I asked my friend with eleven kids how she handled the stress, the disagreements and bickering that are bound to happen in any home, but can only be multiplied as more children are added to the mix.
"Whenever things get heated, I just tell myself in five minutes this situation will look completely different."
It's a good lesson in parenting, but also in life. What will look different in five minutes, by the end of the day, next month, next year? Can you hold it together until then? Can you hang on until the pain passes? Can you wait for God to work?
Not everything needs to be figured out or handled or taken care of. Some circumstances, some trials can only be endured. When life seems too hard or too full, my wimpy self begs for reprieve. My heart wants a break from the pain I see around me, the evil lurking at every turn, the anxieties which can take over my mind. I think, "O Lord, can we be done here yet? Can you take us home? I don't know if I got it in me to be on earth anymore."
But He calls me, He calls you to hold it together, to wait it out, relying on Him and His Word to muddle through. He knows that only through the fire can we become who He wants us to be.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:6-7
So hold on, my friend. Know that in some period of time your situation will look completely different. It may be tomorrow, it may be next week, it may be three years from now, or it may only be solved in heaven. One thing is certain. It WILL pass. If not here, in eternity. Can you hold it together that long? Can you trust the Creator of the universe it make it right some day? Can you wait on His perfect timing?
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Don't lose heart. Fix your eyes on the only solution, our loving God. Hang on. It will pass eventually. Keep holding it together.
Photo Credit: fallsroad
1 comment:
Tami - What a timely post. Right now I have (in no particular order)
- a bedroom torn up and emptied out awaiting the painter tomorrow
- a son contemplating marriage to someone of a different faith, which I am in a constant state of prayerful tension about
- grandchildren whom I don't get to see often enough
- a husband who seems to be struggling with the idea that he is not as young as he used to be
(but then, who is :)
- a regrigerator that needs to be cleaned out - phooey
- and an unwanted, inherited house, that needs to get sold ASAP in a terrible real estate market.
Other than that, things are just dandy! And seriously, I know that many others are dealing with much, much more serious issues, but like you, some days I wonder "How long, Lord?"
Always good to check in with you, my friend. Blessings to you - Marsha
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