Hard Lessons Learned

The Greatest Teacher I know has taught me today.  No I'm no longer in grade school, but I'm in the school of  Life As We Know It.  You know funny thing is, he teaches when I least expect it, ever had that happen to you?  Here's mine for today....

At a moment of sadness, I thought what's better than a hot bath, a small glass of wine, a good book and a moment of solace.  Knowing that I would be in the tub for a while, I grabbed a book for a short read while soaking.  I happened to pick up Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture (New Direction for Life's Dramas) by Donna Partow.  Funny how God seems to work these kinds of things out, that I just happened to pick this book...really he's quite humorous.

When I opened it up, took a sip of wine, a piece of paper fell out that was as I presume a book marker from a previous read.  Turns out I've had this book for quite a while, seems that I had purchased it at 6:39 a.m. on 12-11-07.  I know I've read this book several times before and just thought that this evening, maybe it would be nice to skim through as I enjoyed my bath.  Apparently, he can use something way more than once to teach a hard lesson learned.  What I thought was a nice bath, was instead a time of instruction.

First page I opened up to said this:

Perspective is a powerful thing.

Colossians 3:1-2

Pursue the things over which Christ presides.  Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you.  Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that's where the action is.  See things from his perspective.

As I continued to read along, this stood out to me as well:

Hebrews 3:1

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

She says in a following paragraph this:  What trips up most Christians is not our own sin, but our sinful response to the sin of others.  

Here's the hard, cold truth we'll be facing through out the pages of this book:  we all endure tough times.  its is inevitable.  But it's not what happens to us that determines the type of people we become; it's how we respond to what happens to us.  

And Lastly the paragraph that got me good was this one:

Significant people in your life have disappointed you...some in small ways, others profoundly so.  you didn't sign up for disappointing relationships, but they signed up for you.  Now the question remains: What will you do?  Will you live your life consumed by bitterness?  Will you be a porcupine (her definition being: A porcupine is a woman with a lot of good points , but nobody wants to be around her)?  Or will you allow God to heal the hurt?  Only you can decide

Wow, well if that wasn't hard to swallow, for Pete's sake I thought I was just going to get to take a bath, relax and sip a little wine.  WRONG!  God had something completely different in mind.  He used several things that have happened over time to teach me something very valuable.  Something that will help me to grow in my relationship with him.  First of all, I need to fix my eyes upon Jesus more and less on my own feelings.  I need to determine how I will react to things that create a feeling within me that is not of Joy.  I need to understand that in life I will be disappointed, but decide that when it does happen what will I do with it?  How will I handle myself?  Lastly will I allow God to heal my hurt that was created from it?

I choose to say Yes to the last part and what he showed me was that if I can stop and do that, he will take that hurt and heal it.  If I will seek him in those moments he will guide my actions and words.  From this point on I will have to do my very best to seek him in all these things, especially the moments of hurt for they are my hardest to overcome and only speak when he directs me;  Only act when he shows me the way.  I cannot be consumed by bitterness for if I did, there would be too great a distance with my Father.  You know it's the truth, he is the only one that will never hurt or disappoint you. 



You know as silly as it may seem I asked him how come he created feelings?  Why if we were merely his vessels he couldn't just make us like robots?

 Able to do his will, but not feel things such as a pain, couldn't we still accomplish the same things?

You know his response??!!  Without feelings, nobody would ever be able to truly experience his Love.  Even in the hardest moments, the deepest of hurt in our lives, his Love truly abounds.




I desire to walk hand in hand with my Father. Not just in the good times, but in the tough ones.  The ones where I truly need him to lead me in the way that he would have me to go.  I seek that relationship with My Heavenly Father that will exceed all.  The one where even with a simple word, scripture, book or all three at the same time can literally feel like a direct hug from him.  God Bless Friends this evening and may you continue to stay steadfast in your walks with him as well.