Living Life for Christ Alone

Seasons of great need - how easily we shun them like the plague.   The past several weeks have been drenched in many challenges and needs for me and my family.  Need that has had me crying out to God, “how long?”  I beg him for a time limit, some light at the end of the tunnel, but when I look for it, I just see more tunnel.  What is the purpose of a season like this?  This is the question I have found myself asking God on a near daily basis.  I won’t say I’ve found out the fullness of the answer yet, but pressing the question so much has yielded some light for me.  After all, He promises that those who seek will find.  And one thing He keeps pressing into my soul is this:  My need is my opportunity to test the limits I think God has on the amount of grace He will give me.  And oh, if I could recount to you all the ways He has already poured so much grace, you would think me a spoiled daughter of the King.  But if you saw how each d...

"Much-Afraid shrank back. 'I am afraid,' she said. 'I have been told that if you really love someone you give that loved one the power to hurt and pain you in a way nothing else can.' "'That is true,' agreed the Shepherd. 'To love does mean to put yourself into the power of the loved one and to become very vulnerable to pain, and you are very Much-Afraid of pain, are you not?' "She nodded miserably and then said shamefacedly, 'yes, very much afraid of it.' "'But it is so happy to love,' said the Shepherd quietly. 'It is happy to love even if you are not loved in return. There is pain too, certainly, but Love does not think that very significant.' ... "'...Love and Pain go together, for a time at least. If you would know Love, you must know pain too.'"  -Hinds Feet on High places // "...If you would know love, you must know pain too." How close to home this phrase hits.  It is painful...

I'm going to do some boasting on here. I'm really weak. Adulting, being a mother with two little precious toddlers 18 months apart in my care, having much on my plate -these things and more have helped me feel it. Almost daily, I find myself freshly aware that I do not have all the answers. I often feel the crushing weight of needing to make hundreds of micro decisions each day press in around me. The temptation to be discouraged before the day has even begun is real, because if I look too much at myself, I will see so much potential to fail. Don't get me wrong. I love my life. It's full, really full, in a lot of really good ways. But I am weak, and I am so very often conscious of it. There are days when I don't feel like I can take any more and would love a break. There are times when I want to retreat into a dark corner somewhere and throw a pity party. There are times when what is going on in my soul is not pretty. HOWEVER. It has been SO good for me. Let me expl...