Welcome to the mess. This is hands down the part that I want to run away from, shut my eyes and blink it out of existence... and I'm not just talking about the house here. I'm talking about the whole darn world around me at this very moment. Now let me tell you something about me. I'm afraid - I am, in my flesh,  a fearful person. I fear germs. I fear sickness. I fear a world that's acting like it's coming off it's hinges. I fear houses that are halfway torn apart and look seemingly impossible to put back together. I fear an economy that looks like it's all going to fall apart and I may never have the money needed to put this broken little house back together. So yeah, fear has been putting in some serious overtime. And let me tell you something else.. I've been looking in all the wrong places.. placing my hope in all the wrong things. You see I've gotten so wrapped up in this house and the way I imagine it should all come together... I've become so wrapped up in the world around me falling apart.. that I've taken my eyes off of the One in whom I say I believe. I've taken my eyes off of  the One who calms the wind and waves and makes my heart be still.  I've taken my eyes off of the One who holds ALL things in His hands.  So what am I left to do when everything around me appears to be in shambles... when it all looks like it's falling apart? As a woman who professes to believe with all her heart, mind, and soul in a Holy and sovereign God... as a woman who claims she trusts that she is safe under His wings no matter what may come... I have a choice. I have a choice to continue to look on at the panic and fear all around.. the headlines, empty toilet paper shelves, a messed up economy and a crumbling down mess of a house... or I can choose to redirect my gaze back to the only One on which it belongs... trusting that He works all things for good. Trusting that even in the darkest, scariest, most rubble filled, shambled places that He will sustain me. Because He is enough.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH, the Lord, is ever-lasting strength.

Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you. He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. Is anyone among you suffering Let him pray.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Lo, I am with you always.