Catherine Marshall is today's inspirational author. Catherine was born in 1914 and died in 1983. She was an author and wife of Peter Marshall who was a well-loved pastor in Washington D.C. and United States Senate Chaplain. He died very young of TB and one of her most popular books was his biography. She also wrote a book titled Christy that later became a television show.
John 14:18) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
This morning I was blessed with an idea for a wonderful topic for my blog. For quite sometime I have been guilty of not being thankful for the challenges in my life. It is normal to hear someone say, "I am so thankful for our wonderful home or my children's health, etc." It would be really weird to here another say, "I am so thankful that my husband lost his job or that I have been diagnosed with a horrible illness." I would be lying if I said often, "Lord, thank you for allowing me to have this awful hormonal condition" or "gee, I am glad my mom died of cancer." The Bible says a great deal about being thankful and content.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) Be joyful always; pray
continually; give thanks
in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
I used to read this verse as God's will was the challenge. The end of the verse says, "for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Actually, the verse is stating that His will is for us to always have joy, to commune with Him constantly, and to have a grateful heart no matter what. Maybe it was just me that misunderstood that. I think that His will is sometimes the challenge, but that is not the point of the verse.
As I lay in bed this morning which by the way was awesome! Usually Eli and I are out the door fairly early to hit the gym before I take him to preschool. Friday is the day I do not work out hard. I might do a stretching routine or go for a walk. Even last Friday we were up early walking to power walk with my friends in the neighborhood. Today one of them needed to walk later so I took Eli to school than walked. Wow, that was a long reason for why I was laying in bed so long this morning. My daily devotion was titled Equal Parts Difficulties and Grace. This caught my attention. The devotion says we have been blessed with difficulties. If we never had them how would we know we needed the Lord. The prayer at the end of the devotion said to take time to thank God for the difficulties in your life. Am I thankful that my Mom died so young? Not so much, but I am thankful of how God has worked in so many ways through her death. In case you are wondering I did thank Him for a few certain difficulties I have now.
In my journey I have found it is necessary to put focus on the GOOD that has come out of my incredible challenges. One of my personal goals is to get more solid and consistent at practicing this. There have been occasions where Dave and I will lay on the couch together and literally go through the good that has come out of my challenges. If you look back on old posts you will find one about moving through the muck. If you have not read it yet please do so. God laid thankfulness heavy on my heart on Friday. I knew very early in the day what He was trying to teach me.
There have been times when Dave and I have laid on the couch together literally listing off the good that has come from the difficulties. It helps get our focus right. It forces us to take the focus off the negative and onto the positive that has come out of the negative. Only God can turn such messes into goodness. When I see how His hand has been in the mess the whole time my thankfulness grows. For example, rather than dwelling on Mom's death I choose to think about the person I have grown to be through it. Years ago the thought of losing her made me instantly cry. In fact, we talked about this very thing at our ladies Bible study this past Wednesday. A few ladies got choked up talking about the possibility of losing their moms. Moms are big deal, you know?! They asked how I endured such a thing. I think back to that time and remember feeling like my family was part of a scene in a movie. Can you picture it in your mind? God completely carried my family. Only by the grace of God did we all make it through. Think of the ever-so-familiar Footsteps poem. It hit me that I was grateful for the strong person I had become through her death. I have moved through parts of life that I never, ever thought I could. I told the girls that there were times when I wanted to crawl into her bed and and never let her go. You keep going though and I am so grateful of the inner strength I know have. I am also extremely thankful that I can provide comfort to another who is going through a great loss.
As I contemplate the above two verses I saw a wonderful lesson in them. John 14:18 tells me God has come to me in the way of His Spirit. BECAUSE He has come I can be joyful and thankful in all my circumstances. When I prayed to thank God for my difficulties I honestly about choked on my words. There was absolutely nothing in my natural self that was thankful for any part of them. There was, however, something in my spirit that could thank God. I encourage you to spend less time thinking about the hardship and more time thanking God for the person that is evolving out of it. It is also crucial to be thankful for your hardships so in turn, you can comfort others in the midst of theirs and reach out to them.
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