I don't exactly remember what I took from her speaking the first time I heard her but this year it has been resonating so soundly with me. If you haven't heard of her before look her up: www.thepotterylady.com. Rachel is a very talented potter and makes it look effortless but more than that she speaks such beautiful and raw truth that it really cuts to the core and captures your entire attention.
There are numerous references to the potter and clay in the Bible. It is so amazing to me that the Bible can put an entire lesson in life in one sentence... Look at Isaiah 64:8. He is the Potter and we are the clay. So what does that mean? Well, the clay is chosen for a specific purpose by the Potter and it goes through several steps in order to be perfect and useful. We need to be wedged first (like kneading bread) in order to get out air bubbles and make it all the same, then we start to be formed. Once we're done on the Potters wheel we've got to set for awhile to get all the moisture out before we get sent to the fire (Kiln). If a piece of pottery goes into the fire too early it will burst. Afterwards, it gets glazed and painted and then re-fired, the second time even hotter than the first. We need to go through each of these steps in order to be useful for our Potter... and they aren't fun but we can't tell him what we need because we are just the clay and He has the vision. How hard is that! I can tell you friends, it's been a struggle.
Why? Well... It will be 6 years in May that Joe and I've been married and although we've been so happy and I couldn't be happier that he is my partner in life... the life that has been surrounding us since than has been not very peachy. We keep waiting for our break. We both feel like its just been storming on us and man are we tired.
I have been still struggling with my health stuff. I found out that my thyroid numbers are perfect but my hormone levels are still not where they should be... This is also part of we we have yet to get pregnant again. So, I got sent to a specialist.. He's hopeful some medication should be able to fix some things and hopefully restart my body's natural rhythm. It contributes to a lot every day, from being exhausted, to gaining weight and hot flashes.
Joe's waiting for a new job. He really dislikes his current one and can't wait to get into a police department where he feels his heart is calling. Police departments hire during certain parts of the year though and so we wait. He thought of applying to a department that is an hour away but that would be 14 hour days and a lot of time away from his family.
It is so easy to try to rush God's plan for us because the waiting is tough.. but what I kept hearing on Monday was "wait, sweet child of mine, wait. I know what I'm doing... and it is going to be so good."
So this is where we are. We're in the waiting period. I know my God is good... I know His plans are good. I know that I can trust Him and what He has said. In the mean time, we're trying to enjoy life as much as we can. We're getting healthy and doing all that we can to prepare for the next stage. We're ready Jesus!
