It has been a very emotional week. One filled with a lot of prayers. Prayers for listening, prayers for patience, prayers to remind us of how Jesus wants us to share. Can you tell I have been praying with a 3 year old? Charlotte started preschool this week. There were some tears. Not from her. No not a single tear was shed by that little girl. That is until I told her we had to go home. She could have stayed forever. Why not? She gets to spend 8 hours playing, singing, dancing, creating and learning in an environment that is specifically for her! Everything thing from chairs to the tiny potty was built with her little body in mind. She may like being there more than Disneyland!

We talked about starting school for the last 6 months, she has been counting down and telling everyone that she is going to preschool and she gets to wear a “Unicorn” aka uniform (something she associates with school and being “so bigger” because her 1^st grade friend wears one.) As she half skipped half ran to the front door of Lamb’s Lot yelling “Come on Mamma! It’s my school!” I choked back tears. We entered the room and I bent to tell her of my love and that I would be right down in my office all day when she needed me. She kissed me and touched my face and said “You’ll be right back. I’ll see you later mamma”. She waved by and ran off to play with her new friends. She was right; she is “so bigger”. She is confident and comfortable in my love for her, she already knows she will see me later and that even if it’s hours from now I will be right back. I will always be there for her. I left with tears in my eyes and a heart bursting with love for my tiny girl.

So I prayed. I talked to God, my own heavenly Father. I thanked him for the blessing my daughter is and how excited I am for my son to arrive. I prayed for the strength to trust in God’s love just like Charlotte trusts in me. I prayed for strength and understanding and to not worry so much about things I can’t control. And boy do I like to have control over things in my life. Right now I have a preschooler, a baby due in November and a husband waiting to hear when he will start the fire academy. That means there are a lot of things I can’t do anything about. I don’t get to decide when the baby will say its time to be born or if Kevin will be there for the birth since he may be on a roof top learning to put out a fire somewhere in Los Angeles, and no matter what I do, I can’t change that. I can however learn to let go. I can give it to God to handle for me. I can trust in him and know that I am never really in control to begin with, He has it all planned out.

I didn’t come to this conclusion on my own. I would like to say I did. But that would be a lie. I didn’t really get it until this morning during our incredible speaker’s testimony during which I had to excuse myself to the kitchen where I was sobbing uncontrollably hearing about the trials of her life. I told my friends I was mad at them for putting me through that and went to my desk and cried some more as I prayed to God about my family. I was not really mad at them; I needed to hear what she had to say. I needed to see another strong mom who no matter what life threw at her she rose above. She put her trust in God. Then it hit me. I am surrounded by the strongest, bravest and most amazing people who God has placed all around me to remind me that He is here. They are the hands and feet of Jesus showering others with grace and love. My own mom and dad may be thousands of miles away, but I am not alone. None of us are. We have the most encouraging loving Father anyone could dream of and with every challenge and new beginning we face He reminds us. “I’m right here when you need me. I never left.”

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

~ Nikki Wheatley
Elementary Ministries Director