This week has been extremely busy, and tomorrow I head off to Philadelphia for QVC. So not only did I do shows at Flamingo Las Vegas, but I packed for my trip and deep cleaned my house for family that just came into town. Can I say I wished I’d had 10 more of ME this week! 😂I know you’ve experienced those times when there’s so many things to get done you just wish you had somebody by your side to help you!
This reminded me of a great lesson my sweet Father taught me as a teenager. It was during a particularly hectic time, we had to tape two weeks worth of Donny & Marie variety shows, in one week! It seemed like everything was SO difficult and it wasn’t letting up! 🥴🥊The months previous had similar obstacles that kept happening and so I began to grow discouraged, overwhelmed and weary from them. I mean... everything that could possibly happen, happened!!! You know what I’m talking about? 😩 It seemed that whenever one dust cloud was beginning to settle, another one would kick up, then another, and another. I remember asking my Dad, “At what point in life can I expect the dust to finally settle? He said, “Never. The dust never settles.”
Throughout our lives each of us experience these dust clouds. Some are relatively minor. They are the frustrating and often annoying little matters which we face on a regular basis: an unexpected demand on our time, a difficult client or work project, a disobedient child we are lovingly trying to parent or an unexpected financial burden....the list goes on and on…
But in addition to minor dust clouds, many of us will experience much larger ones during our lives: a major illness, the loss of a family member, financial problems, a broken relationship, betrayal, addiction, depression, sin, and the pain from others’ sins, that can affect our lives. At times, these dust clouds may be overwhelming. They may resemble haboobs, those massive dust storms we sometimes see in apocalyptic films; dust that covers everything in their path, they’re suffocating, and seemingly impenetrable.
This is where we have to be strong and “Immovable in our faith”. We must stay positive trusting that Christ knows us and what we are going through. And “believe” He will be there for us through our difficult, storms of life!!!
In Isaiah 52:2 Isaiah said: “Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem.” It’s curious to me that Isaiah said “arise, and sit down.” because it seems contradictory to tell us to arise and then sit down. But pondering this, it’s really not. Isaiah is asking us to arise from the dust of our mortal challenges, weaknesses, shortcomings, and our sins, and sit down on the throne that our Heavenly Father has prepared for us, one that is only available through Jesus Christ. But we don’t have to wait until the resurrection to listen to Isaiah’s admonition to arise or shake ourselves from the dust. We can do it now, starting today! Maybe our personal struggles are judgements, maybe it’s a temptation or a sin, but whatever it may be, if we turn to Him through the “daily practice of prayer”, it will be as though God is our housekeeper helping us to clean out the dust and confusion from our lives! I don’t know about you but every now and then I sure like asking for a little assistance with my house cleaning 🧹😊
It is only through the Savior that we can arise from the dust storms of life. In 1 Samuel 2:8, it says that the Lord “raiseth up the poor out of the dust … to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory.” And in 1 Kings 16:2, the Lord states: “I exalted thee out of the dust.”
I know that the Lord is so willing to assist us and all we have to do is ask for it in faith. The Creator and Savior of the world—who humbly and lovingly washed the dust off the feet of his disciples—stands ready to assist us in shaking off the dust of our lives and finding the hope, peace and joy that comes from having faith in Him.
How have you shown more faith in God when the dust storms of life blow through your life? I love when you share your stories! 😊