Our Guest: Cindy Caravas

 

Orphaned at a very young age, Cindy’s story is a testimony to the unfailing faithfulness of God. Through trauma and loss, Cindy learned to put her faith in God’s Word and marveled at the many miraculous ways He showed up to solidify Himself as a constant presence in her life. Cindy is a graduate of Gordon College in Wenham, MA and received a Masters in Counseling from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. Her professional career included seasons as a child abuse social worker, preschool and college administrator and an elementary school guidance counselor. She has volunteered in multiple capacities including as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), church ministry and outreach ministry at a local elementary school. Since marrying at the ripe age of 39, she is a wife to her wonderful husband, Jerry, and their three adult children. Her favorite job may be coming up soon: becoming a grandparent (Oct ’24)!!!

 

Key Thoughts and Scriptures:

 

Psalm 124:7-8 NIV We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

  • God put seeds in Cindy’s life that He used to draw her to Himself, but it wasn’t immediate.

Psalm 94:19 NASB  When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.

Isaiah 26:3 NKJV You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.

  • “I had two choices. I could just be a bystander or a personal pan pizza person and just pick and choose the spiritual things that I wanted to justify my life with, or I could put my full faith in Jesus.”
  • God never abandons us even when it is hard.

Isaiah 40:31 NIV But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

  • There aren’t firecrackers going off to show Christ’s presence, but in that very still way, you can know He’s with you.
  • Cindy learned to deal with her losses by surrendering to God and trusting Him.
  • Sometimes getting professional help is needed.
  • You have permission to be gentle with yourself.
  • The Lord wants us to serve each other.
  • God sent friends to Cindy to surround her and speak truth into her life.
  • There’s two kinds of people. One type of person walks in a room and says, “See me, here I am.” Another type of person walks in the room and says, “I see you.”
  • Jesus sees us and what we’re going through.

 

Cindy can look back on her life and see that God was gentle with her.

 

  • “While the losses were hard and tragic, I was gonna be okay.”
  • God designed us to process pain. Jesus processed pain. He cried, He grieved, but then He moved on in the strength of the Lord.
  • “Lord, what do you want me to do?”
  • God had given Cindy experience with other broken relationships. So, she knew that there was absolutely nothing she could do to make something work. And more importantly, she didn’t want to have to make something work.
  • For many analytical people, it’s harder to make emotional attachments as we age, but marriage is a blessing from God.
  • “I knew the Lord could speak to him, comfort him and his anxiety just like He’d done for me my whole life.”

 

Cindy knew that her purpose in life was to trust that Jesus knew what was best for her. And more importantly, what was best for His kingdom.

 

  • They kept communication open. Also, they sought wise counsel. And then they trusted God to work it out or not work it out.
  • Many of us want to trust God when things are going good, but when the road gets a little bumpy, we want to take that control back, thinking that we can steer around the potholes when that’s the time when we need Him the most.
  • We know in our heads that He’s a good God, but when it gets into our spirit that He’s a good God and that everything He does is good, even if it doesn’t look good to us, that changes the way we can move forward in life.
  • In the Old Testament, a lot of the people of faith were told by God to build Ebenezers, the tower stones where God met them.
  • “I don’t shy away from giving my testimony of hard things at all because it’s not about those hard things. That’s not my story. My story is that God met me there and His presence was with me.”

Luke 2:19 NIV But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

 

“First of all, I’ll say that the Lord showed me and continues to show me that having adult children is the best lesson on earth to teach us that we really never had control to begin with.”

 

  • God knows our children better than we do and He loves them more than we do.
  • And His plan might not be the plan we have for them and they’re going to struggle sometimes, but His plan is good. 
  • So pray for them daily. Walk through life with them the best that we can.
  • More is caught than taught sometimes with our kids.
  • “Mom, don’t you feel sorry for people who aren’t adopted? Well, they really don’t know what it’s like to be adopted and become a child of God.”

Proverbs 22:6 NKJV Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.

  • He doesn’t say in the meantime there won’t be some rocky roads, but we can trust God with all of it.
  • That act of trust includes some of the disciplines of our faith, of prayer, and just seeking God on behalf of our children, whether they’re doing great or whether they’re in the depths.
  • It’s easy to talk about our things of faith, but we need to be intentional about knowing God’s word and learning more about Him. It’s His love letter to us. 

Hebrews 13:5 NKJV …For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

  • Always remember that even if your life isn’t shaping into what you think you want or deserve, we serve a good God and He is our reward.
  • God doesn’t waste anything. 

 

Ruth’s story

 

Ruth NIV

  • Naomi was a beautiful witness to who the God of Israel was. 
  • God’s willing to use anyone who’s open to be used.
  • In Ruth’s case, she became the great grandmother of King David, who is the line to our beautiful savior, Jesus.
  • Her life didn’t look like it was going to amount to much and there was a lot of hardship. But God just wove it into something so beautiful for His purposes.

Matthew 28:20 NIV …And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Romans 8:38-39 NIV For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Chronicles 22:11 NIV  …The Lord be with you, and may you have success…

 

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