Suffering and Endurance
It has been a long 2 or 3 weeks. When it rains it pours (and it's finally warm enough for a few days to do that outside too!)
Please allow me to list my reasons:
1) My husband started his second semester of classes, with 17 credits
2) My work has presented me with several challenges and "opportunities for growth" (luckily with the benefit of supportive bosses/colleagues)
3) There have been 2-3 bouts of illness making their way through our family (I thank the Lord my husband has not gotten sick yet and shows signs of continued health!)
4) Continued 3 1/2-year "marathon" with a strong-willed child and a now 2+ year old who is, by nature, more laid-back but aspires to be just like his older brother
5) Continuation of a cold winter (until the last couple days!) and promise of more of the same
6) Starting a new blog, something I'm new to and am excited about, but anxious about as well
7) All the above, combined with a tendency toward depression and/or anxiety, has been contributing to my questioning my abilities as a mother, therapist, "writer", sane person, faithful child of God, and, less-so, as a wife.
Yesterday, I read again Romans 5:3-5 (and added it to my "Passages of Hope"): "We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."
When I read this a month or more ago, I skimmed over it, thinking, "yes, Christ gave us hope through His suffering and Resurrection, and by adding our sufferings to His, we can more fully join Him in that hope" (in not so many words). Well, I was finding it really wasn't that simple. Despite giving my difficulties and trials to God, I find I still despair all too often. I was missing a couple steps there. Suffering produces endurance. I believe God is teaching me to endure through my sufferings and in faithfulness to Him, as a first step toward a hope that lasts, that "endures." Hopefully I will someday have words of wisdom on the next two steps, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. :) Until then, I will try my best to be grateful for my lessons in endurance. :)
Blessings to all,
Kim
Please allow me to list my reasons:
1) My husband started his second semester of classes, with 17 credits
2) My work has presented me with several challenges and "opportunities for growth" (luckily with the benefit of supportive bosses/colleagues)
3) There have been 2-3 bouts of illness making their way through our family (I thank the Lord my husband has not gotten sick yet and shows signs of continued health!)
4) Continued 3 1/2-year "marathon" with a strong-willed child and a now 2+ year old who is, by nature, more laid-back but aspires to be just like his older brother
5) Continuation of a cold winter (until the last couple days!) and promise of more of the same
6) Starting a new blog, something I'm new to and am excited about, but anxious about as well
7) All the above, combined with a tendency toward depression and/or anxiety, has been contributing to my questioning my abilities as a mother, therapist, "writer", sane person, faithful child of God, and, less-so, as a wife.
Yesterday, I read again Romans 5:3-5 (and added it to my "Passages of Hope"): "We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."
When I read this a month or more ago, I skimmed over it, thinking, "yes, Christ gave us hope through His suffering and Resurrection, and by adding our sufferings to His, we can more fully join Him in that hope" (in not so many words). Well, I was finding it really wasn't that simple. Despite giving my difficulties and trials to God, I find I still despair all too often. I was missing a couple steps there. Suffering produces endurance. I believe God is teaching me to endure through my sufferings and in faithfulness to Him, as a first step toward a hope that lasts, that "endures." Hopefully I will someday have words of wisdom on the next two steps, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. :) Until then, I will try my best to be grateful for my lessons in endurance. :)
Blessings to all,
Kim
Comments
Blessings to you as you go through your trials with endurance! You will make it through to the other side, too!
as I read this and your life story one thing struck me...Love is not about strength it is about weakness. Love weakens us, it makes us vulnerable. No longer can we say(to ourselves) I am self sufficient-I need noone.
There is a reason why love weakens us, for it breaks open our self imposed barriers and lays us bare to the excrutiating understanding that we are not whole. That something is missing and that void is deliberate for it is the one that God fills.
Loving God is letting go of control and that is the scariest thing we can do...Until love costs you, then you have not loved at all.
I can see love has cost you greatly and so God be praised...for it is in the little ones that He shows his strength.
Remember God loves you. Yes YOU! So go gently with yourself and know the only thing you can change is your attitude to all of lifes adversities.
Wishing you peace and JOY:)
Marie(from View from the Pews) PS: I hope I can add your lovely blog to our blog roll? Thanking you in advance.
Peace and JOY to you:)
Marie xoxooxox