In Everything Give Thanks

Yesterday I read 1 Thes. 5:18 "In everything give thanks..." What stood out was tha it says "in" all things, not "for" all things. It is funny how you can read something a million times and then one day you get something completely and totally different from it. Anyway, it was then that I realized that when the hard times come I am not to thank G for the hard time, because he is not the author of it. We are to thank Him in the hard time for being the One who provides the way out, to thank him for being the One who is greater than our circumstance. I guess before I would think that I was be thankful for the hard time because it would make us stronger. And even though I still believe that we become stronger from them, it is not the hard time itself that makes us stronger but choosing to turn to G in that hard time. It is interesting to reflect upon Jesus' life and recall that Jesus didn't thank G for any of the hard things people were going through, but rather overcame them by the power from above. Anyway, all this just to move on to my next point. 

I felt that mornings reading really prepared me for the day. Later on we found out that day that we need to go to Hong Kong asap to renew our visas. Our visa's expire on Feb. 13. We could apply right from here, but we are told that we will only get one month and then have to go to Hong Kong in a month. One month being March 13, my due date March 10th, hmmmm I don't think that travel date will work for me. This is both of our last week of teaching and we thought that we could just go to HK during our holiday. Yesterday, we were informed that government offices close for the Chinese holiday and that obtaining a visa before our's runs out would be next to impossible if we wait. YIKES!!! So, that means we need to stop working asap and take a trip to HK. Patrick got really over whelmed by all this yesterday. Unexpected travel, a baby on the way, and visa and travel costs. Anyway, I just felt, G will take care of it. He is bigger than all this. This visa thing can be stressful. We still need to figure out how to get visa's for more than 1-3 months at a time. Patrick signed up to take a TESOL course, in hopes he will be able to get a six month visa, then I would get a family visa under his name. I can't get a 6 month because my education diploma has a choice word that isn't accepted and prairie has refused to take it off. But G is bigger... and this is a testimony in the making that will glorify G.