What I Learned Last Wednesday!

I know that this series is about homeschooling and the things that the kids and I are learning each week. However, last week God had different lessons on His agenda for me....

Last Monday began like any other typical Monday in our home. We played catch up from the weekend cleaning and laundry and had a light school day. At 4pm I began to prepare for Daddy T to get home from work. My phone rang, it was my sister-in-law. She asked if I had heard from my step-son, B, lately. I told her no that it had been awhile. She then told me that she had just read a post on Facebook that said he had been missing since Sunday morning around 6am. 34 hours! This was the first we had heard anything about it. The room around me began to spin as I got off the phone with her to make possibly the hardest phone call I have ever had to make. I had to call my husband and tell him that his 15-year-old son was missing and that no one had seen him in over 34 hours. 

It was my worst nightmare revealed! I always pray that my children will be protected and safe. I tell God that I trust Him with my kids, but this...THIS was my ultimate test!

We spent the next few days, along with family and friends, blowing up social media, hanging flyers, and following any lead that we might have received! By hour 60 I was beyond exhausted, I was defeated! Reality had sunk in that I may never again see B. The missing children's posters with aged progressed pictures could very well include him one day.

Wednesday night (84 hours after he was last seen) we followed a lead to a town 20 minutes south of where he disappeared. At 9:30 that lead went cold. Defeated, exhausted, and out of options we went home. Never in my life have I felt so utterly helpless.

Daddy T and I spent a long time in prayer that night, pleading for our son. Begging God to please just keep him safe! I reminded God that 'His eye is on the sparrow'(Matthew ), that "He knows the number of hairs on B's head" (Matthew 10:30). I told God that I trusted Him with B. I prayed for a miracle. I asked for him to get cold and hungry and come home. I told God that I would wait on Him, expecting Him to move (Isaiah 40:31 AMP). At 11:30 we laid down to go to sleep....

At 12:30 Daddy T's phone rang, it was B's mom, the sheriff's office had picked him up and had him custody in a town 45 miles south of us! Later we learned that we were 1 mile from him earlier that night! God had brought him to a man's door to seek shelter for the night. The man and his wife offered him food while they called the cops! I am so grateful to those strangers! I am grateful to my Father in heaven for keeping him safe during those 87 hours that he was away from all of us! 

I learned some very valuable lessons from this whole experience. Lessons that I would like to share with you:

1. Good friends are hard to come by. If you don't have any, pray for God to send you some. If you do, value them!!! They are a rarity! I would not have survived last week without my best friend! She was my lifeline. She prayed and took action when I was simply too tired to think straight! She and her family genuinely just loved on us and fought with us through this battle! Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

2. Genesis 50:20 is a verse to cling to! What Satan meant to destroy my family and my faith, God used to strengthen,  tear down walls, and teach me to lean on Him that much more! It became more than just telling Him that I trusted Him with my kids, I actually had to trust Him. Faith in action my friends.

3. I was weak in ways that I never imagined last week. I was so distraught. God wasn't! None of the events of the week were a surprise to Him!  2 Corinthians 12:9-11 says that in my weakness He is strong! I was so thankful for His strength last week! I learned on Him and trusted Him in a deeper more real way than I ever had before!

I pray that none of you ever have to go through the experience of a missing child. I just want to let you know, whatever battle you are facing, God is there waiting on you to turn to Him. Please friend, let him carry you through this time! You will make it through this!





I'm over at Christian Mommy Blogger!