Wrecked by Thankfulness: Re-Focusing for the Future |

image of ocean rocks with view of saileboat with text overlay. Wrecked by Thankfulness: Re-focus The future with www.captivatingcompass.com

Read part 1 & part 2 of Wrecked by Thankfulness. Then, read about how we went about refocusing and why I’m so thankful God knows the future.

Thankful that God Knows Our Future

Both my kids got very ill within 2 weeks of each other. My daughter was ill enough that she was eventually dropped from the school register for being absent for 2 weeks straight. As she began to recover from her primary illness, we realized that she would also need a tonsillectomy. We decided there was no point in sending her back for a couple of days of school if we were looking at surgery and recovery as soon as she was well enough for it.

I never thought I’d homeschool, but here we are!

So that’s where our homeschool story begins. A pretty sick first-grader, a recovering toddler and an exhausted mama, and a husband painfully seeking God’s guidance. And somehow we were still able to give thanks in all things.

Admittedly, now it was a bit more thru gritted teeth and clenched fists. But, I refused to give in to anything that was less than God’s will and God’s best for us. I’m not going to lie. It was the beginning of another rough time. It was difficult pressing in to see things with goodness and thankfulness. But, God sheltered us through the reason He put a stop to our moving overseas to Scotland.

Winter turned to spring. We were thankful for kids on the mend and very surprised that we had fallen in love with homeschooling. It became our new normal (although I’m not sure we really knew what normal was yet). By autumn, we had found the perfect community of homeschoolers. We were really settling into a weekly routine and enjoying getting together with friends to learn together.

A Re-Focused Future

We were refocused with business and although it didn’t look anything like we thought it would, we were keeping things afloat. It was tiring for my husband to work in 3 different offices each week, but it paid the bills. We were thankful.

Again, God’s provision was evident. We had a wider community of fellow homeschoolers, My husband had 3 times the opportunity to connect with folks needing his services. We continued to dream and began writing our dreams down to help us focus on seeing where God’s will and our desires might match up. Above all, we were thankful for clarity and direction and the wise mentors we had to help us bring focus to God’s best for us.

In the early fall of 2012, we had a routine appointment with the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist for my son. The same fabulous doctor that had done my daughter’s tonsillectomy. We knew him, trusted him and the kids really enjoyed his gentle way.

At the end of the visit, he said he was not concerned about the tonsils at this point. Then he stopped and said, “ But I’m referring you to cardiology because your son has a uniquely irregular heartbeat. I’ve heard a lot of heartbeats and this one has me concerned enough that you should go get it checked out.”

I tried not to panic. God knows the future.