God’s grace is sufficient

By Rita Davidson

I took it easy yesterday, I ate chocolate, drank lots of water for my sinuses, used my favorite essential oil for sinuses Eucalyptus Radiata and painted my nails. You might be thinking well ‘she’s lucky!” ha I suppose I am.

I mean I walked out of a burning building with barely the clothes on my back and my life. I AM LUCKY. I am BLESSED. I really am.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have hard days too. And the day before yesterday was hard. You see our house burned down July 2013 (our 2 year anniversary is coming up) but it’s not over yet and we still have many lose ends to tie up.

We have a storage trailer FULL of donations that we have to sell so they can take the trailer back. The campsite that we stayed at for 7 weeks after our fire has been very generous in keeping it for us since then.

As it got filled, we could not do anything with it since we had no room to store or use any of it. Living in the campsite trailer we didn’t use much at all. Linens and clothing, but we had no running water, couldn’t cook there, not a good indoor toilet even, so much of our time was spent sorting donations. It became our full time job.

Then as summer neared the end, we moved from there to our next place a cabin on a lake. It was roomier and we settled in pretty good there. Still no indoor toilets or running water or phone.

When we got froze out of there in December 2013, we moved to various motels until finally the trailer on our land.

All those donations in the trailer couldn’t be used much and so we just kept them stored hoping we would have a house to move them into before they got damaged.

Well we moved here in November 2014 and then took what we could use in our house. Finally with real bedrooms and running water, it took 18months to get back into a real house.

No sooner did we move into this house winter was upon us and we couldn’t get anywhere near the storage trailer. Winter was a gentle respite for us after all that moving. Six times in Six months. It gave our hearts time to heal and our minds time to catch up to all that had happened.

Then spring arrived and we knew it was soon time to tie up our loose ends. So this week was the first week we spent cleaning up our land and trailer.

The boys are always sad to go back to our land. So many memories we had there for 10 years. It was a time when our family was all together still, our girls still with us at home. It is sad for us all. Liam and Andrew are both torn as they create this sad face on the rock.

My heart breaks to be back there too. It’s like you miss the familiarity so much, but at the same time it has been torn from you so it’s not really there any more. It’s an ache I can’t really describe, but it’s real.

Then we spent time at our storage trailer, sorting through the many belongings and meeting with an auctioneer that wants to help us sort through and get rid of it. This was supposed to be donations to generate some money for us, and we find out that it all isn’t worth very much if anything for us now. Disappointment and I am exhausted from sorting all this stuff.

As I reflect back over the past 2 years my soul is weary. I know it is a needful weeding this garden of my soul that God has plucked. My soul feels raw and bare. I don’t want to have to deal with what is to come but I know I must push forward with courage. I’m reminded God’s grace is sufficient. While my soul feels weary I know God is waiting for me to go through this next stage.

Sometimes we just need to take the time to sit back, and take some ME TIME. ME TIME for you might not look like it looks like for me. Some call it ‘down time’. Whatever you call it, we know God doesn’t expect the impossible from us. He knows that along with our prayers, chocolate has a way of soothing the most, weary of souls. 🙂

And sometimes nail polish. I don’t know why nail polish makes me smile, but if often does. When I’m feeling down and see a flash of these nails I smile. It helps me feel put together. Like I am worth the time it took. It helps me feel like I’ve taken care of myself. When my world looks and feels raw and unfriendly, like after our fire, a little kindness shown to ourselves helps heal us.

For you it might be a bubble bath, a skin mask, a foot bath, a good book? Whatever it is, God sees your pain and weariness and His grace IS sufficient. He can send you His grace through prayers and through that chocolate you just ate or those not too fancy nails perhaps.  🙂

How do we find the balance between selfishness and vanity?  – For God’s grace is sufficient and we ARE living in the world. SHARE with me here.

With love,

Rita Xo 🙂

©Copyright 2015 Rita Davidson & Little Flowers Family Press All Rights Reserved.

Rita is a Catholic wife, and mother of seven, with three autistic boys.  Author, of “Immodesty, Satan’s Virtue” (2001) and speaker, she has a PASSION for making #realcatholicmodesty understood. She is a licensed Hairdresser, and Make Up Pro with a degree in Natural Health who enjoys essential oils. She enjoys making people smile and sharing God’s love with anyone who will listen. After overcoming a stroke, disabilities, they lost everything in a devastating house fire that made them homeless for six months. She is determined to lead souls back to Christ by finding the #realcatholicbeauty in their lives by carrying their crosses with Joy!