Learning and growing

We've had quite a time around here lately. Last week was probably the worst yet in terms of our outlook, and I saw my DH sink to a low I hadn't seen in over 17 years of marriage. This road we're traveling now would split some couples up, to be sure. Stress over finances and especially for him, feeling the burden of providing for his family...all that can really weigh a person down. And it has.

But we are not broken. I don't know how anyone lives without Christ in their lives these days, I really don't! I like knowing that God is in control! I don't find that oppressive, I find it freeing and quite comforting. The road is certainly not always easy - we're never promised that - but it is always passable with God at our side. When it gets too much for us, He will then pick us up in His loving arms and carry us.

I do admit that at times over these last 2-1/2 months I've gotten angry. I've pulled away from God rather than run to Him. But fortunately that didn't last long and lately I find myself drawing closer to Him than ever. And you know what?!.....He's there!!

I have been reading up a storm and devouring books almost as fast as I can get my hands on them. The most recent is one that my dad gave me this past winter after he'd finished with it. I started it then, but soon put it away and packed it up to get ready to move. I dug it out the night before last and have already nearly finished it! It is exactly what I need right now and reading it is like having the Lord reach down and hug me.

The book is called "Just Enough Light for the Step I'm On: Trusting God in the Tough Times" by Stormie Omartian. I read this little gem yesterday....

"Sometimes what seems like the darkest step we've ever been on comes just before the brightest light we've ever experienced."

If last week was our "darkest step" (and it sure felt like it!) then God is about to do something wonderful!!

And yesterday I read what is possibly the most encouragement I've had in a loooong time.....

"The wilderness is where we are forced to leave behind the familiar, the comfortable, the past successes, the accomplishments, and the old bag of tricks that always worked before. The wilderness is where God takes us when He wants to get Egypt out of our hearts. He wants to separate us from all that we crave, so that all we crave is Him. Just as God wanted to get the taste for Egypt out of the Israelites' mouths, He wants to get the lust for certain comforts out of our appetites, too. It's not that He doesn't want us to ever be comfortable. It's just that He doesn't want us to depend on the comfortable. He wants us to depend on Him. He doesn't want us to love the comforts more than we love Him. When God aims us in a new direction, we have to let go of what we've known, be willing to embrace the unfamiliar, and trust that He will sustain us on the journey."


GOD IS SO GOOD!!