There are two sides to everything......

Caveat: This is not about the Terrell Tribe. It's really about what I experienced today and what it taught me.

There are two sides to every story. There are always at least two ways of looking at situations. You can be a "glass half full" or a "glass half empty" kind of person. I had an interesting set of circumstances happen today. I could tell the story two different ways, with two different outlooks, and both stories would be true. However, only one telling conveys the whole truth. Here it is.

In case you don't know, I'm the Director of our Preschool and Children's Ministries at church. On any give Sunday, we have about 80 Preschoolers (birth-4yrs old), about 85 K-3rd graders, and about 30 4th and 5th graders. We're looking at close to 200 children each Sunday. I guess you could say we're a moderate sized church.

Well, today I had a sense in my spirit that God was in control of the day. That's a good feeling! Sometimes I feel in my spirit that God says, "Hold on, today is going to be a bumpy ride!" But today, He said, "Don't worry - I've got everything worked out." I'm so glad He told me that on the front end of the day, because I was greeted this morning at 7:30 am by my Pastor with a message that a volunteer wouldn't be in today. That volunteer was supposed to lead our children's church at 11:00. Pastor said, "I am really sorry to have to tell you that." I just smiled and said, "It's okay. God will work it all out." I meant it too.

Long story short, I was more short on workers this Sunday by call ins and no shows than perhaps any other Sunday since I've had this job. Oh, and the message Pastor gave me about that volunteer, was really about a completely different volunteer. Neither one was there, so at least I was prepared for the worst.

Here's the really cool part. This is the good stuff. This is the kind of stuff that affirms my calling and makes me so thankful that God lets me see His omniscience and His care for all of the details. This is the stuff that makes missing worship services, plunging poop clogged toilets, holding paper towels over bloody noses and cajoling crying kids to go to their classes while I'm missing my own class, all worthwhile.

We were short in preschool (3s and 4s) this morning. By 8:30, our early service time, I had no workers. However, I only had 3 children between both classes. That NEVER happens. One set of workers came late, we combined the classes, and all was well. God had that under control. At 9:30, a choir member came up to me and asked, "Where do you need me? I'm not singing today so I figured I should see if you need any help." At the time, I didn't think I needed any help, but responding to a prompting by the Holy Spirit I said, "Yes. Go at 9:45 to the three year old Sunday School class. The teacher is always by herself, and having you come in would be a real blessing." 12 kids showed up in that class this week. The teacher could not have done it alone. We didn't know that, but God did.

I made a mistake this week and forgot to call 3 sets of "5th Sunday volunteers" to tell them that their spots were covered (long story) and they didn't need to serve. This is not ordinary for me. I'm pretty detailed and seldom overlook conveying important information like that. Well, with our call-ins and no shows today, I actually did need my 5th Sunday volunteers. The Lord knew I would need them all along. We didn't have to scramble, close any rooms, combine any classes to an unsafe capacity, etc. God is so good!

There are more bits to the story that I haven't written that just make the point even stronger that God has everything under control. I just don't have time to write them all now.

There are 2 sides aren't there? I found myself recounting the day with Todd and focusing on all that went wrong. The Lord quickly reminded me of the peace He gave me in my spirit, and that all the things that "went wrong" were already taken care of in the heavenlies. He really did have it all under control. How cool is it to see God work in such a real and practical way? I am truly blessed!

It's about time!

It's about time I started blogging for the family! Welcome to The Terrell Tribe! I feel like I should write a theme song.......

I'm hoping Todd will post some too - he is without a doubt the writer in the family. We'll see.

So here's a picture of the kids. They are the best kids God could have given us.

Noah is 6 years old. He's the one in the tie. This picture was taken in November when he was baptized. What an awesome day!

Daisy is 4. She's the one in the dress in case you were wondering. She is full of life and beauty!

Gabe is 3. Yes, 3. He and Daisy are 17 months apart. Everyone asks if they are twins. When I say no, the next question is - Was he a surprise? Well, my belly growing exponentially over 9 months gave us a good head's up. We really weren't all that surprised.

Todd and I are extremely blessed. God couldn't have planned better kids for us to raise. We love them dearly. They truly are our delight. That having been said, we do enjoy getting away from them from time to time.

The last trip away we took was almost a year ago last May. We made our way to Philadelphia courtesy of the Ding Fare from Southwest Airlines. $29 for a one way ticket to Philly! How could we pass that up? It was a wonderful break before I started working full time and Todd started staying home with the kids. We had a blast!

Our next trip is a mission trip to Jinja, Uganda. We'll be going July 10th and appreciate everyone's prayers for us and for our parents who will be watching the kids! We are really looking forward to it, although it's not exactly a romantic get-away - unless white water rafting on the Nile works out!

It's about time I started this.