I am hoping to head out to TJ Maxx with my girl today. Believe it or not, she loves that place just about as much as I do. Our fave thing to do there is browse. Bri ogles the toys while I ogle everything else :)
We're also going to make cookies for our neighbors. My "little bit big" helper (as she refers to herself) will be at my right side. I think those addicting, rich seven layer cookies are in order.
God has been teaching me so much lately, I don't know where to begin. One thing I want to post about some time in greater depth is marriage. God has given me such a burden for broken marriages/counseling/growing healthy marriages, even before I was married. I think it all stemmed from my own parents' marriage, the burden increased during the legal training I had in Family Law, and it's grown since being married myself and encountering troubled marriage relationships within my circle.
But this week, my thoughts ponder Job, specifically, why we encounter hardship...and is all suffering traceable to sin in people's lives? Obviously, the direct answer is 'no'. Often, those who believe in God with a firm faith, like Job, who was upright, perfect, and feared God, are tested. It's hard to acknowledge that the Lord allowed Satan to commit all that atrocity against Job, for no other reason than to prove Job's uprightness and bring glory to Himself. But it's true. And before I begin to blame God as a believer (or non-believer) in my painful circumstances, I take so much to heart Job 2:10, "Shall we receive good from the hand of God and not evil?" Basically, we take for granted our life, happiness, and freedom while thing are peachy. Then, when things are in the valley, in a dark tunnel that doesn't seem to end, we forget. Forget that Satan is out there trying to steal us away from Lord, the one who loves us and wants to prove His children. Satan wants us to lose heart, curse God, and die spiritually.
A pastor came to visit our church a couple months ago. His words stuck with me. He said our life is like a conveyor belt, then end being the "pot" of our life. God is continually in the business of putting stuff on the conveyor belt, taking things off. Some of those circumstances are financial setback, sickness, failure, death of our dreams, death of children, success, blessings one after the other, etc. God says to Himself, "This would be really good for Joy to go through. This, not so much. Joy doesn't need that in her life. I really want to give Joy this blessing." In our loss of Amelia, perhaps God said something like, "This will cause Joy deep pain, but I know in the end, it is what's best." The comfort is that it's ultimately all from His hand. He's given permission. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. And after the trials in our life have come and gone, when our life is done, the ultimate result is Heaven, being with God forever.
"Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35,37-39
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