• Share

  Tweet

• how it works
• 

---

Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: FRESH START (01/05/17)

---

• TITLE: The Alpha and The Omega | Previous Challenge Entry
  By Taryn Deets
  01/12/17
• 
  
  
    LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
    SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
    ADD TO MY FAVORITES

---

“Does January first signify the beginning of the year to you, or are you on the school schedule so that it is the middle of the year?” my pastor asked.

We had just started our weekly staff meeting, which we’d been missing the past three weeks because of the Christmas holiday and the busy-ness of working at a church during Advent.

“Hmm, well…both maybe?” I stammered.

***

My high-schoolers running out the door, “The bus is coming,” they yelled to their siblings who were still in various stages of readiness.

“What do I need to do today?” I thought as I opened my planner.

***

Last September I got a call from my mom, “Dad is in the hospital with a collapsed lung,” and then again in late October, “Dad had an aneurysm early this morning and has been flown to San Antonio.”

***

“How did the job interview go, Mark?” a friend asked as we sat around the table, enjoying food and fellowship, before starting our Bible study.

“What is your will, God?” I pondered as my husband answered.

***

My adoptive daughter (of nine years) yelled across the soccer field on her way to the car, “I hate you, you’re not my mother and you never will be!” after having been told she needed to do something differently.

A few days later, when I could finally do it without anger I told her, “What you said a few days ago, was really hurtful.”

She just stared at me; she gave no response at all.

***

Every new day, each new moment, requires fresh grace, and much mercy, to meet it in world where overwhelming circumstances are lurking right around the next corner. I am smack-dab in the middle of raising my teenagers and caring for my aging father, and am quickly learning how to live in what has been labeled “the sandwich generation.”

My family is also in the middle of a move and possible relocation to another state. We have five teenagers who will graduate from high school one by one over the next five years, who don’t want to move. How’s an overwhelmed wife (mother, soccer mom, van carpool driver, church administrator, daughter, short-order cook, janitor, you get the picture) supposed to not just survive every moment, but somehow live the abundant life?

I struggle with where to even start most days, but as I am turning, turning, turning and putting out fire after fire, gently God reminds me to just open my eyes as I am turning. As I do, I glimpse my fifteen-year-old son and his friend singing carols while putting lights on the tree; enjoy my children sharing the things they learned from the sermon since I had to miss church again; and marvel at the mother deer and her fawn that dart out of the woods in front of me as I walk our border collie.

When He has my attention God whispers, “Now look up,” and I do; because now my heart is ready.

“Yes, Lord?”

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, and I have it all under control. Walk with me.”

“Yes, Lord!”

(entry is non-fiction)

---

---

---

The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

---

Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.

---