Mrs. Homeschool

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The Amazing Sovereignty of God

August 5th, 2010 | Author: admin

Sometimes I feel like Peter. Peter, the apostle. Sometimes I feel like him, with wet feet, knowing that with Christ’s help, I can walk on water, but losing my focus, I start to sink…and PANIC! Just then, Christ comes over to him and (I think, probably laughingly) says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matt 14:31)

The past two weeks have been “Peter weeks” or “weak Peter” days for us. As you probably know, our family of 7 has uprooted from our 10 acre hobby farm and moved south to Florida. We knew the transition and the weeks leading up to it would be hard, but until we were in the thick of it, we didn’t realize how trying they would be!

I won’t bore you with all the details of our stresses, but knowing how the housing market is across the country and knowing how timid banks are about loaning people tens of thousands of dollars, I would bet that you can think of more than a few things that crossed our minds as we awaited the final “ok” for our closing.

Thankfully, the church we’re members of constantly reminded us to pray our way through the days and were very faithful to pray for us…and the Lord answered their prayers (and my cries).

But the story of God’s sovereignty really played out SO clearly for us in the past few days. My typed out words surely won’t be able to do these events justice…

To sum up what has happened, our family relocated from NC to FL with no “home” to move into. Not that we weren’t looking. We just realized the rental market here is VERY aggressive and didn’t want to get our hopes up on a home that would be rented out by the time we arrived. But having my sister here, she was able to help us find homes in safe locations.

On Monday, we started the official hunt. That morning we saw an “okay” house…it was a bit too big, the rooms were a little awkward and it had a lot that sloped straight down into a pond and no fence. I was less than thrilled with it, as was my husband, but we knew we could make it work if we couldn’t find anything else. Later that day, I went on Realtor.com and found a house that had just been added 3 hours prior. It looked “too good to be true” with exactly what we’d been praying for: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a fenced yard, good location…

Within 30 minutes, we saw the house and knew we wanted it. The bad news was that there were at least a half a dozen other people who’d called about the house THAT DAY and wanted to see it. That night, my husband met with the owner and got the application process started. We got the house.

Now, I am leaving out lots of details, not the least of which is that there were even MORE people that called on Tuesday and people were offering the home owner MORE money for rent…just to get this great house! She said she had it for rent since April with ZERO interest at a higher monthly rent and slowly lowered it over the past few months. Oddly enough, the last rent amount she thought it was marketed at was the upper end of our price range and I NEVER saw it online. She also said that several other people remarked the same thing…they’d been searching for a while and never seen it before.

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I believe in God and our family believes 100% that the Lord was holding this house just for us. Yes, you can try to rationalize all you want about this and that, but if you knew all the details, you’d know this is truly nothing short of a “housing miracle” for us to be in this home.

So what does this have to do with the Sovereignty of God? This series of events just demonstrates to us SO clearly that God is ALWAYS in control. Always.

Could we be prideful and claim that it is because of our deep faith that these prayers were answered? Probably, but we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we have done absolutely NOTHING to deserve getting this house. Not a single thing. For some reason, the Lord saw fit to allow us to get this home for WAY under market value and we are simply humbled by His grace and mercy.

We do not subscribe to the “health and wealth” gospels that teach that God rewards us when we obey Him and punishes us when we don’t. I’m sorry, but there are SO many examples contrary to those teachings that it’s hard to subscribe to them. Job and Paul are just two. No…God sometimes will allow us to experience joys for His glory and trials for His glory.

Are we more blessed than others because we don’t have children with mental or physical disabilities? Not a chance. Are we less blessed when we have a lean month financially? Nope.

God is sovereign. Plain and simple, yet wildly complex and unexplainable. I want to praise Him for this amazing thing He has done for us, NOT because of what we’ve done, but because of who He IS!

