Great Opportunity!!!

The Lord recently allowed me the Great Opportunity to share with a group of ladies what HE is doing in our lives and hearts. What a blessing it was for me to share HIS faithfulness with a receptive and loving group of ladies. I was asked to teach a lesson entitled, "Enduring Through the Difficult Times" at a ladies' retreat on August 7th.

I was able to share the path that my husband and I have walked together, the difficulties we have faced, including many hospital stays with our children, our daughter's preterm birth, miscarriages, trials and testings and the past 10 years of walking the road of chronic illness.

The Lord has taken me on the dark, difficult roads so that I would find HIM. I am amazed at the work the Lord does in our lives to draw us into relationship with HIM.

Thank you so much Christi, for giving me the opportunity to share my heart!!!

Where are you today? Do you feel alone on the difficult road? You are NOT alone. Our Father allows difficult times to cause our focus to be on Jesus and HIM alone. He walks the path before us, and calls us to follow Him. Can we say with Job, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:" (Job 13:15).

Impossible Situation or Great Opportunity???

I recently came across this quote by Chuck Swindoll:
"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."

I shared it with a friend, who responded:
"I would not take away one brilliantly disguised impossible situation, would you?"

My answer???
"No, I wouldn't. I'm glad the Lord took me through them, I learned so much. But, I don't want to relive the pain of them."


Would you take away your brilliantly disguised impossible situations?

Facing the illnesses, disabilities, pains, disappointments, fiery trials, fears and worries, causes our hearts to be turned more fully to Christ. And, for that reason alone, I would not remove one of the impossible situations I have faced.

They say hind sight is 20/20....but I'm afraid, for some of us, it's not. Some of us face these impossible situations and walk through them, barely surviving and at the end of it, become bitter towards God and others, instead of taking them and using them as great opportunities to grow in our faith. At the end of the trial, some may look back and say, "What a waste." It doesn't have to be that way.

I've walked that narrow tight rope between spiritual growth and bitterness. Sometimes, I leaned precariously close to falling off into bitterness. Thankfully, the Lord continued calling my name, drawing me to HIM. I am still walking the tight rope toward Christ, eyes fixed on HIM. There are still plenty of opportunities to fall into bitterness, but God is faithful.

Each of us, regardless of what we are experiencing, can find great opportunities for growth. That is the purpose of trials. Trials are not easy and there are times that we just want the pain of the trial to end.

We have no guarantee when it will end or if it ever will. We may live to the end of our days with this difficulty. Each moment, we must make a conscious effort to accept whatever the Lord gives us, knowing it is for our good. And, then we must look for the opportunity to share with others HIS faithfulness. We must reassure our hearts with HIS word. HE is with us, HE walks before us.

What are the opportunities we will have because of this trial of care giving? I don't know....today, our time and energy may be high demand, but we don't know the future and the way the Lord wants to use us. We may be able, along the way, to encourage another brother or sister in the faith. Perhaps we'll change another person's perspective on suffering. Maybe we'll find ourselves with a ministry we never would have thought of before. Where ever the Lord leads us, He will use us.

Let's not waste this time of learning and growing. Let's learn the lessons the Lord wants to teach us and wait for those opportunities to show themselves.