Seeing God in the snowflakes!!

A few weeks back I checked out the book Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin to read to the girls. Little did I know how timely it was as we would be having snow here very soon! The book is a fascinating story of a man obsessed with snowflakes! Despite their financial difficulties, his parents eventually bought him a special camera that could be used to photograph snowflakes. Thus began a love affair with photographing, documenting and drawing thousands of snowflakes over Mr. Bentley's lifetime. After reading the book to the girls, I found and checked out the actual book written by Mr. Bentley (and the only of it's kind, still used today) entitled Snow Crystals by W.A. Bentley. It is amazing!!! This book documents over 2000 snowflakes photographed by Mr. Bentley. The most amazing thing I learned from these two books was the fact that NO two snowflakes are alike!!!! Think about that for a moment! NONE are alike. Have you seen a snow storm lately? I have!!! With this book in mind, I stood at my window and looked out at the thousand of snowflakes falling per second in my yard, and marveled at the fact that NO two are alike!!! After learning that, who would NOT believe in God? How else do you explain the fact that in any given snow storm there must be millions of snowflakes dropped to the ground, and none are identical? What imagination and creativity that requires! Only God could do that! The most suitable passage from the Bible for this is in Isaiah 40, one of my favorite chapters of the Bible! It reads (vs. 12)"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him?" And further down in verse 21 it reads "Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble." How awesome is our God?

I can't and shouldn't complain.......but I will anyway!

I am a complainer by nature. I rarely look on the "bright side" of things, instead I focus on the worst case scenario in each problem. If my daughter talks disrespectfully to me once, then she will never be a productive adult because she can't submit to authority. If Jordan doesn't nap one day, she will never nap again and my few hours of quiet a day are over forever! If I have a pain in my head, I have a tumor etc..... You get the gist of it!
So, the verse in the Bible that reads "Do ALL things without complaining or arguing" (Philippians 2:14) is a hard pill for me to swallow sometimes.
So, today I am up early, changing sheets, doing laundry, unloading the dishwasher, doing school with the girls, and I am tired. Sort of feeling sorry for myself. I finally got a chance to check my email when the girls took their naps and what do I see on the internet? Prince William got engaged. Who cares, right? I normally do NOT care at all, and I am certainly not a "royal watcher" by any means. But, as I sat at the computer watching a brief interview with the prince and his fiance, I found myself thinking things like "I bet SHE doesn't have to do laundry!" And "I bet SHE doesn't have to cook 3 meals a day!" Oh yah...and "I bet SHE doesn't scrub toilets!" I kind of sat with this all day and found myself thinking about the two of them way more than is normal! As I was vacuuming I thought about her and the fact that she probably doesn't vacuum!
Flash forward to later as I am doing the dishes. I hear a song on a christian CD of mine that talks about being a part of God's family. Suddenly, the truth hits me. Who cares if I am not a part of a royal family with all the perks that includes. Someday I will be part of THE royal family of believers in heaven! I am part of God's family, the God of the universe and He loves me! All the work I do daily is for HIS glory and He sees me!!! I felt ashamed. I felt ridiculous. I felt content with my life, as it is. I felt grateful that God teaches me even when I am complaining and moaning.
Do all things without grumbling and complaining......... a lesson for us all!

Questions and concerns

So.......we are settled in here in WA and as most of you probably know, we love it so far!
The one thing that has been plaguing us these past few months is Michael's work schedule. As some of you know, when we lived in CA Michael got off work at 3:30pm. So, on a "bad" day he was home at 4pm! This was great for the girls, as Michael played with them all afternoon, and it was great for me cause I got a break and could make dinner in peace!
So, now here we are in WA, and Michael is supposed to be off at 4pm each day. Well, tonight he walked in the door about 8:30pm and another night this week it was closer to 9pm. There are a few reasons for this: 1) he is adjusting to new procedures and clients so there is a learning curve and 2) they keep electronic notes vs. hand written notes and this is for some reason way more time consuming. And, today for example he had a client at 8, 9, 10, 1pm, 2pm and then a meeting at 3pm-4pm. So, at 4pm when he is supposed to be leaving, he still has documentation to complete for each client which amounts to about 4 hours work!
Why am I telling you all this? Because it SUCKS!!! Surprisingly the thing I hate the most is not the extra work it has placed onto me! Yes, working a 13 hour day is hard and tiring! But, the worst part of this has been my kids reactions. The girls are used to having Daddy home early and getting to spend lots of time playing with him. They love him!!! At first, Sheridan would just make comments about Daddy not being home for dinner. Then she would get upset and say "when is Daddy coming home?!". Well, tonight was just plain heart wrenching! Tonight was the second time that she has gone to bed before Michael has gotten home, and she cried! I found her in her room clutching a picture of Michael and her taken at "pals night" from her preschool days and crying. When I went to comfort her she said to me "I never get to see Daddy anymore!" It made me so sad AND angry.
What has been hard for me in dealing with this is that I keep wondering why God would move us up here just to remove my husband from the family scene? What is the point of that? I have never been one of those women who values money or work success over my time with my family. I would rather my husband be home early and make less money.
So, tonight after putting Sheridan and Jordan to bed, I sat down and got out my Bible. I really wanted an answer from God! I felt sad and alone. Then, I remembered a verse that I had read a few years ago when I was struggling with post partum depression. I looked for it and found it in Ecclesiastes 7:10 and 13-14. It says "Do not say, "why is it that the former days were better than these?" ......Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what He has bent? In the day of prosperity be happy. But in the day of adversity consider- God has made the one as well as the other......"
I don't understand why God would allow this for our family. I don't understand why He would allow my daughter to suffer in this way. I don't know what we are to learn from this. But, God does. Can I trust God with my daughter's hearts? Yes. Can I trust that He has their best interest at heart? Yes. Is it still difficult? Yes.
I am not sure how this will be resolved, and I am not sure what I am to learn. But, I am trusting in the Lord. I still put my faith in Him. I will wait on Him.