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Hello friends, welcome back to Grace for my home. I'm so glad you're back here with me again this week. Just to give you a little update on some things that are going on around here. I have two sons who are training for a 5k. Last year my oldest son, david, ended up going with some friends to the Myrtle Beach Marathon and there was a 5k and he ran in that and he just showed up and ran. He had no training whatsoever and he did pretty well for having no training. So this year he has been training and he's pulled his little brother along and they have been running all year and so coming up in March they have that and they're really looking forward to it. So I'm really thankful for that.
Audrey McCracken:I prayed through the years that the Lord would give them, each of them, interest and things that they enjoy doing, and that's one thing that they really enjoy doing together. They've even gotten their cousin to run with them. So coming up in March they'll be running in the Myrtle Beach Marathon well, not in the Marathon, in the 5k that goes along with the marathon, and also there's one another 5k in the town where we have our coffee shop. It's a new thing this year, and so when I told them about that they were really excited about that and they're going to run in that one as well. My middle son, luke, he texted me today because he has a weightlifting class and he's a sophomore in high school and he broke a record today in weightlifting and that's apparently and I say a record a high school, a record for the high school that he is attending, not any kind of state or national record, but for their high school. He broke a record and he's a sophomore and apparently that was a big deal because he sent me you know where they had his name up on the leaderboard and everything and he was so excited about that. And so I'm just, you know, cheering my boys on. I, you know, I'm not athletic at all, but I'm glad they are and that they enjoy that.
Audrey McCracken:And a few weeks ago my son's helped a friend of ours clean out a shed in the back of their yard and they were taking all this stuff to the dump and and to be recycled and in the back of that shed there was some weightlifting equipment and it was old and dusty and they were going to throw it out. Well, luke asked can I have that? They're like, oh sure, you can have it. So he has cleaned up all that weightlifting equipment and it was actually really nice. It was just dirty and I can't park in the garage anymore because they've taken over my garage. Now it's a gym, but that's just something they enjoy doing, and all three of them you know they they go out there and lift weights together. They have a treadmill set up and and so you know the joys of having teenage boys, I guess, in your home. I'm learning. I'm learning as I go, but that's kind of what's going on with them.
Audrey McCracken:And then my husband and I are getting ready to go on a trip together. We have a ministry conference next week and I think we're going to go down a day early just to spend some time together, because we never get to do that, and we're really looking forward to that. It is a conference, but it's a conference with friends of ours. We're going to be able to see people that we haven't seen in a long time. We have a friend who is a missionary in Germany and she'll be at that conference, so we're really looking forward to seeing her and all of the other people, many of the other people who will be at that conference, or friends of ours that we've known and loved and worked with for 20 to 30 years. So I'm really looking forward to that. Sometimes you just need to get away and see something new, and so, yeah, we're looking forward to that at least I am and today I was praying about what to share with you guys.
Audrey McCracken:I want to talk with you today about change. One thing is for certain we are going to go through changes. No matter how much we don't want to, we're gonna have to change. Things are going to change around us and those things are gonna force us to change or to be miserable. There's no other way.
Audrey McCracken:You know, a lot of times we'll find ourselves in places that we don't like and we just wish we could change it. And you know, we may not be able to for a while, but sometimes, when we're in those places where we just wish things could change, you know, we learn to adapt, we learn to grow in those places. A lot of times God will put us in those places because he knows what he the work that needs to go on inside of us, and he knows what he's doing, and he'll put us in places that we don't necessarily want to be, but where we need to be for what he's trying to do inside of us. And sometimes we'll be in those places and after he's done a work in us and we've done the work necessary in that place, we'll actually find that we like that place. And then, as soon it feels like, as soon as we get to that place where we actually like where we are, it's time to change again and it, I admit it does not seem fair, but it's part of life, it's part of growing and maturing. You know, for, for example, you know, I've taught with you guys, I've shared with you about how, you know, I was working at a full-time job, pretty pretty demanding job, and I liked my job, but I wanted to spend more time with at home, with my family, and so, as it took a while, but we got to the place where we felt that we could do that financially and I was able to quit that job which I know was a gift from the Lord for that season and come home to my kids and, like anything that you know, we have in our mind how it's going to be and we're looking forward to it.
Audrey McCracken:It rarely matches what we thought it was going to be and that's what coming home for me was like, because I was here in my home all day with my children and I have and had issues, and I was maturing and I was growing in areas and so were they, and they were real little, and so I struggled most of the day with you know just what is my purpose here? What are we doing here? And I really struggled, and it was a season of growth. For me it was either grow or be miserable. So I chose to grow. I believed God was trying to do something in me and he did. He used my children to help me to grow up, to help me to mature in areas where I didn't realize before I needed to. So as I grew, I started functioning better in the areas where I had before struggled, and it was like I was getting my groove. Well, just when you think you have it figured out and you got your groove, things change.
