Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Preparing The Fields

I just watched the movie "Facing the Giants" the other night.  Have you seen it?  It is a heartwarming, inspirational movie about a high school coach who is facing different challenges in his life including his job, his football team, finances and family, including infertility.  All hope is almost lost in his battle against fear and failure until a challenge is thrown at him, daring him to trust God to do the impossible.  Here's a trailer of the movie.

I really like this movie.  There are a lot of good messages and inspiring moments.  Sure, for the savvy movie watcher, the movie plot is fairly predictable.  But that's not the point.  There are many good lessons taught in this movie, including faith, respect, love, and above all, it's not about us, but it's about God.

At first, I noticed the acting wasn't Oscar worthy.  But that is because the movie was produced by a church in Georgia.  That totally surprised me.  When I checked out the movie from our church library, the lady recommended that I watch the special features (I always do anyway!).  None of the actors in the movie are professional actors.  The movie was produced using mostly volunteers, and members of the church.  In fact, most of the main characters of the movies were actually pastors of the church (you can see this in the special features of the DVD), and the rest were church members, and most of the football players are or were players of the high school football team.  That's pretty impressive for a church to produce a movie like that.  Go to their website to find out more about this movie.

One of my favorite quotes of the movie was, "If we win, we praise Him (God).  If we lose, we praise Him".  It really hit me that in our TTC journey, we need to praise God, no matter if we "win" or "lose".  Will I praise him if our IVF outcome is negative, again?  I sure hope so.

My favorite part of the movie was when the main character, Coach Taylor is told that God is using him to do great things.  However, he doubts it and does not see God at work.  He is told this story:

There were 2 farmers who desperately needed rain.  Both farmers prayed for rain, but only one went out to prepare his field for rain.  Which one do you think trusted God to send rain?  The one that prepared for the rain, of course.

Which one are you?

God will send the rain when HE is ready.  You need to prepare your field to receive it.

After TTC for a few long years, I am tired.  I'm sick of all the things we are supposed to do,  or not supposed to do.  Like take prenatal vitamins, avoiding coffee, eating healthy, avoiding alcohol, and the list goes on and on.  All the surgeries, the appointments, the medical bills, the stress of it all.  Sometimes it feels so hopeless, and I just want to give up.  I want to go back to being "normal".

But these things I'm doing, they are all preparing the field for rain.  And in my case, preparing myself for a baby!

God will send the baby when HE is ready.  My job is to prepare myself to receive it.  I have to make sure that I am ready when He is.  I have to be faithful in doing my part.

So, have you prepared your field for rain?  What have you done?

11 comments:

  1. So touched by what you shared today. Praising God in our pain, sufferings, disappointments, etc is the toughest thing to do. Yet we must.

    Just remember that He IS faithful and He knows what's best for us...even though we do not agree with Him most times!

    Praying that your heart of praise and attitude of joy will be a testimony to those who know what you guys are going through.

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  2. I find myself SO TIRED of all that I've endured as well. So, I relate. However, I remind myself that there is someone else who is suffering much greater than I am and remind myself to be thankful for what I have. It's that little self pep-talk, sometimes daily.

    Thank you for this beautiful post.

    I'm off to prepare the field :)

    HUGS and Much Love as you journey on to success!

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  3. Love the movie...love your post today.
    I never thought of it like that before, thank you. I'm preparing myself for a baby....beautiful.

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  4. I saw this movie and loved it! Thanks for the inspirational post. What am I doing to prepare for a baby? I guess I would have to say eating right, exercise, acupuncture, and IVF.

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  5. WOW, thank you for posting this today! I really needed to be reminded of this. That having faith isn't just praising Him when we are seeing results, but also when we aren't...especially when we aren't! That's why it's faith! Yes, we need to be preparing the field...our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our hearts, our spiritual lives...they all have to be ready for a baby when God sees fit to give us one! Thank you for the amazing message and reminder!!

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  6. I loved the movie - I did not know that there were no professional actors in it, so now I love it even more. I also like the quote - I believe that we need to do all that we can, and God will do what we can't. We cannot be lazy and expect everything from Him...

    I want to wish you all the best for your upcoming cycle and I hope you get a healthy baby or two from it

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  7. Great reminder and encouragement to keep plugging along, even when we grow weary of all this....!

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  8. I LOVE that movie, and like you noticed the degree of acting quality--it is amazing what this church, who believed in this story did! How cool!

    Will you praise Him? I pray that I ALWAYS do! Thanks for sharing sweetie, I'm praying for your next IVF!!! Love you!

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