Me and my mother!

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

So I’m sure many of you are wondering how much more am I going to add to my life. I told you about my plans to pray specifically for 7 women and keep prayer journals for each of them. And my project I’m starting with my mother, The Locust Project. I’m so excited about both. I started my prayer time for my 7 friends this morning and it was just amazing to pray for someone other than myself. To have a specific person to lift up to the Father in prayer and ask Him to shower them with blessings as they started their day. And my mother and me have our first ‘outing’ with our project tomorrow. We are going to the zoo. Remember the zoo when you were a kid, how each attraction seemed to bring God’s Kingdom of animals alive more and more. As an adult I can’t wait to go on safari in Africa one day. That would be like an adult size zoo for many. So I keep asking mom, “What are we gonna do? We need to DO something!” Now sitting here wondering about it, I keep amazing myself more and more. As children we didn’t have to go DO something to be entertained with our parents. I think just spending time with them was enough for many of us. I know that was the case for me when I would come to Memphis just to visit my mother.

So I was reading in Joel today b/c my friend, Erin told me that’s where the verse about restoring the years the locusts ate was located. Joel 2:25 to be exact, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-…” this verse is the mantra for The Locust Project. My mother became less of a daily figure in my life in May of 1981 and as I have taken this time all summer to search the reasons I’ve moved to Memphis, I see a parallel in my own children’s lives. I ceased being in Hannah Ellen’s daily life in November of 2008 and Bryce and Celeste’s life in January of 2009. As much as it has pained my soul to be without them b/c I’ve been there every day before this time, I’ve learned to let go and patiently wait on the Lord. He has a plan and reason for all of my heart ache from this recent tragedy. Reading in my New Student Bible from the introduction of Joel the editors write, “Joel urged the priests to call a nationwide day of prayer and fasting to lead the people back to God. Then God would roll back the damage done by the locusts, and more: ‘You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you’ (Joel 2:26). They would emerge from the experience with new, durable confidence in God’s love. So it has often proved for God’s people: a disaster has pressed them to a deeper relationship with him.”

In looking back over my childhood, teenage years, and early adulthood I see how God has paved the way for this time with my mother to be unique. How many of us get the chance to really know our mothers once we are grown? If many of you are laughing saying NEVER! I can tell you now based on my own mother’s reactions to me at times, our mothers have the same sentiments! ;0) I know my mother loves me but I can be a difficult pill to live with at times. Especially if you’re female, I’m use to being around males b/c my father raised me and I had to grow up being the only girl of 4 grandchildren. I learned a lot about boys and nothing about women! So my mother has to tactfully try and teach me that I’m too matter of fact about everything. My honesty, brutal honesty, isn’t a trait my mother enjoys in me. We are learning more and more about each other every day. We have a lot in common - like coffee is OUR THING! I could drink it all the time but I have to stick to 2 pots a day. That’s my limit. Anyway I also see God’s future blessing in getting to know my mother later in life. I am more patient and willing to understand her b/c of my maturity I’ve not formed a baised opinion of her shortcomings. Remember when you were a teenager and your parents, especially your mother for us girls, drove you crazy!! I didn’t go through that too much b/c I had stepmothers. God continues to amaze me with His will for me. And though as a child and teenager I questioned my mother’s absence in my daily life, I now have a connection with my children I wouldn’t otherwise have and I can help get them through this. Back to Joel and the locusts. “Though the locust plague was by far the worst Joel had ever heard of (1:2-3), no historical record of this particular invasion has endured, other than the one Joel left us. The truth is, even the worst natural disasters fade from memory. Joel wanted the disaster to turn people’s attention toward something more lasting-toward an eternal God. Joel wanted God’s people to believe that God controlled the locusts, and, even more important, that God shaped the entire course of history to his plan. As terribly as the locusts had destroyed, and as wonderfully as God had rolled back their destruction, these events only foreshadowed far more terrible and wonderful things. Joel saw that God’s Spirit would transform his people into those who love him constantly, not just when a disaster catches their attention. After a time of terrible judgment, God would create a renewed, secure city for his people, in which he himself would live.” (The New Student Bible)

In the case of the woman in Leo Tolstoy’s short story “Prayer”, “Could it be that unanswered prayer is a strange kind of gift?” I plan to search for the answer to that question as my mother and me create The Locust Project.