40

Yesterday, a friend of mine turned 40.  Now for her, and for many of you out there, 40 is a difficult year to celebrate.  In some respects it was for me, but not too bad.  Of course I didn't FEEL like I was 40 so it really didn't bother me too much.  My kids were still young, I was teaching young children, so feeling old wasn't really there for me.  (Don't ask me how I feel at 46 though!!!!  :-) )

These past 4 months, 40 has become a very important number for me.  A positive number.  As I shared in my post entitled Prayer Room (http://sharon2kids.blogspot.ca/2014/01/prayer-room.html) my husband and I had separated for awhile this past fall.  As we started to heal and rediscover our communication, I started to wonder when it would be that he would come home.  I was well aware that we were far from done dealing with all our issues, but I was also well aware that, as two different individuals, we would always have issues. The major one that resulted in our separation was being dealt with, the hurts and emotions were being healed, but there were so many other issues, that I knew if I waited for them ALL to be dealt with, K more than likely would never move home. I also didn't want us to jump back into something too soon that would result in more hurt, anger and frustration.  And I also wanted to be mindful of the kids, and a long separation I knew would not be in their best interest.  So after many days of praying and asking God for wisdom, 40 days was brought to my mind.  I started to do a little research on the number 40 and this is what I found.

Some of the common examples that I knew about "40" were these:
- it rained 40 days and 40 nights and then it stopped and God provided His promise with a rainbow.
- Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days
- The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years before they were allowed into the Promised Land
- Goliath had taunted the Israelites for 40 days before David defeated him.
- Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and nights before delivering the Ten Commandments to the Israelites
- Lent lasts for 40 days

In fact, I found out that 40 is mentioned in the Bible 146 times where it refers to trial and testing or probation.  As I thought about the separation that we as a family were going through, I though how ironic it would be if the time of trials and testings in our marriage also lasted 40 days, with the deliverance  or renewal of our family.

When I was at Bible School at Millar College of the Bible, we had a wonderful professor who taught The Pentateuch and Old Testament classes and who had also studied the numbers of the Bible extensively.  It intrigued me.  As I thought back to those classes, I recalled that 5 was the number of grace and 8 was the number of renewal or revival - AND 8 times 5 is 40.  Now, I'm not sure if this is all truth or not, but I was intrigued that after 40 days, and by God's grace, our marriage/family was renewed and we were able to move forward out of the dark days of separation.  It was a date I had specifically chosen and by God's grace, we are moving forward.  So what a joyful day November 27 was, that after 40 days of our family being broken, we were once again restored.

Believe me, that does not mean that all our issues were resolved.  But what it did do, was give us each some space.  K & I have grown through this time apart and I truly believe that the time apart allowed us to focus on areas of our own lives that needed changing.  It allowed us time to focus on our relationship with Jesus and to see where we needed to change.  It allowed us to remember those things that had drawn us to each other in the first place. Even the kids have grown through this.  Their spiritual and emotional strength grew by leaps and bounds.  Prayer became a huge part of their and our lives.  Believe me, I am not recommending that every family take a 40 hiatus from each other, but I do know that we as a family, endured the trials and testing for 40 days, and after that, came renewal.  We have established a better communication for it.  We have established better relationships with God because of it.  We have grown together as a family.  Truthfully, we are way better off for having taken this time.  (On a side note, I DO have to emphasis that the separation was never intended to be permanent so the time apart was always done with the intent of working to get back together.)

I praise God for our forty days that He blessed us with. I thank God that after our 40 days, came our renewal, our revival.  So today, I am thankful to God for "my 40"  !!!!