Do you have an example of God’s sovereignty in YOUR life? Do share so we can encourage one another in the faith! “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up” 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Posted in Encouragement |

Tags: emmet temple, emmet temple ocracoke

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Debra ElRamey

One August Abi vacationed on Ocracoke with Maryana and her family. While there she met a guy named Emmet and was smitten at first sight. After she returned home from the Island, the two of them stayed in touch on occasion via marathon phone conversations. Although the calls were few and far between, they managed to keep up a long distance friendship. Meanwhile she wrote a detailed story about her fateful trip, complete with the puppy-love sadness she’d felt when crossing the ferry and leaving Ocracoke that warm August day.
In December of that same year Emmet and his family traveled our way and landed in our home town – of all places – just to meet us for lunch. After making the Temple family’s acquaintance, I was satisfied that Abigail had used good judgment in her choice of friends; in fact I was impressed with both Emmet and his family. They were down-to-earth, intelligent, and likeable folks. His father, Captain Rob, owns and skippers the schooner WINDFALL. He spends his summers taking passengers on sunset sails and pirate cruises from the Community Store Dock on Silver Lake Harbor, and is renowned for his nautical tales, which he tells to passengers and Ocrafolk Opry audiences. An authority on Blackbeard, he was featured in the two-hour History Channel documentary True Caribbean Pirates in 2006. National Geographic also produced an audio-visual of Capt. Rob reciting his poem, A Pirate’s Tale, about the only member of Blackbeard\’s crew to be spared execution in 1718. Emmet’s mom, Sundae, hosts the Family Stage at the Ocrafolk festival, is a regular performer at the Ocrafolk Opry, and loves to sing with Rob and other Ocrafolks. She writes for the Ocracoker and publishes Ex Libris, her own newsletter of book reviews and essays.
So here we are at the dining table with Emmet and his lovely parents and two sisters, while Abi, unlike her usual gregarious self, seems so shy and reserved during the meal that I hardly recognize my own daughter. Her lack of appetite is a first. She hardly even touches her food. After the meal I ask for a to-go box for her entire plate of lunch. It all boils down to her hopeless crush. We’ve all experienced, especially in our youth, that butterflies-in-the stomach sensation when infatuation overwhelms us. Most of us have “been there, done that” so we know the feeling.
Abigail’s written piece about her August trip plus the lengthy phone chats with Emmet only added fuel to the fire. Before long she was begging me to take her back to Ocracoke for another vacation. At first I didn’t want to discourage her so I agreed to take her there again at some point in time. But that wasn’t quite good enough for my enamored teenager. “When are we going?” was her mantra, one I became quickly sick of hearing. “I have to make a living, remember? I teach every day. We’ll get there soon. Maybe at the end of May or sometime in June when many of my piano students take off for the summer,” I said to appease her for the moment. But May and June flew by faster than a flock of geese and still I’d made no concrete plans to take her back to Ocracoke. The truth is I have freeway phobia. I once even wrote a poem depicting my loathing for the fast lane and my philosophy that the back roads are the way to go because they allow a slower pace and a chance to enjoy the scenery along the way. I don’t like being pushed and shoved by impatient travelers.
But talk about persistent… talk about relentless praying. Every single night without fail when my daughter and I said our bedtime prayers she always, always put in her request to return to Ocracoke. Enough already, I thought. At the end of my rope, I told her quite frankly that I was tired of all this obsessing. “I want you to stop this begging and pleading. Don’t even keep pestering God about it. You’re wearing us both out. And that is final.” I explained to her as best I could that God had heard her the first 100 times she’d prayed to go back to Ocracoke. I warned, “If this continues, we are absolutely not ever going back.”
About a year later I relented and told Abi I’d go if I could find someone else to drive and to share the expense of room and board. Besides being ruled by a freeway phobia I was just being practical.
