Buffalo, Wyoming - Diary of a chosen daughter

Weekend Trips with Mom

I love my mom. She is my definition of comfort. She is my home. I can be anywhere in the world and if she’s with me I don’t ever feel homesick. Sometimes I forget how blessed I am to have her in my life. Not everyone has that kind of relationship with their mom. Not everyone still has their mom around. When I think about that, I start to feel guilty about the times I take her for granted. She has done so much for me. She raised me in the faith, prayed countless hours for me, supported me when I couldn’t support myself, celebrated my victories, dreamed my dreams with me. I hope that I have honored her the way the Bible says children are supposed to honor their parents because she has had a heavy hand in shaping me into the woman I am today.

I hardly worked at all this summer. I’ve told you all that I quit my job in May, and I only helped out at my family’s business a few times this summer. I’ve been mostly traveling and relaxing at home. My mother worked the entire summer. She didn’t get to take a vacation. And the summer passed so quickly that she had to go back to her regular job in what seemed like the quickest turnaround time I’ve yet to see. Taking her along on one of my weekend church visits seemed like a small gesture I could give her before she had to return to her regular job. So over the mountain we went to Buffalo, Wyoming.

You might know about Buffalo if you’ve ever read or watched the Longmire series. Buffalo is home to Longmire days and the surrounding area is the base for the setting of the series. Buffalo is a beautiful area just down the mountain side of the Bighorns. It is a small quaint town with historic old west buildings and friendly small town people. The New Life Assembly of God church in Buffalo is much the same. The small congregation is very friendly and loving. Every one of the members greeted us and made us feel more than welcomed.

The Pastors at New Life are another husband and wife team, Josh and Whitney Davies. Whitney led worship that morning and Josh delivered the message. These two young pastors love the Lord and love their congregation.

Pastor Josh’s message this morning was about David and Goliath. The story of David and Goliath is well known among most people. Everyone loves rooting for the little guy. And the Bible does such an amazing job telling this story. Can’t you just see it? I imagine a vast army spread from one end of the mountain range to the other (we have big mountains here in Wyoming, I’ve never been to Israel yet so I’m not sure how big their mountains are) And there in the middle is a 9ft giant of a man, clothed in 120ish pounds of armor. He’s laughing and mocking the Israelite army and they are so afraid of him they can do nothing. But here comes a teenage boy flabbergasted that anyone would even think to mock the army of the God of Israel. David’s best line in the whole passage has to be, “…’You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hands.’” 1 Samuel 17:45-47 ESV

Wow! The confidence of David is infectious and oh so brazen. Without hesitation he tells the whole opposing army and the whole army of his own country that the battle belongs to the Lord, and that Israel will win this battle so everyone can see God’s mighty power. Remember, David is just a teenage boy at this point.

Pastor Davies sums up the rest of the story that we all know so well. David chooses 5 smooth stones from the brook and with only one stone and a slingshot he brings that giant down. The whole opposing army was so shaken in disbelief and fear that they began to flee and the Israeli army pursued them and won the battle that day just as David said the Lord would do for them. Crazy! Amazing! Blockbuster hit!

Seriously though, only God could have done that through David. Pastor Josh was quick to tell us that it only took one stone to slay Goliath. David took 5 stones from the brook, but God only needed one stone to take down that giant. Pastor Josh reminded us that God is bigger than all of our giants, all of the disastrous situations we may face, all of the hardships we endure. God is bigger than all of that and he can slay our giants with only one stone, all we need to do is call on him and have the David-like confidence that God will deliver us from our trouble.

It was a beautiful message and one that I need to be constantly reminded of, especially when I try to make my problems bigger than God. That is such a human thing to do. I love the fact that David didn’t stop to overthink things, like I do so often. Or try to come up with a plan to face the giant. No, David knew that the battle was already won because of his confidence in God.

Where did David’s confidence come from? He obviously had a mighty reverence for God, which means he grew up studying and learning about how God provided for his ancestors through Moses. I’m sure he learned quite extensively about how his people wandered in the desert and how God provided all their needs throughout that time period. From my studies of David (and they are just in the baby-stages right now) we know that he is from the tribe of Judah, he was the youngest son, and he was a shepherd. The Bible doesn’t really go into much of his childhood or upbringing, but I can imagine that he had an amazing mother who taught him about his ancestry, and about God. I feel like she instilled in him the importance of following the law of Moses and keeping God as number one in his life. I’m sure she taught him songs to praise the Lord and how to pray, David is an amazing poet after all. It’s hard to think that David’s father would have passed those traits on to him when David’s father had such a large family and farm to care for, but I bet his mother had time. Mom’s sure do know how to prioritize and multitask way better than males. I’m sure she was everything, kind, gentle, and loving. Very poetic if you ask me. With a mother like that how could you not have the confidence in God that David had?

My own mother instilled in me from a young age the importance of God. She taught me to pray, she taught me to sing songs of worship, she made sure I attended Sunday school so I would learn all the bible stories as I grew up. She prayed for me when I fell away from church, she prayed that I would come back to my faith. I can tell you today that without her prayer and urge that I attend church with her I wouldn’t be writing this blog today. God used her and our relationship to pull me back to him. I can’t thank her enough for that kind of love. I can’t show her how much she truly means to me. But I can try. And that’s why these mother daughter trips are so important to me. That’s why I love just getting to spend time with her whether it’s hanging out at home or running to TJ Maxx for an impromptu shopping day. Treasure these moments you get to spend with your mother. And remember all of the lessons she passed down to you, like David’s mother might have done for him. This kind of generational faith is such a blessing and when hard situations come up in your life, you’ll know that you can lean on your confidence in God to slay your giants.

I love you momma!