Clarity to Suffering??

It is painful to watch people you love suffer. I find this true not only in my personal life but in my work life as well. I have blogged on this topic before but I feel the need to come back to it. This world is a scary place and if we open our eyes, there is pain and suffering everywhere. Many times we like to put on our rose colored glasses and pretend we are all okay. There are days where I wish I could find where I misplaced my rose colored glasses.

After listening to the Sermon series we have been doing as well as the studying I have been doing in my quiet time, I have found comfort in suffering. Now that probably sounds like an oxymoron. Let me explain. Throughout this Lent Season, I have been drawn to look into the Suffering of Jesus. It has been so amazing how the scriptures I read, the sermons, even the 2 books I am currently reading all helped shed light on Jesus' suffering.

I first asked myself - "Why do we suffer?". I came up with many reasons but  Hebrews 5:8 made it clear when talking about Jesus said, "He learned obedience through what He suffered". WOW!! We also learn obedience through what we suffer. While doing this study in our small group called "Chazown", we looked at our past experiences and a lot of them were painful. After that, we looked at what we learned from those chapters in our lives. God has taught me some AMAZING things through my painful experiences in life. AND...I can see how I have become more obedient to Him through these times. Priscilla Shirer put it this away about the verse in Hebrews:

"...prepared for His ultimate purpose because He'd 'learned obedience' the hard way. Walking against the grain. Stacking up His bold profession against the bitter perils of life. Staying completely surrendered, totally committed to the Father's plan. Faithful." 

The part I put in bold hit me. Even through all of Jesus' sufferings, He stayed completely surrendered and totally committed to the Father's plan.

Pain and suffering look different to each person. Some of us are going through huge storms, maybe even hurricanes. Many of think that because we aren't dealing with death or disease, then our problems are not that big. Don't compare your pain to someone else's. Whatever the pain is, your goal should be the same - to stay completely surrendered and totally committed to the Father's plan. How do we do this? Well...you first have find out His plan for your life? What is God's purpose for your life? Because I am not in a storm right now, that has become my main focus. For me, it seems like it would help out so much when I endure those painful times if I know what His plan is for me. I may not know why I am going through that hard time, but I will have a glimpse into His plan. I encourage you to do the same.

I want to close this with a passage from Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts:

"Pain is everywhere, and wherever the pain there can be everywhere grace, and yes, Jesus, I am struggling and I get turned around but I think I know, at least in part, what I want. If I had never run, if I had never fallen, and here, I am not sure I would have known it with blazing clarity. I many not know all that it means, but this is what I want" (pg. 108).

Courageous Part 3

The next resolution is "I will love as a woman answerable to God and faithfully committed to His Word".

When I first read this, I immediately thought that I was already doing this and this should be easy. Man was I wrong!! This really made me focus on am I doing things for God or for someone else? Priscilla Shirer writes this book and she really makes you think. Here is one paragraph that I have reread several times:

"Hopefully you're a person of faith. But heaven is calling you to be a person of faithfulness as well. When you're at your job. When you're hanging out with friends. When you're struggling financially. When you're faced with a tough decision. When you're doing your daily life and wish you were doing somebody else's. By resolving to be faithfully His, you are deciding to allow everything you believe about God and His Word to consistently guide your feet, your hands, your mind, your heart - despite anything and everything that may poitn to the contrary" (pg. 77).

 I can say that I am faithfully His when things are going well. Even then, I still have my moments. The biggest part of this is being rooted in His word. Many times people say that they don't read the Bible because they don't understand it (I know this because I still use that excuse every once and a while). With all the new translations out there, I promise there is a version you can understand. The Message version is a great place to start. Priscilla says that His Word is "not just to read. It's to absorb. To bathe in. To live by". Wow!!! I want that! Doesn't that sound amazing??

It reminds me of a picture that was going around Facebook sometime last year. I did some searching and found it. It describes how God's Word is supposed to be. It embraces us. In those hard times, His word is there holding us up. In the good times, His word is hugging us and rejoicing with us.



