A Woman's View

Take a fresh look at trials and sufferings

Maybe right now you're in the midst of a long, hard time in your life.

Maybe you've reached the end of your endurance. Sometimes you wonder whether God has turned his back on you. Otherwise, how could you pray and pray, yet nothing changes?

Been there, thought that, sometimes.

That's when we try to make sense of it on our own. Every one of us can think of times when we "knew" how "A" would lead to "B," then inevitably to "C."

Except it didn't.

Then it's time to remind myself what I know. I see only today. God sees yesterday, today and tomorrow. He loves us and promises to be our strength all through life, in good times and in the worst of times. 

That does not guarantee our life will smooth out and be pain-free. All we can do is keep on trusting and keep on walking.

Someone sent me this YouTube. The song was new to me and so was the singer Laura Story. Her song touched my heart. She says what we all need to remember when we're slogging through one of those misery times.

I hope these lyrics speak to you as they do to me.

Lovingly,

Lenore

Story Blessings song http://youtu.be/1CSVqHcdhXQ

Find peace of mind despite the scarcity of hope

Are you troubled, convinced the world is a mess and there is no hope, no beauty?

Feast your eyes on God's handiwork one recent spring in a California canyon somewhere near San Luis Obispo. 

(Sorry, photographer unknown.)

I've loved this photo since I first saw it. I can't imagine a better visual for what Jesus said in Luke 12, starting at verse 22.

"Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes . . . Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."

Maybe you suffer from the same malady as I. Worry. Oh, I can call it something nicer, but really, it's worry.

When I look at wildflowers, as in this photo, I feel the tightness in my shoulders ease up. The One who splashes these remote hills with extravagant beauty tenderly cares for all His creation.

That includes you and me.

Whatever we are dealing with today, we are not alone. The weight of the world does not rest on our shoulders. Count on it. His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:21-16)

Every day mercies and blessings surround us. 

Are we looking for them?

Here's to having eyes to see,

Lenore

Encouragement for when we're scraping bottom

Have you ever said to yourself, "I've never done anything special and probably never will. The future looks like more of the same.  What's the point of going on?"

I haven't read The Noticer by Andy Andrews, but a quote I read makes me want to. According to a synopsis, the main character, Jones, tells a hopeless individual the reasons why he or she is still living: 

Hop1.  God has a purpose for every single person.

2.  You won't die until that purpose is fulfilled.

3.  If you are still alive, then you haven't completed what you were put on earth to do.

4.  If you haven't completed what you were put on earth to do, then your very purpose hasn't been fulfilled.

5.  If your purpose hasn't been fulfilled, then the most important part of your life is still ahead.

6.  You have yet to make your most important contribution.

(Chapter 6, pp. 83-85.)

I can't know what's going on in your life right now, nor you mine. But we're still walking around, so that means we haven't yet fulfilled our purpose.  That makes every day vitally important, doesn't it?

It doesn't matter if we look back on the past with yearning. It doesn't matter if we feel unsure about today or tomorrow. It doesn't even matter if at the moment we feel no hope.

Robert Browning put it this way:

"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God:  See all, nor be afraid!'"

Psalm 139:16 tells us: 

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

What will tomorrow bring? None of us can say. But we know we will have the strength to meet the challenges. God says so, in Deuteronomy 33:25: "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."    

So if today is "one of those days" and we're at a low point, it's time to look up from the pits and look past our problems.

You are alive and so am I. We cannot know how God already is using us in someone's life. We cannot predict how He will use us tomorrow, but He will.

Let's take a deep gulp of fresh air and get on with living.

Lovingly,

Lenore

Ever thank God when things don't work out?

I can hear you saying, "What a silly question!"

Every one of us wants what we want, the way we want it. Plans that work out. Hard work that pays off. Loved ones that live godly, happy lives. Then we will give thanks.  
 
It seldom occurs to us to be thankful for things that don't work out. Trust me, they can be more important than what does.

The phone call that makes you a minute late, then you come upon a fresh auto accident on your usual route. The hunky guy who marries someone else, then turns out to be a jerk. The job you don't get in another firm, the business that goes bust within the year.

My husband and I know something about the last one. Some years back he got an unexpected job offer that seemed too good to be true. We talked and prayed and talked and prayed, checked out everything we could. We couldn't explain why, but it felt right. We turned our lives upside down because of it.

Before long we realized this "sure thing job" was anything but. The exciting start slowly fizzled out. This turned out to be a mismatch and always had been.

But we prayed. We trusted. Why, Lord?

Planted in this unfamiliar place we saw only uncertainty. No job alternatives beckoned, despite my husband's efforts, even though we prayed and read our Bibles like never before. We clung to God and to each other, watching our savings account dwindle, feeling bewildered.

Where are you, Lord?

With everything stripped away we grew, more than we knew at the time. I "found" some Bible verses that I clutched to my heart like a treasure. John 15:1-2, 3-4 seemed written just for us:

(Jesus said) "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful . . . No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."    

I had seen just-pruned grapevines. If those vines could talk they wouldn't be saying, "Thank you," for being hacked down to bleeding stumps.

Neither did we.

Then "out of the blue" came an opportunity for my husband in a field he never before had considered, right there in the place where we were. This turned out to be a perfect fit from the start and he began a long, satisfying career.

Why was I surprised?

God was protecting us all along, even when we felt most alone. Through that long wearing-down time we discovered that even when everything fell apart around us, we still trusted in the Lord. We couldn't have known then that our old dream had to die before His new one could be born.

What trips us up is that God may not answer our prayers in the way we expect. All He wants from us is that we keep on following in faith, even when we can't see the way ahead.

The One who knows the end before the beginning goes before us (Psalm 139)--and with us. He has it all covered. Even when dreams shatter, when it seems all is lost, even then.

Reason enough to thank Him . . .

Lovingly,

Lenore