When the dog is gone and your husband is bad and life seems pretty crazy…wait.. wait… wait.. that came out wrong.  When the dog is bad and your husband is gone and life seems pretty crazy, what do you do?

Stephen leaves today for a trip to Brazil.  It’s the beginning of a 6-week period of time where one of us is traveling every week.  Most of that travel is me, (head down in a humble position, acknowledging my crazy schedule). I have a trip to the Philippines, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic.  21 days of international travel in 6 weeks of time.

So, lets back up.  A lot of people keep asking me, how is my new job?

I LOVE IT.

Sometimes I just have to stop and thank God for the gift he has given me by providing a job that I can be absolutely passionate about.   I spend my days thinking and planning travel for groups who are going to see the amazing work of Compassion International.  Just today I got to hear some facts about Compassion, and these staggering statistics, made me so proud of the organization that I have spent 17 years financially and emotionally supporting.  (I have to wait until the report is released to say anything further).

Anyway, the next few weeks are crazy.  In the midst of our six weeks of craziness, my daughter, Isabel, has this organization called Shoes for Kids, that she is trying to manage…and she is 12 years old.  The IRS wants some paper work from the state of Washington before we can become a 501(c)3, while tons of shoes need to be sorted. Isabel continues to gets invitations for speaking gigs too.  Friends, she is 12 and she doesn’t really enjoy public speaking, so any time we decide to do these things it’s because she spent the entire night awake praying to God to help her decide what to do.

So… this is our life.

What do you do when the dog is bad and your husband is gone and life is crazy?

Stephen and I stayed up the other night and discussed these things.

1)   We must care for each other’s heart.  We must put others before ourselves and realize that the family is our first ministry.

2)   We must pray…for each other.  God is good. He knows our needs.  He knows our spouses needs. He knows our kids needs.

3)   We must be in the Word.  Don’t ever get to busy to ignore the amazing words that God has provided us within the Bible.  If you can’t buy into the Bible, I don’t know what to tell you.  It’s my life source.

4) We must take a deep breath and slow down knowing that it’s all going to be ok.

Walking into this season is bittersweet.  I love the ministry, but life brings an element of chaos.  This is the exact reason we need prayer, the Word and the encouragement of others.

So, for the next 6 weeks, if the Jones’ come to your mind, would you just mention our names to HIM?  As an amazing Kenyan lady once said to me “Just mention my name. He knows my name and He knows what I need.”

And as far as Levi, the dog…he got a bath to remember.