Audrey McCracken:And so we, we homeschooled for a season and then, as it was right after COVID, my oldest son, david, got to the age of high school and we knew we had a decision to make. I loved homeschooling him. I would have homeschooled him till he graduated high school, but my husband is a high school principal and he was 14. David was 14 at the time and we felt like it was time to let him start making some decisions for his life, at least playing a part in making those decisions, because we want our boys to grow up with a sense of responsibility for their own lives and in a confidence that they can make good decisions and that, even if they make bad decisions, they can back up and correct. And you know, that's how we learn, that's how we learn to walk is we learn to crawl? And so when it came that time, we started telling David David, you need to pray about what to do for school next year. Are you going to continue to homeschool or do you want to go to high school? And he decided he wanted to go to high school.
Audrey McCracken:Now I will say this I know that I have a very unique circumstance. My husband is the principal at his high school, at our local high school, and so I think they have a great principal and I wasn't just sending him off to a school, I was sending him basically with his dad to high school. But it still was a hard transition for me because it was a letting go and there were so many things that I had not taught him that I wanted to teach him. There were so many books I wanted us to go through together. It felt like just when he had gotten to the age when we could have these really good discussions about meaningful things, he was gone. And then the next year, the very next year, his brother had to make the same decision and he also decided to go to high school and Thank goodness, I still had one at home, and I still do, and I'm enjoying teaching him.
Audrey McCracken:But it has been a change for our family and mostly for me. But it's so, it's. It's so interesting how the Lord does things like this, because you know, you can tell people what is right and you can encourage people, you know, to trust God. But that doesn't mean anything unless we've learned to do it for ourselves. So I found myself in this and this new place where, you know, I just I wasn't sure how to function as a mom in this new season. It's kind of like, you know, before I was struggling when they were little and then I got it and I thought, oh, I like this. And now they've grown up and they're teenagers and they're making these, these big decisions for themselves and they're leaving and they're just going high school. Now I know that it's not college, it's just high school, but it was a big change and I had a lot of decisions to make. How am I going to handle this change? And they're at different ages. They go through different stages and so do we as they're growing up. So are we growing up, we're maturing and going to different levels as they mature and we have to decide how we're going to handle those times.
Audrey McCracken:I was reading just this past week about Elijah. The story of Elijah is in First Kings and in chapter 17 it talks about how Elijah predicted the drought that was about to come to Israel. Israel had turned their back on God. They were deep into bell worship and God pronounced through Elijah that there was going to be a drought. There's going to be no rain for years.
Audrey McCracken:In First Kings, starting in chapter 17, verse 1, it says now Elijah the Tishite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word. The word of the Lord came to him saying go away from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook of Shereeth, which is east of the Jordan. It shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook of Shereeth, which is east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
Audrey McCracken:It happened after a while that the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying arise and go to Zeraphat, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. Elijah is doing the Lord's work, he's the Lord's mouthpiece. He declares the drought and then God says to him you go down to this brook and I'm going to take care of you. Now God provided what he needed. Didn't necessarily provide everything he wanted I can't imagine getting a big meal from a ravens mouth but it sustained Elijah. But after a while the brook dried up and that was the sign that it's time to move on.
Audrey McCracken:This brook is no longer providing what you need, and I'm sure Elijah started praying Lord, the brook has dried up. What am I going to do? Well, this season is over. Now I'm going to provide for what you need in a different way. I want you to go down to the widow's house Now.
Audrey McCracken:That doesn't sound like a very great proposition either. Usually the widows are those that are dependent on other people to help them, especially the widows with children, which this lady had. So God is sending Elijah to somebody who can barely provide for herself. Actually, when he gets there, he finds out that she has enough flour and oil for one more meal, and she was going to fix her and her son a meal and just wait to die. So it truly is a miracle how he's providing for Elijah, not just with the ravens and the brook, but now with the widow. So God is still providing, but it's a different season, it's a different way, and God gets to decide the seasons and he gets to decide when they're over. And if we are sensitive to him, then we will listen and obey and trust that. You know, maybe I don't like this new season, but I trust that God's with me in it, that he is taking me by the hand and he's leading me, because when the brook dries up, we've got to go to the next place or we'll drive to.
Audrey McCracken:One thing that has helped me, especially when it comes to the, the seasons of my children and them growing up it's helped me to remember that I'm not raising little boys, I'm raising men. And the same with you Maybe you have girls. You're not raising little girls, you're raising women. They're not destined to stay little boys and little girls. They are destined to become full-grown men and women and we want to raise them so that they're responsible, so that they're resilient, so that they're confident, that they're thinking, that they're strong, that they're caring. And we want to raise strong men and women who love God, not children who are dependent on us.
