This morning we had such a great time celebrating the accomplishments of all of our clubbers! If you’re new here, AWANA is a program at our church that helps the children become engaged, learn, memorize scripture and more! We are so grateful to all of our volunteers who lead and help the children at our church! The children in the program memorized ( a combined #) hundreds of verses and we’re overjoyed to think of all the Scripture that’s already hidden in the hearts of the next generation.

The last AWANA student to be recognized at this mornings graduation ceremony memorized 57 Bible verses this past school year and also received the Timothy Award in recognition of her special achievements. . . and I’m so excited to tell you that was my girl.

Awana has different awards, you earn awards for each level that you’re at, and the highest award that you can receive through the AWANA program is the Timothy Award. It’s given to any child who completes all 4 books of the last club T&T (Truth and Training).

We’ve only had one other student in our church ever receive the Timothy Award, Hunter, and he was there to present Zoey with her special award. I’m proud of those two!

My little Posie got her certificate for memorizing 24 Bible verses this year. My heart could burst.

My 1st child at her last awards ceremony and my last child at her 1st award ceremony. How precious is that I ask you?

I wasn’t there in person to watch my girls, I was home watching online. I’m having a lot of fatigue from a stress-induced flare (from the stressful week) and I didn’t make things any better for myself by going out last night. I had to. I promised my oldest that we’d have a mommy-daughter date before I left and since I’m leaving tomorrow, it was time sensitive. Part of me also feels heavy under the weight of regret: Why didn’t I ask my entire church to just pray with us last week . . . b/c look at the mess of this week. I wonder would anything be different if I’d had an entire congregation praying bold prayers with us a week ago, surely I needed them to . . . look at this week.

If you”re new here, my little one is being admitted to the hospital in a couple of days (should’ve been tomorrow, will prayerfully be Tuesday). The insurance denied little one’s hospital admission last minute. LAST MINUTE. And everything’s been a race against time with the appeal. I feel peace that we’re going, but I feel regret that I assumed people would pray instead of just asking, “Please pray now”. Always remember “tomorrow” is one of the biggest lies of the enemy. And tonight ended up being, even more, a bummer b/c I was going to go to small group while my husband worked this evening and then he told me it’d been canceled. My heart definitely could’ve used just being with my favorite people. I need some hugs & prayers tonight.

As I sat here feeling completely bummed out about the day, I began to look at these pictures, of not just my girls but of the youth and younger generation, and am reminded of what God has done. My heart could burst thinking of these students and their desire, passion, and dedication to grow in the Word of God. It helps me take my eyes off of myself and think, I may not see what’s going on behind the scenes, but I can see what He’s done through some of these kids and it’s nothing short of miraculous . . . but that’s just Abba, a way maker and miracle worker.

I’m thankful He gives us what we need . . . and what I needed was an overwhelming sense that things were going to be okay. While I don’t know what tomorrow brings, knowing that tomorrow is bringing with it these warriors for God . . . that brings me joy.

Here’s to praying for, and believing for, a big answered prayer tomorrow!