A YEAR AWAY FROM MY LIFE
There are many things I will probably never understand about this year out – not on this side of eternity, anyway – but for some things, I will always be grateful.
Most of which are the unexpected gifts of a much closer relationship between my girls; a deeper, more meaningful walk with the Lord for my husband and I, which has translated into a many-splendored thing before not-so-little eyes that learn more about what we show them than what we tell them about our walk with Him. ‘Nothing is going to make sense’ were the words that were prophesied to me last year before we set out on an adventure I was not sure I needed and could not wait to be done with. Yet, on my birthday a couple of weeks ago, my daughter Dara said a prayer that brought tears to my eyes. If ever I felt unappreciated or thought that my sacrifice was unseen or unacknowledged, that prayer told me that my children get it!
One morning, my Mother called to tell me how my usually scientific-minded Tara had come into her room at the Guest house in Redemption camp last night to pray for her. My 13-year old explained to my Mother that she had heard someone speak of seeing a room full of spare body parts during a visit to Heaven, then she laid a hand on my Mother’s head and held her hand as she asked the Lord for a new set of knees for my 80-year old Mother who was due for knee surgery.
Perhaps the most pleasant of all the surprise discoveries is how a year away from school unlocked the brilliance of the unfolding literary genius in my 11-year old daughter: Biara. Last night, they talked about how mundane and ordinary regular school would seem when they went back. They have been doing on-line school for the past year using Khan Academy and MIT Open courseware. This time last year, I thought my life was perfect and I was eager to get this year out of the way in order to be done and get back to living as I knew it. Today, my youngest daughter and I wrote out the outline of a business plan for a company that would allow her to share her gifts with the world in a most unusual way. Just last week, I told the children we might be returning home within the next month, expecting great whoops of joy and cries of relief. Dara said: “Mum, I am not sure we have really accomplished what we were meant to get done yet’. She schooled me about God’s timing!!
In the life we had before, I was a stay-home Mum but I did not really see or appreciate my children for all the busyness that came with keeping a home and working in the family business. Sure, it was better than when I was working at a career that took me away from home for weeks and months on end, but Someone knew there could be more. So, He took us out of the life we had to give us the life He wanted us to have. The life we had before… what life?? THIS is life!!! Thank you, Lord, for my divinely-inspired Personal and Professional Development (P2D – as we called it in UNICEF) plan.
If you enjoyed this story, you might also enjoy Sought by Love
