Artists

Embrace

Thankfully—A Wise Woman

Hello and Happy Holidays from Embrace! We’ve just celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family and Christmas is right around the corner. This is such a busy time of year for all of us and it can be more than a little challenging to keep our focus on the Savior. Embrace is taking a short sabbatical during the Christmas season to spend time with our loved ones. Dane, Marci and Melinda are looking forward to this time to regroup, reconnect and prepare for a wonderful 2006!

We in the Embrace family have been so blessed this year that we can’t help but feel overwhelmed with gratitude to the Lord for His goodness and his mercy. Our hearts are full. We were privileged to participate in a special worship service on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and heard many testimonies. Person after person shared accounts of divine healing, help, encouragement, strengthening and comfort. We were moved at the many voices all saying the same thing--”God came through for me and I appreciate it.”

Personally, my heart was turned during those moments to a young couple from our church. They were burying their young son the next morning. At the age of two, this little light from Heaven had been called home and his precious family is left to celebrate this holiday season with an empty chair at the table. I couldn’t help but wonder how they were coping. I couldn’t help but think, “Are they thankful this night?” My answer wasn’t long in coming.

The next morning I heard the most wonderful testimony of God’s grace and compassion unfold. This young mother was receiving strength and understanding that only our Loving Father could give.. The Lord had given her profound comfort through His Holy Word. The verse that He had burned into her heart was Proverbs 14:1. “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” God was helping this precious grieving mother to understand that during this time of loss she had to choose whether she would honor God through her faith and “build her house” or let her pain push her away from God and so bring destruction to her remaining family. Praise God, she was choosing to build!

I firmly believe that this family will be blessed now and in eternity to come because of this wise woman’s choice. I’m wondering, would I be so ready to trust my Lord if it were my child? I am reassured in scripture that Father God will give grace in the hour that it is needed. His strength is sufficient when we have none of our own. We must only choose to believe.

This sweet family is choosing to believe God and trust His purpose. They are choosing to be thankful for the time they shared with their precious son and brother. Please pray during this holiday season for this family and so many like them who have lost someone dear to them in 2005. Pray that we will all be wise and choose to build and not tear down when God’s hand seems to move against us. He can be trusted. His love is boundless and His ways are unsearchable. Praise His Holy Name!!!

Love in Christ during this special season from Embrace to you.

By Nora Truhett
Embrace
http://www.embraceministry.com