Why be a loner??

For those of you that know me, know that I am a pretty independent person. I thrive off being able to do things by myself (no wonder I have an 18 month old who thinks the same thing). I look at certain friends of mine who are so determined to do things on their own that if you even mention that a man could do it, they go into a tail spin and do the job even harder and better than a man!!



Why do we do this? And I am not just talking about women here. For women, we tend to act all independent but really we crave friendships and most of us hate being alone for long periods of time. For men, they claim that friendships and things do not mean that much to them but deep inside all of us have the desire to be needed and loved not just by our family, but by others.



What has been on my mind for several weeks now is that I do not understand why we as humans have so many surface relationships with people and so little intentional, deep relationships? I think we are so worried that people are going to realize that we do not have it all together. Guess what....NOBODY has it all together!! I also think we have tricked ourselves into believing that what we are going through is something that nobody else has ever been through or that it is just so bad that we don't want to burden anybody else with it. Guess what...there is SOMEBODY out there who has gone through the same thing.



This Sunday, I listened to a very compelling Sermon on being a friend to someone who is going through a storm in their own lives. I encourage you to listen to the story and you can find it here: http://www.thequestonline.com/messages/suffer-well-when-a-friend-is-suffering/



It really made me think a great deal this week. You know...God did more that create a woman for Adam. He created a helper, an encourager, a companion, and someone to weather the storms of life with. God even saw that it was not good for Adam to go through life alone. So again...why do I think I can do everything on my own? I think it is crazy when I see friends suffering and they won't reach out for help. But I have learned that when you are in the midst of the storm, you don't know what to do. That is when you need those close friends, those brothers and sisters in Christ, to come to you, get in that small boat that is being tossed and thrown in the swirling ocean, and be there with you.

I found this great picture online today and it hit me hard. You OBEY the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand. Wow!! So that means that I am disobeying the law of Christ when I don't offer a helping hand, when I choose to only carry my burdens and refuse to pick up someone else's.

So I know that I have a lot to work on!! For me, it is not only being that friend to someone else but it is also allowing myself to have those friends in my life and letting them carry some of my burdens with me.

God didn't intend for us to be alone so don't be a loner!! Focus on the relationships in your life. Are you only carrying your burdens? Are you burdens weighing you down so much that you can't even see the burdens of those you say you love and care for? Do you have those people in your life that are willing to carry your burdens but you are refusing to let them see the vulnerable you? Are you working on creating intentional relationship with other Christians?? Do you have a community of suppor that will help you not only in the good times but also in those storms??

You do not have to go through everything alone!!

Weekend Fun

This weekend was a great weekend with my sweet little family. On Saturday, Elizabeth and I went with my mother to Buy Buy Baby to pick up some new books. She actually picked out her books which was the cutest thing yet. Lately she has been into ladybugs. Every time we read a book, she manages to find the tiniest lady bug possible. So..of course I helped her find the 10 Ladybugs bug. She LOVED it. Then she found a book about Trains (which she knows says choo choo and does the hand motions). She was SO EXCITED to have those 2 books. It kept her somewhat entertained throughout the rest of the shopping trip. We kept her busy by letting her push the cart through the store.

Then we went to Sam's to get her some dresses (FYI they have Carter's dresses for $5). She did not want to be held so she RAN aisle by aisle. We took my mom home and Elizabeth cried and cried. All of the sudden she stopped and I looked back and she was passed out!! I woke her up long enough to eat lunch and she was out again for a real nap.

Matt and I went next door so I get my hair cut and catch up with the neighbors. Not only did I get my hair done, but my nails and waxing too! It was a glorious day for me :) When Elizabeth woke up it was time for her first hair cut!!!! She did sooooo good (the Teddy Grahams also helped). She looks so grown now with her new hairdo!!! Here are pictures from the special milestone along with ones of her reading her new book: