From Saturday...

Delayed in posting this, but wrote this Saturday night.

Some days as you walk with God you enjoy the blessings he pours out all around you and other days...
as you walk with God you're in the midst of a trial and you're desperate for Him, 

and He's your only hope.  

Either way, we walk with Him and He's always the same, He's always there.  He never changes.

Today, we were desperate for Him.  We were in a trial.  

Our car was stolen.  

And Travis' bike.

We walked outside to go to Ellie's soccer game and the car my parents had so graciously given us when we moved our here, was gone from our driveway.  

It was stolen in the night.

Travis' bike was in the back.

Trav called the police while I took the girls to the soccer game...

on the way, calling out to God and looking all over the streets for our little Toyota. 

And as I stood at her game still in shock trying to focus on the game in front of me,

(E scored her first goal in a game today!)

I became overwhelmed with thankfulness and relief all at the same time.

I looked around and saw my girls and thought,

my kids are all ok.

Nothing had been altered overnight except the status of our material belongings.

And the reality of that is, we'll lose them all sooner than later anyway...

It's a car.

And a bike.

We feel like we need both, but God is bigger.

We don't know how He's going to work this out,

but we are expectant.

And as I go to bed tonight I'm so thankful for my husband.

He hasn't missed a beat all day.

He has proclaimed truth and life for our family.

He led us into worship off and on throughout the day.

He has taken the appropriate steps.

He has allowed me to grieve.

He has asked God to teach us through this.

I'm thankful for this word that Andy Salsky (on our staff) sent us:

Give wholehearted, extravagant, hilarious worship to God.

The enemy will relent when he sees his schemes are only drawing us closer to Jesus...

the very opposite of what He wants.

I can't say that I have passed today with flying colors.

It has been a fight to worship, give God the glory,
and be expectant for how 

he wants to use this.

But I can say that we are resolved that this will be a win for the Phillips family.

This will be a win for our church and for the people we are walking with.

The enemy has been defeated.

God will be the victor here.

And we will stand thankful for what really matters to us...

and hold all the rest loosely.