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Have you ever loss everything and everyone you know? Job did. He lost all but his contemptuous wife. Just curse God and die. Job was a man of integrity and he refused to blame God for his sickness and his sudden poverty. He said, Should we accept good from God and not bad? We all go through bad days, but its how we deal with them. God gives us grace and strength to make it through our trials.
 Behind a story of a well known hymn is a man who had his share of his adversity. Horatio Spafford lost his family on a ship. You can read about it here: www.godupdates.com/story-behind-it-is-well-with-my-soul/                         In my own life, I can say all is well. I lost both my parents, but the death of my father was a mixed blessing. Growing up, he had abused us all in different ways. I didn't realized it was abused at that time, but he had mistreated us all. He deprived of us many things and didn't help any of our dreams come true. He had no faith yet he called himself a Christian. Yet he could do things none of us knew how to do and because we were all women, he had some protection. After my father died, my mother's memory slowly deteriorated. She would go to the store and bring home the wrong milk. She would eat the cookies and denied she ate them. My sister and I would not eat them because we were trying to lose weight. My mother had the sweet tooth, not us. With the advice of a friend, we took her to see a neurologist. Sure enough, he confirmed what my sister and I suspected: dementia. We had watched our father's health deteriorate and now our mother's memory. The only person who believed in our abilities was slowly loosing her memory of us.
Would my hopes and dreams die too?
  I not only lost parents, but cats too. I wanted to take Henry and Harry to Washington with me, and I even promised them I would, but Washington never happened. Satan also took away my beloved Harry and my heart broke to many pieces. I lost Harry before my dad's death and Henry after my mother's death. It seemed as if Life was not fair.
   As we continued to take care of my mother, I still had hope to go to Washington but without cats until God gave me another dream: Montana. Washington was the hope for my trials while my parents live but now that they are gone, a new dream desire and emerge.
     Yet after 3 years, my sister and I are still living in our parents house. My sister has a learning disability that keeps from soaring with good grades which hinders her from getting a job or a good gpa to get in the Master's program at an university. She is trying to prove she qualifies for ssi. And me? The wanna be teacher as decided she is too old to teach. Suddenly the desire to become a rancher's wife emerged in her heart. God had given her visions of her future twice and not once had he taken that desire from her. 
My sister and I still have our share of hardships, but with all our trials and tribulations, I can say all is well. Why? Because we made it! I passed the teacher's test to become a substitute teacher  Third time the charm and it was. God had given me a job so we can continue live in our parents' house without anything turned off, but how long will this job last? All I can say is as longa s God wants me there. It doesn't take us out of poverty but it keeps us off the street. As longas I have breath,  God would still work out his good plans for us.
Gratitude and his Presence is the key for me. I think back on the times that he came through for us and gratitude filled my heart. Knowing that God is with us, fills me with such gratitude. I have never felt far away from God. Even in my darkest times, he was there and always will be there. I am thankful for a mom who raised us in the admonition of the Lord. So thankful that she instills us to have faith in the impossible because without it, you can't please God. 
Our dreams and desires have not come to pass, but we know that God is working on our behalf. We just have to wait and see. 
No matter the circumstances, if you have God in your heart, you can say all is well. If God is for us, who can be against us? He is bigger than than all your problem. Peter wrote that we should rejoice in our trials and that our suffering is producing in us precious faith. perhaps that is why I have great faith. If we haven't made it this far, than why have faith? People lose hope and end their life because they can't see that Light in their dark time. They need Jesus to be their light and He needs us to offer that light. If all is well for you, will you be that light to them? Has God brought you through something you never thought possible? 

      

The  scripture says that everyday is a good day because God made it, but what about when adverse circumstances hits you in your face? Does it make the day bad? No, the day is still good, but God can turn it around for you.
The other day, my sister and I had planned to visit a new coffee shop, thinking walk up was open. I had to work that day so we planned to meet there. For her, she would have to get on the bus with her pass she got for thirty dollar less. The transportation department had a special for the spring months and I will tell you, this is a blessing.
When we had arrived, we had found out that the Walk Up was temporarily closed. I was fumed. How could they do that to us? I don't live in that town and the only time, I could visit was when I worked at a school in that area. Yet I saw nothing about it being closed. No Facebook post telling me they were closed. Assuming that the lockdown didn't affect the Walk Up, I didn't even checked. Walk Up at other places like Rally's were open so why not? The temporary closure told me that the manager favored drivers over pedestrians. She even told me, it wouldn't be fair for the driver if they served us. It's not fair on pedestrians!
We tried to make the best of the day. Grateful that she got there using a pass and not a ten dollar trip ticket (worth ten rides), we walked to Dollar General for my sister had never been there then bought a soda that day. Later, I realized how glad I was when I found out my finances wasn't as much as I thought it was. God kept me from spending money on coffee.
God made up for it the next day. My sister had left  over money from what a friend gave her and we had planned on going to Black Bear. We expected to dine outside because of the lockdowns, but to my surprise, we could dine inside! The waiting experience was different but not bad. They would text us when they had a table for us. Since I thought we would have to wait awhile, I went to use the lady's room. A sign on the door simply stated that because of lockdown one person only in the restroom. Holding my breath, I went in to check. No one inside. I thanked God.
When I came back, they had a table ready for us! How about that waiting? And I had almost forgotten my water bottle until a waitress bought it to me! The meal itself was good. I love sweet potato fries dipped in ranch dressing.
There is a sing that goes like this: count your many blessings and name one one by one.  If you ever had a bad experience like I did, rejoice. God is still in the blessing business. He had turned my mourning into dancing by the time I spent with my sister and giving us good service at Black Bear. Keep your eyes open for those blessings and don't focus so much on the bad. Although I  would have loved to try their drinks, I might not have liked it and it would have been a waste. I love Starbucks because I'm used to them but because of their connection to the Illuminati, I boycotted them. I could make my own at home and save money. They have copy cat recipes online. Here is one I use:
eugeniekitchen.com/mocha-frappuccino/

I used to think that if  sub for elementary school teachers, I would get my experience that I need to teach in Christian schools. I get experiences all right, but the curriculums are not the same. Public Instructions are set by the government, not the church. Another reason I'm giving up on this is the income. It's not income though. I work 3 and half to 7 hours a day depending if its a half or full day job. Substitutes gets paid for each day they sub. In other jobs, people are paid by the hour and work 5 to six days a week (hopefully not seven). This has been my experience.
Substituting is perfect for the retired and the married. In the county where I live, they get paid around $100 a day and although there is a shortage of subs, they don't get called everyday. It's an on called basis, and its a stressful job, I am unmarried and only one paying the bills so its hard.  We don't get paid vacations, and holidays. The worst month is December and the summer.  You might ask how in the world do I make it through the summer? By the grace of God.
My experiences as a sub has taught me that I'm there as a light and blessing to the teachers and students. I do enjoying subbing to some extents, but it is not for me, I have to admire the teachers I sub for. They have more creativity then I can put together and I appreciate the lessons plans because I look at their curriculum and wonder how I can come up with a lesson plan. I am 20 years pass college graduation. The teachers are younger than me and they started at a younger age. I'm 53 at this writing.
I realized now that my desire to teach in Christian schools should stay in Washington state and not go with me to Montana. I'm still waiting on that one. I much rather be a help mate to my future husband in Montana than have to teach at a late age.