The God Bag

**Let me just begin this spiritual Sunday by saying how blessed I feel.  I currently have 647 page views!!  Thank you so much.  I feel amazed that so many different people have viewed (and hopefully enjoyed) my blog.  Thank you!!**

Last week I had lunch with a friend of mine.  It was one of those great lunches that spanned the whole gambit of conversation topics- work, family, vacation, problems, successes, and even a little spirituality thrown in.  My friend told me about something her family always used growing up called "The God Bag".  I'd never heard of anything called that before, so I ask her for more details.  Basically, in her house they had a green bag that was stored in the hall closet.  If anyone in the family was worried about something, they would write it down on a piece of paper, fold it up, and place it in the God Bag.  They would then let it go, and everything would work out.  I've heard of similar things, called prayer boxes.  I got chills when I heard her talking about it, because I felt that's exactly what I needed!

One of the most difficult things is to give God your problems, and trust that he has everything all planned out. I have found myself plenty of times "stuck" in a difficult situation, and it was the hardest thing EVER to give my worries over and trust that God would work it out.  For example, I found myself laid off of work with a baby on the way.  What school would ever hire a pregnant teacher that would only have to go on maternity leave right away??  I applied to schools, but while I did, I prayed to God "I know that you have your plans for me, and I trust things will work out." Guess what- it did work out.  Another time, it was near Christmas and we had some unexpected repairs and were very tight on money, so I prayed to God "I"m going to stop stressing and trust that you will provide us all with a great Christmas." What happened?  I had posted an item on Craig's List a while ago (I'd honestly forgotten about it), and the day after my prayer I got an email saying a lady wanted to buy the item.  The next day, I had $400 in m account.  I have to say that every time I have prayed my worries to God, things work out.  It was important to realize that things might not exactly work out how I expected them to, but they would work out the way they were planned to.

So, back to the God Bag... I went home from my lunch and started packing for our vacation.  I was experiencing some anxiety because this was going to be our first long vacation with just the 4 of us, and I was honestly worried about 1) keeping calm with the kids 24-7 and 2) keeping calm with the hubby while being around him 24-7.  I rummaged through some of the old zipper pouches I had and I chose myself a God Bag.  I wrote down my worries about vacation, and put them into the bag.  I don't know why, but I almost immediately felt a little calmer as soon as I put those slips of paper.  I want to continue using the God Bag, and at the end of the year look through all the things I wrote down and see how it all worked out.  Do I think maybe it was part of God's plan that I met with my friend for lunch and I was supposed to hear about the God Bag?  Yes, I certainly do.  I believe I was meant to begin my own God bag, and I think this is just another piece in God's puzzle of a plan for me and my family.

**A special thanks to my "witness protection program" friend for connecting me to the God Bag.**