The countdown begins...

Dear Sweetheart,

The official countdown has begun.

With less than 24 hours until your departure, I am feeling the familiar pangs that I well remember from the past departures...fear, anxiety, extreme sadness. I so want to stop the hands of time and keep you here with us. It is almost unbearable to take that last step - that final plunge - and actually let you go.

But God is faithful. As I try to calm myself and ask for his help, he quickly puts a favorite poem in my mind quoted from Elisabeth Elliot (my favorite author).

So I will meditate on these wise words and plead for him to make my task more easy, more manageable, more peaceful, more obedient to Him by helping me to make the choices he would be proud of and that would honor you most. To hand him my cares, one by one, over and over - even the ones that I hastily snatch back again and again - and trust that he will manage them as he sees fit. To trust that he has my best interest - our family's best interest - in mind more than I could ever imagine and knows exactly what we need and when we need it.

And I will do the next thing.

With both heartache and hope,
All my love, M~

Do the Next Thing

At an old English parsonage down by the sea,
There came in the twilight a message to me.
Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven
That, as it seems to me, a teaching from Heaven.
And all through the hours the quiet words ring,
Like a low inspiration, "Do the next thing..."

Many a questioning, many a fear,
Many a doubt hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment, let down from Heaven,
Time, opportunity, guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrow, child of the King,
Trust that with Jesus, Do the next thing...

Do it immediately, do it with prayer,
Do it reliantly, casting all care.
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand,
Who placed it before thee with earnest command,
Stayed on omnipotence, safe 'neath His wing,
leave all resultings, Do the next thing...

Looking to Jesus, ever serener,
Working or suffering be thy demeanor,
In His dear presence, the result of His calm,
The light of His countenance, be thy psalm.
Do the next thing...