Those Bloomin' Flowers

It has been about a week and a half since last writing and while I’ve missed the creative outlet, I’ve been so busy with the immediacy of the job in front of me and the people around me, time has slipped by quickly.

To give a bit of background…I own my own business, which started from the desperate need to supplement my husband’s salary in order to keep me at home with our kids and has journeyed on creating an income and a great mental challenge for me as I succeed at creating a thriving business.

Jason and I are…how do I say it…entrepreneurs – - maybe.  Not in the sense of building big and large businesses but in the sense of starting what is needed to keep our priorities afloat.

Jason is a teacher, he sells swimming pools for some friends who own a family pool business, and he has also owned his own landscaping company since I was pregnant with our 9 year old.  All to keep him teaching, as his main job, and me at home with our kids.

Simply Edits, has become more than we’d ever hoped when it was suggested to us by my sister and her husband 2 years ago.  They own a very successful photography studio in Atlanta and told me I should start editing…encouraging me with my ability and training me to get me started.

It is a wonderful opportunity, challenges me daily, keeps me very very busy….and most importantly, it keeps me home with our kids.  But there are days I want to pull my hair out from the demands that always seem to surround me.

The other immediate need over the last week and a half have been the people in front of me…namely the little people.  We have a 9, 6 and 2 year old that are the precious physical reminders, each day, that our Lord loves us tenderly and tremendously.

Gifts they are, challenges they give…and blessed we have been.

This new blog is meant to give me the ability to grow and find my feet as a blogger standing for a few important things…my faith, my marriage and my family.  But there will be times that I will find myself not writing because those three things take precedence and priority…sometimes taking away my time to sit and enjoy this little space of mine.

I have always found great comfort in a few old hymns that sooth my soul when I experience them.  First, the Old Rugged Cross, which was my grandfather’s favorite and my children each have a copy in their rooms that they loudly sing to on a regular occasion.  It makes me so happy to hear them enjoy the music that spoke to their great-grandfather.  They KNOW the significance behind the song and they love it just because he did.

Secondly, It Is Well With My Soul, which has always been a hymn that brings me to my heart-knees and reminds me just what this big busy and crazy world is all about.

I have read the history behind this beautiful hymn, about Horatio G. Spafford, a Chicago lawyer born in 1828.  Spafford and his wife lived through such tragedy, losing their 4 year old son to scarlet fever and a year later the great historical Chicago fire burning all of his real estate investments to the ground while killing and devastating many of their friends and acquaintances.  After the fire, Spafford sent his wife and 4 daughters to England, ahead of him.  He received a telegram from his wife with the words “Saved alone” as she briefly communicated her traumatic experience of holding her daughters as the fierce strong water pulled them away one-by-one as their ship sank.

Spafford boarded a ship and as he sailed over the very waters that took his children, he penned the words to the hymn It Is Well With My Soul.

Each time I process through this man’s life, his faith and his wife’s faith to be well and complete, despite their pain, based soley on their relationship with Christ and their faith in God…it brings tears to my eyes and amazes me.

This morning I took a  few minutes to finish watching Parenthood and this version of It Is Well With My Soul was played as part of the soundtrack (which, in and of itself, amazes me).

I have never heard this song sung in such a moving rendition and I sat with tears streaming down my face as I, once  again, was reminded that despite all the busyness, relationship struggles, child-rearing angst, financial processing and decisions…it is well.

It is well with my soul.