Audrey McCracken:And part of that is learning how to let go and let God take them where they need to go, and he's going to take them places. We cannot go Now. We can go there in our prayers and I think as moms, that's one of our most important responsibilities is to cover them and send them off in prayer. That is so powerful, but we can't do it for them and we can't go with them. We have to trust the Lord that he knows the age and the stage and what they need and what we need to. And we have to let them go and we will grow ourselves in the process, and we can't embrace the next season as long as we're still holding on to the past season. You know, a lot of times the reasons that we don't want to go to the next season is we feel like we just made so many mistakes in the past season. Well, just let me try again, let me get it right. I got so many things wrong. We can't, we just have to say, lord, I just lifted all up to you Everything I got right, everything I got wrong I lifted up to you. I just put it in your hands and I'm just going to trust you with the future. But we can't correct the past. We can't change the past. We have to move on and just believe for better in the future.
Audrey McCracken:Now I've done things in the past that I really think have has hurt my children. I mean, I'm just being honest with you. I think every mom struggles with that. There are things that I have done. There are areas where I used too strong of a word or I was just too too much or not enough, and I wish so much I could go back and change some things, but I can't. But what I can do is I can pray for God's hand of healing on my children, and I do. What I can do is be honest with them and tell them I really messed up here and I'm sorry. I did not do a good job of showing you Christ in that area, and I ask you to forgive me and I ask you to do better with your own children. That is all I can do at that point, but that's a lot. And then I just have to put them in the Lord's hands and just pray that I do better the next season.
Audrey McCracken:And God is so powerful we doubt sometimes that he is able to do what we can't do. We just think I've got to do this, I've got to get in there and work it out and make it right. Sometimes the best thing we can do is just take our hands off of it and release them to him and let him make it right, and then we'll go into the next season and enjoy that season so much more because we've let go of the past, because we've got to let go of the past and embrace and run into the next season. He has good things that we have not seen yet. I has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the mind of man what God has prepared for those who love him. If we believe that, then we will face the future and let the past go with all of its mistakes. You know, god can even use our mistakes. God says in the Word that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose. All things work together for good, even our mistakes. He will work them together for good. I don't know how he does that, but I'm so glad he does. I want to encourage you this week to move forward, to embrace the next stage, to say Lord, here I am, I have not got it all right, thankfully. I've not got it all wrong either, but anything that I have done that has not helped in raising my children, that has been a hindrance instead of a help. Lord, I just commit it to you and we move on and we say Lord, let me see the joy in this new place where You've put me. Help me to enjoy this new place and not dwell on the past. Help me move on. Lord, you've got new things for me.
Audrey McCracken:When Elijah went to the widow's house, he found out that she had a son. While Elijah was there, he fell ill and he died. And the widow was pretty upset, as you can imagine, and said have you come here to remind me of my sin? I thought you were sent by God. Is God and I'm putting this in my own words, right, I'm paraphrasing is God mad at me? That's how we feel sometimes, isn't it? And through Elijah, through his prayer, god brought her son back. And I want you to remember that this was not a widow of Israel. She was from Sidon. They were not covenant people, they were outside of God's covenant, but God cared about her.
Audrey McCracken:And I do believe that even in the Old Testament, god was speaking forward and he was showing that he cares about all people, that he is going to make a way where there seems to be no way, that he wants a big family, he loves His creation, and I think he was showing that he's going to bring everybody into His covenant who will come and see things happen. We can't change them, but God can make miracles happen when we move to the next season. Miracles we never saw coming Miracles that come out of tragedy. You know, a lot of times you can't have a testimony until you've had a test right. I just rather have the testimony, but God wants it to mean something, so he puts it at the end of a test because he's making us into men and women that bear His name and show the world how good he is, because we bear His name. We bear His name, we are His followers, we are His witnesses. We are His witnesses. Right, he said. I'm going to give you power to be witnesses, and that power is the grace that we show through the difficulties that we face, and the hope that's in our heart as we move from one season to the next, even if we don't want to, even if we'd rather say no, lord, I'm fine right here, I like this place. But God says, nope, it's time to move on. It's time to move on. He's got something good for us.
Audrey McCracken:Father, I thank you for these ladies who are listening. I thank you that you know right where they are and you care. You care about everything that bothers them, everything that concerns them. I pray, lord, that they would know your great love for them, that you would surround them this day, this week, with your love, that they would be so aware of your tendermerses and your loving kindnesses. And I pray, lord, that you would give us the grace to let go of the past season and move into the next season and trust you with all the mistakes. And, lord, I thank you for hope, I thank you for faith. Lord, our faith comes from you. You're the author and the finisher of it and I ask you, lord, god, to provide every need that we have this week, every need that these ladies have this week, that you would provide it, just like you sent Elijah, the ravens and the brook and the widow. Lord, it may not feel like it's enough, but it's more than enough because you know what we need. In Jesus' name. Thank you, lord, amen.