Beauty amid destruction

"Praise You In This Storm" by Casting Crowns is one of my favorite songs, bar none! I find so much comfort in the words and still praising God through the storms of life. This past week, though, I was praising God through a different type of storm, and ice storm. As I lay in bed Tuesday and Wednesday nights listening to large tree limbs breaking and crashing to the ground under the weight of the heavy ice, I kept telling God, I will praise You in this storm, because I trust God will bring us through whatever trials may come our way. We are still on day 6 with no electricity, but God provided wonderful neighbors who had a very large generator, so we are able to have lights and heat. We are in a very rural area, but neighbors have been checking on neighbors (our closest neighbor is 1/4 a mile away) and all are well. I am so thankful for these people.

Mom was with us for several days and I was so happy to have her here, we were talking one day, about not having electricity and how this may have been God's way to prepare us for something in our future, possibly a mission trip? I think God has also helped us realize that we are not in charge of things, He is, and if we remember to give Him praise in ALL things, not just the good times, He will provide.

Please continue to pray for the crews from the electrical companies, especially North Arkansas Electric, as they work 16 hour days to get power restored to all the people who are without electricity. Casey has been working long days, too, and will continue to do so until all outages are restored. She's exhausted, but this has made her realize that we can't take things for granted because they could be gone in an instant. It may be 3-4 weeks before we have electricity restored, but as long as diesel and gas are available, and our generator keeps chugging along, we will be just fine.....no, as long as God is in control we will be fine!