Struggles

The past few weekends have been hectic, and we haven't made it to church. We finally had a normal weekend, made it to church at 9:00, and found that our small church had been cancelled. Bummer. So we went to "big church" as it is called with our new friends Kendra and Billy. Let me tell you, there is nothing more powerful then walking into a church service and finding that God was speaking directly to you. Granted, he was speaking to others, but it was definitely something our hearts desperately needed.

The middle of the sermon was a man's testimony. This man spoke about losing his wife three years ago to cancer, just six short months after her diagnosis. He talked about the suffering and the pain, at times barely able to continue. His pain was still very evident. But he shared what he has learned about God and suffering during his wife's illness and death. I can't come close to doing the sermon justice. But it showed God's glory even in times of trial. It was an opportunity for others to show compassion, for him to accept acts of compassion, so that he could later pass the compassion on to others. Suffering shapes us, makes us focus every ounce of our trust on God. And I know that this should be obvious, but this sermon just really spoke to me. Its what I needed to hear.

Everyone at some point will have trials and struggles and suffering. And our struggles right now will not be our last. But my prayer is that today's struggles will help us to grow so that we may encourage and support others in their struggles, and be able to better handle and understand tomorrow's struggles.

My goal, especially over the coming months, is going to be taking our times of struggling as an opportunity to be molded into a better woman, better wife, better daughter, better sister, someday better mother, and most importantly better child of God.