At last that person came along. When I mentioned to my friend Meg that Abi was chomping at the bit to get back to Ocracoke, she thought it would be a great idea for us to plan a trip together. Meg and I could use the time away for our own writers’ retreat and Abi would get to see Emmet again – a win-win plan. Soon my daughter’s dream began to take shape. Meg and she went online checking out Real Estate properties for rent. Rates were sky high during the summer season and a trip to the outer banks for a week was certainly going to cost us dearly. But regardless, they found several possibilities that met our criteria: air conditioning, pet-friendly owners, adequate sleeping space, etc. We weren’t interested in a five-star resort, just plain and simple comfort. Plenty of dates were available, but Meg and Abigail thought that celebrating the 4th of July on Ocracoke would be the paragon of bliss. And so Meg said she’d call and reserve the cottage we’d chosen for that week.
It seemed to be all settled. Except for one thing. I felt no inner peace about going during the week of July 4th. My reason at the time was legitimate. Abi’s uncle Hayes had very recently been diagnosed with cancer. Doctors had discovered so many stomach tumors that they couldn’t even remove them all. And the cancer had spread to the bones. Not a hopeful scene. I could see me paying a small fortune to stay four hours away from home and then receiving a phone call en route to or upon arrival at our vacation spot announcing Hayes’s death. Something inside would allow me no joy about this trip, even when circumstances had made it feasible for us to go.
I explained our circumstances to Meg on the phone one Saturday afternoon and cried all the while. Abi sat by me, crying as well. Afterward I had a heart to heart discussion with my daughter. She needed to understand the importance of allowing God to direct our steps. That our plans may not always be his. And that if and when it was his will for us to go to Ocracoke he’d let us know. There would be peace and joy in our hearts about it. I explained the necessity of being there for family at a time like this. That putting the needs of others above our own selfish desires was paramount. Then we prayed together. I thanked God for his divine guidance and ultimate wisdom. Her countenance showed that she was now at peace and content with the decision I’d made for us to stay home.
On the day of July 4th Abi came rushing up to me, her face a simultaneous expression of shock and awe. “We have a guardian angel!” She announced with the certainty of having just seen one in the flesh. Then she pulled me over to the computer to read what she’d just discovered. Since meeting Emmet she’d kept up with news from Ocracoke online. Here was the latest:
“Bad news from WITN TV: WITN News has confirmed with sheriff’s officials there has been an explosion on Ocracoke Island in Hyde County…. Officials say Highway 12 in both directions in Hyde County in Ocracoke are closed, and all ferry service has been suspended to public travel and limited to emergency personnel only… The fireworks truck exploded this morning killing and badly injuring an undetermined number… Please keep the victims and their families in your prayers today. Thank you.”
“So we couldn’t have crossed over on the ferry today anyway, it’s closed to everyone but the emergency workers. I’m calling Emmet to see if he’s okay!” Emmet informed her during their phone conversation that they didn’t celebrate July 4th because of the tragedy with the fireworks truck. Instead they held a silent parade.
My daughter was now convinced of God’s providence beyond any doubt. Before the end of the week her Uncle Hayes died. Through all of her grief and disappointment she learned one of the most valuable lessons in life: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.”
admin

What a difficult thing you had to do…listening to the Holy Spirit in spite of every plan and expectation you’d had for that trip! But that all surpassing peace is worth all the heartache, knowing how the Lord always provides when we trust in Him.

It’s amazing how, every day, I am reminded of how God takes care of us and cares for us, even in the little things. As you know, we have a large family and one of my hopes for our new home was that it be close to an Aldi. (That store probably saves us thousands of dollars every year on groceries!!!) Well, the home we’re in is almost equidistant to TWO Aldi stores. I know it’s nothing “major”, but it is just a reminder that God knows our hearts desires and can honor those in ways beyond what we imagine.

The story of the explosion reminds me of a time when I went to stay with a friend for a week while in college. She lived outside of Philadelphia and one day, we’d planned to go to NYC…I’d never been. (Still haven’t been!) But we canceled our trip because it was snowing. That day was the date of the first bombing at the World Trade Center, back in 1993. I don’t think we would have been near the site of the bombing, but it certainly would have made for a nightmare of a trip back to Philly.

Thanks for sharing that story Debi. God’s provisions ARE amazing.
Debra ElRamey

Amen Susan! We should write a book about God’s amazing sovereignty… In the meantime, you have this wonderful site. Keep up the good work. I miss you and your wonderful family.

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