{"id":21429,"date":"2017-06-26T00:10:24","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T07:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11074"},"modified":"2017-06-26T00:10:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T07:10:24","slug":"june-26-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/06\/26\/june-26-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"June 26, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cA time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.\u201d<\/em> Ecclesiastes 3:4<\/span><\/p>\n

Firsts<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

This past Mother\u2019s Day I thought of two friends in vastly different ways. I was dancing and laughing (okay, I was crying tears of joy) for one of them, as it was her first Mother\u2019s Day with her beautiful new family. The other I was weeping and mourning for, as it was her first Mother\u2019s Day without one of her dear sons. It was the same day, and yet it was celebrated so differently. My heart celebrated with one, and grieved with the other\u2014as it should be. I prayed that God would touch them both deeply\u2014that He would magnify the beauty of one and minimize the horror of the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also felt immense gratitude\u2014not only were my three children alive and well, but my mom was also. She had been in a single car rollover accident, end over end, the weekend before (her first accident ever). Miraculously she walked away with a couple of scrapes and some bruising and soreness. God in His grace also took the memory of most of it away, so she has no fear\u2014just peace. According to my atheist brother who saw the car: \u201cSomething had to have been with her\u2014the car was completely destroyed except for the driver\u2019s seat part.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, we know the \u201cSomething\u201d was actually Someone, and my mom, myself and his daughter have all told him it was the Lord, which he has not openly acknowledged, but it has surely watered seeds in the prayerfully softening soil of his heart. My mom said, \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have lived through it, but maybe I did to be a testimony to bring him to the Lord.\u201d This didn\u2019t turn out to be her first Mother\u2019s Day with both of her children as believers, but I pray the next one will be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLord, thank You for being with us no matter if we\u2019re in a time of weeping and mourning or laughing and dancing. Whatever firsts this Mother\u2019s Day may have brought your ladies\u2014joy, sorrow, gratitude, belief\u2014I know You were with each one of them, wrapping them in Your arms every bit as much as You wrapped my mom in them. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe eternal God is your refuge, and His everlasting arms are under you\u201d<\/em> (Deuteronomy 33:27 NLT).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.\u201d Ecclesiastes 3:4 […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5zD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}