Do you ever find yourself going to bed overwhelmed and anxious? Does the prospect of a new day, filled with new demands and new trials, cause fear to rise in your heart the minute your alarm goes off? Or maybe you have been living with a constant trial. The pain is relentless. There never seems to be any release. And just when there seems to be a little light at the end of the dark tunnel, fear and dread plague you. What if it never gets better? What if this prospective light is actually the beginning of another trial? It can be hard to hope when the cares of this fallen life are pressing in.
Infertility Does Not Define You
One of the constant struggles in my journey of infertility is to not believe the lie that I am defined by my infertility. Many times it feels like if you were to look up the word infertile in the dictionary my picture would be there staring back at you. Of course, it is easy to feel this way. Regardless of the medical condition causing the problem, the diagnosis from the doctor is that for the time being I am infertile. Infertility is keeping me from getting pregnant. Treatments, medicine, tests, and the like occupy my thoughts.
Finding Your Home on Mother's Day (repost)
Book Review: When God Weeps
I just finished reading When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty, written by Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes. I have read snippets of Joni's writing over the years, but never actually read a full book by her. Now I'm wishing I had started reading her writing earlier in my Christian life! A reader commented a while ago asking what books I recommend on suffering. I've read a few over the last couple of years, but I would have to say that this one might be the one that has helped me the most. It's a solid biblical response to suffering coupled with a tender care for the reader.
Grace for Today
I am a planner. I live by my calendar. I love having things to look forward to. I am always looking ahead with excitement over whatever is coming that promises to be better than today. But often, to my own detriment, I focus too much on the future. I miss the exciting moments of the day because I am so hopeful about what lies ahead. Sometimes it is good to be a planner. Sometimes it just makes me plain crazy.
Thank You for the Trial
After our miscarriage a friend of mine (who had also experienced a miscarriage) relayed a conversation she had with another friend who, after reflecting back on her own pregnancy loss and infertility, was able to thank God for the suffering and the pain because of what it did in her own life. As we talked about our own trials we both commented that while it would be good and helpful to get to that realization in our own life, it was hard to see that far ahead in our own season of loss.
Death is Swallowed Up in Victory
This morning my husband said that if Christ has not been raised than what we are doing (gathering on a Sunday morning for worship) is a big waste of our time. If Christ didn't rise from the dead we should all just go home and enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon, rather than rise early to be with God's people in worship. But as our other pastor so helpfully reminded us this morning, Christ did rise from the dead. He did exactly what he said he would do on that third day in the tomb. He got up, effectively conquering death once and for all.
Spurgeon on Unanswered Prayers
I have been reading through Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening and it has been a very helpful and edifying experience for me. Over the years I have heard so many people quote Spurgeon in sermons and realized that while I'm always helped by their quoting of him, I have very rarely read anything by him. When we moved last year we found a copy in a box of books and I'm so glad we kept it. Here is what Mr. Spurgeon has to say about our (seemingly) unanswered prayers. I hope it encourages you this morning like it did me.
A Tale of Two Responses
How would you respond if you were in constant fear for your life, abandoned by everyone you thought were loyal to you, and were stuck hiding in a cave? How do you respond when the storms of life come? Maybe you aren’t in fear for your life, but you might have just received some really bad news. Or maybe you have been asking God to deliver you from a particular trial for a number of years and he seems to be answering the opposite of what you are praying for. Does it cause you to abandon your hope in God?
Pain in Childbearing
I’ve been in the thick of lesson planning these past few months. As a first semester teacher, my prep is never done. And since I’m teaching a marriage and family class, we covered some basic foundational truths related to God’s design for marriage in the first few weeks of class. Obviously you can’t teach these things without talking about the reality of sin early on. The Bible doesn’t get very far before sin comes on the scene, so it only made sense that we went where the Bible went as we began.