Have you ever felt stretched just a little further than you thought you could handle?
Last weekend, our family came home from a week out of town to a flooded basement. So, if you were wondering what we did with our weekend… it wasn’t what we planned.
Carpet pulled up. Industrial fans and dehumidifiers running around the clock. And a whole lot of team effort to get things stripped back to square one. Nothing like coming home to a new project nobody asked for.
But in reality, the flooded basement was just the most recent example of something God has been teaching our family for a while now about life’s unexpected circumstances that stretch us.
For years, we’ve had a heart to foster kids by opening our home to children who need one. Over the past two years, God brought a very special little girl into our family and into our hearts.
Then this past January, He unexpectedly brought her older sister into our care. We looked at each other and thought, okay Lord, you’re stretching us a little, but we’re in.
Then just last month, both sisters’ older brother came into our lives.
And just like that, God stretched us again.
Here are a few things we’re learning in the process, and I think they might ring true for you too, whatever it is that’s stretching you right now:
1. As God’s love grows in us, there’s always enough love to go around. Just when we thought our parenting days were winding down, God had other plans. What we’ve found every single time is that when you know the Lord, He always gives you the capacity to love more than you thought you had. God’s love knows no bounds, and somehow, He keeps expanding ours too.
2. God is writing our story, and it is good. Years ago I read a book called Jumping the Track that completely changed my perspective on the unexpected. God’s pen doesn’t always write our words, it writes His. His story doesn’t always end with our version of happily ever after, but with His divine will, for the good of others and the glory of God. God is writing our story, and he can be trusted with every chapter.
3. God’s plans stretch us more than our plans ever would. To be honest, we probably wouldn’t sign up for some of the situations God leads us into. But that’s kind of the point. He’s not just writing our story, He’s growing us in the process. That growth almost never happens without some stretching. And every time we hit our limit, we find that His grace goes just a little further than we expected.
God’s plans are always better than ours, which means they are often different than ours.
You may not have a flooded basement right now. You may not be called to foster. But whatever is stretching you in your life or your family in this season, know that God is not wasting it. He’s using it for your good, if you’ll let Him.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” -Romans 8:28
“God can do anything he chooses, and He chooses to work through people, particularly those who aren’t cemented in their own agenda, their own detailed plan.” -Roger Fields, Jumping the Track
