Ivy Sue and You

November 21, 2017, a fire took our shop building. This year, on that same date the verse of the day on my Bible app was, Psalm 9:1 “I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.” Wow! Like, for real, WOW! This entire past year I have so many times praised God for what He has done through the loss of the shop. It’s hard losing things; things you have worked hard for, things you used and needed, sentimental things…but in the end, they are just things. We are eternally grateful the only loss we experienced that day were things, most of which can be replaced and what cannot be replaced, are still just things. No lives lost, no injury. So many have experienced so much worse in recent days that it is impossible for me to dwell on the loss aspect of that day. What I have dwelt on, pondered on, and passed on to so many from that day are the immeasurable blessings that came from that fire. On that day, Uncle Kenny messaged me and said something that has stuck with me “satan can’t even touch our faith with fire!” Amen and Amen! God refines us with fire and that is what he did. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy…BUT GOD!...He has made beauty from ashes, literally. I know this is quite long but it is hard to find words to tell of all the marvelous things God has done for us this past year. I praise you LORD for the lessons you teach us in every situation, if we just tune our hearts to you! I encourage each of you reading this, in times of tragedy or turmoil, tune out satan when he tries to smash you during this time and rather tune your hearts toward God, and allow his refining fire to sweep through your heart and mind and you will find His peace that the world cannot understand!