never forget that she owes God everything, especially the privilege to continue parenting her two boys.

This story could have taken such a different turn if, when Elisha asked the widow what she had, she'd chosen grasping tightly to her sob story... blaming her husband, complaining about unfairness, etc., and closing the eyes of her heart to what might... what could, possibly... be.

She didn't.

I want to be like that woman, who even in the midst of tiresome trial... cold-hearted challenge... difficult distress... in bold brokeness she chose to see and then trust God's provision beginning with a scant bit of oil...

Is there a morsel of supply in your today story

where God is asking you to do the same as He asked the widow in this account?

What steps can you begin taking, as you follow her beautiful example?

Wordy Title BUT Otherwise Wordless Wednesday ~ Elsie Mae's "family & friends like family" 5th birthday celebration (back in September... when I didn't have Internet...)