Perserverance

A picture today, A little swollen but doing better!
A picture almost two weeks ago

Well, Sydney is at Brownies right now and Jack has gone down for a late nap and I thought I would write about something that has been on my mind today.

Earlier I went to the orthodontist to check me out after surgery again. Things are progressing nicely, but all the poking and tugging did cause me some big time pain this afternoon. I was thinking about how much am I am tiring to being in pain when I realized how far I have come with this surgery. Last week I was so miserable. Right after surgery was horrible. Now it only hurts now and again. I realized that I need to thank God for His presence with me during that time and for the strength to keep going.

I started to think about what perseverance means. Perseverance is what keeps us going when we feel like quitting. It prompts us to stick with the task even when we'd rather run the other direction. Sheer grit and willpower are helpful in the short run, but we need something more significant to keep us going in the long run.

Galations 6:9 says "Don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessings at the appropriate time."

What a promise that is! The Bible promises a prize-or as Galations expresses it, "a harvest of blessing."That really struck me. A Harvest of Blessings. In His time.

One of my short-term prizes of persevering has been feeling better. The swelling has gone down. The grogginess has lifted. But I wonder, what does God have planned for me in long-term? Hopefully I will look back and learn something remarkable about God or myself from these struggles. Isn't it amazing that our Heavenly Father has this greater plan for us? That he uses our struggles for greater good?

I read once about Corrie ten Boom, 'humble Dutch woman' who along with her family hid Jews in her home during the Nazi invasion of Holland. She had lots of opportunities to work on perseverance. Landing in a concentration camp, there were times that she felt like giving up hope. But she didn't . Corrie wrote, "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer."

I am so glad that I have such a miraculous engineer of my life. God really does hold us in His arms and walks with us. Let's see if I can remember that when my next dark tunnel comes.