Hopeful Hearts Ministry

“Hey Mom! I got a 92 in Spanish,” were the first words from Seth when he got in the car.  That is one point away from an ‘A’ and he successfully worked his tail -end off to get it up from a high ‘C’.  (Take in mind every other grade on his progress report is an A or A+…why such an issue with Spanish??)  At any rate I know he worked hard and I was proud of him.  As a ‘reward’ he asked if I could get him a drink from Sonic. 

After much deliberation on the 100’s of varieties of drink mixtures at Sonic, Seth chose a Strawberry Limeade with extra strawberry.  Within seconds the drink was in our hands and I was headed home.  Seth took his first sip and nearly choked on a large chunk of strawberry pulp.  ‘Ewe, gross!” He put the drink down and hid his head in his hand. 

There were hidden tears and a great amount of disappointment.   Unfortunately it took me a few minutes before I realized how hard he was really taking the fact his drink to him was ‘undrinkable’.  Frustrated, I said, “You can’t get this upset over a drink. You knew you were taking a chance when you asked for extra strawberry.”

His eyes had lost the spark of his excitement when he entered the car just moments earlier.  “Do you know how it feels when you’ve worked hard on something and then the reward doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would?”

“Yes, of course I do.

“That’s how I feel.  I was excited to get a drink and now I really can’t drink it.”

“Ah,” I said, “Sometimes we expect the reward to be more than it’s meant to be.  I know I was disappointed that the fund-raiser rained out a few weeks ago but I was still rewarded with great connections even though we didn’t raise a lot of money.”  I reached out and squeezed his leg.

“I just have tears stored up, that’s all,” he said. 🙁 

“Well don’t store them up!” I encouraged.  “Cry when you want to but don’t whine.  They are two different things.”

Thankfully that moment has passed but it does make me think about the turmoil that had my spirit all up in a tizzy this past week.  My interior response was to whine and complain but the only way out of it was to look at the bigger picture.  Maybe one opportunity didn’t go my way or go well but another one soon came along that did and that is why we need to keep our eyes focused on God and His will, we never know what He has in store for us daily.

Yesterday I met with three other survivors to film a series we are calling “I Have a Voice”.  This is a vision that I had over a year ago and with God’s grace and impeccable detail to putting people and resources in our lives it came to fruition right before my eyes and I’m still reeling from the Holy Spirit’s wake! 😉

I did not prep any of the survivors in what to say when we were filming and yet they hit every single aspect I felt the series should address.  It was definitely a GOD MOMENT.  It was as if we were each taking the Spirit’s lead and simply going for it. 

I’ll be excited to reveal the final product in June when we have it all together.  Until then here are some pictures from the day: