The Shape of Life
Are you tired of how much pruning God is doing in your life? Why not check out this video.
Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30 am EDT.
Thursday night, my neighbor and I stood in her front yard and shone her little flashlight on the apple whips. It was only 7pm, but already dark and the temperature was plummeting. I’d promised to show her how to prune the fruit tree in front of her house, but it was late before I’d gotten to her.
We shivered in the darkness, and without good lighting, resorted to feeling the hard, cold buds along the branches. One of the sides of the tree was elongated, oddly shaped with a jutting branch that she had been too afraid to prune back last winter. In the summer, the uncut branch put out several twigs that hung over the lawn, making mowing underneath difficult.
“Feel this bud. Do you see how branches will come outward in both directions if you cut here?” I showed her the little protrusions. “Just cut it back; it will reward you with a good shape.”
“I’m not sure I have the courage to cut so far back.” She sighed and pointed to another joint about a foot further up the branch, “I think I may cut only to here, and then perhaps that will be enough. If not, can I cut it again next year?”
Sure, I thought. You could, but every year the branch grows thicker and the trauma of the cut is greater. Why not just trim it back early on, rather than letting it put out whips that have to be cut completely back.
The evening reminded me of how much pruning God does. He lets me cooperate to the extent that I decide. Sometimes things that should be lopped off have been left to grow and bother those around me. I resist the hard cut-back, worrying that too much of me will disappear and I will be unrecognizable and ugly. What if I never recover and I am stunted in that area forever? What if an important part of me is taken away forever?
Like on Kathy’s tree, God lets nature have its way. When I resist the loving hands that wield the scissors I find all kinds of stray growths poking out of me. I become an asymmetrical, misshapen life, far removed from the symmetry and wholeness of God’s plan for me.
In John 10, Jesus talked about His Father as the husbandman who would prune away dead growth. He allowed His life to be shaped, and achieved what He was sent to do. “I do nothing on my own, but I only do what the Father tells me”, He said.
Lord, give me courage to submit to the hard cuts and skillful trimming under Your hand, knowing You will shape me into useful and beautiful design.. Amen.
Questions: Why does God allow pain and disappointments come into our lives? How is God in the process of pruning your life today?
About the Author Rosemarie Kowalski
Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, Spiritual Growth is a Collaborative Effort, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog
Tags: bud, buds, husbandman, LIFE, misshapen, prune, pruning, symmetry, trauma, whips
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Hi ladies! I’ve been away working this summer, and was so pleased to read how sisters in the faith have been praying and caring for each other. When I wrote the original blog “The Shape of Life”, I thought deeply about God’s amazing patience with me and those I love.
Each human is broken, needing God to bind our wounds, prune away our failures, and wean us from selfishness. And he is so tender in his work in us. Blessings on you all – I blog regularly at http://www.peacefulones.blogspot.com if you want to get regular blogs. Check it out anytime. Rosemarie K
Dear Loving Heavenly Father I bring before You Bonnie Mazzola and her entire Family. Jesus You see all what each one is going through and how devastating things that are happening in the family. I just ask You right now to reach out a Minister to each and everyone of their individual needs whether they are physical, emotional, spiritual or financial. Lovingly wrap Your Arms ever so tightly around each and everyone of them. Help each one in this entire family to feel Your Love, Peace, Presence, Encouragement and Healing Touch throughout their Bodies. Help each one to keep their eyes completely on You and You Alone! I Pray All these things In Your Heavenly Name with Faith Believing Amen and Amen!!!
Bonnie I shared this poem in the next devotional but just in case you don’t happen to read it I want to share it here too. It was given to me 39 years ago when my first husband passed away from open heart surgery and Lee-Anna my daughter that got killed in the car accident was only ten months old at the time of her dad’s death. It has encouraged me and helped me go through many difficult times in my life and I hope in some small way it will encourage you and your family too!
“THE FATHER’S HAND”
While through this changing world below
I would not choose my path to go
“Tis Father’s hand that leadeth me,
Then O how safe His child must be.
Sometimes we walk in sunshine bright,
Sometimes in darkness of the night
Sometimes the way I cannot see
But Father’s hand still leadeth me.
Sometimes there seems no way to take,
But Father’s hand a way doth make
Sometimes I hear Him gently say,
“Come follow Me, this is the way”
Why should I mind the way I go?
His way is best for me, I know.
He is my strength, my truth, my way,
He is my comfort, rod and stay.
So on we travel hand in hand,
Bound for the heavenly promised land
Always through all Eternity,
I’ll praise His name for leading me.
Hugs, Linda!!!
what a lot of replys do to this devotional. I must say it’s one of the best ones yet. At lease right now, right where I am I feel God prunning me. Life is turning corners not just for me but for my adult children and their families. This reassures me that God is never far away and he will on His perfect timing prun away the things of life that look a little bit rotton right now. Son lost work with a wife and four children. Son-in-law facing bone marrow transplant for cancer who has a wife , my daughter, and a 8 year old son. My husband has been in and out of hospitals for the last year and a half. I feel some times that I want to get out there and prune away and keep prunning until all this rotton stuff is gone. But that’s not how God works because I would destroy everything and God does not. Thank you for your awsome love for me and all of your children. Keep on remeinding me Lord that it is in your time not ours. I love you!!!
Dear Lora,
As I read your email I turned to Psalms 139. What a comfort it is! To read that He is always there and always thinking of me! Thank you so much for your wonderful guidance! There is so much I wish I could talkt o you about. My email is arlette_the_rvt@yahoo.com. Perhaps if you are not too busy we could keep in touch. I am not sure how long this thread will be kept up for.I have to go on a trip for a week but I will be hoping to “see” you.
I love the idea of praying scripture! What better words than His own. Psalm 143 “Let me see your kindness in the morning, for I am trusting you.Show me where to walk, for my prayer is sincere.”.
Thank you, Lora, so much. I pray for you and for Linda.
Dear Lord Thank you for this technology and the authors of this site. Thank you for sisters like Linda and Lora that so generously offer themselves. Please Lord be with them and comfort them. Grant them wisdom and peace as they spread your Word. Thank you, God, for the love I feel from them and from You this day.
Love,
Arlette
Hi Arlette, Your questions: 1.Praying for yourself; 2.How to deal with despair, and 3.A task to serve God.
So glad you wrote to me. I prayed for you this morning. Please feel free to write again. Yes, I will remain on this site as long as the Lord leads me here.
First, thank you for your kind comments to me. It warms my heart that you would ask. I am very close to the Lord. Jesus is my best friend. I can only speak from experience knowing Him in my life. I may not say exactly what is right for you, so hopefully others will join in sharing their experiences knowing God.
1. Yes, you can pray for yourself. However, in my experiences, I see more answered prayer when I pray for others. That is why you need a network of Christians praying for you and you pray for others, too. Start the morning with positive in your mind. Begin to memorize scripture. As you read scripture, you can put your own name in or even when you are just reading it. You can’t go wrong praying scripture. It is God’s word! Also, put your loved ones names in the scripture as you pray for them. Usually, when I pray for myself, I just use scripture. It is also powerful to pray scripture for your family and friends. You can’t go wrong using scripture. It is God’s word!
2. Despair: Yikes, that’s a tough one. I am not going to say just get over it. It doesn’t work that way. It depends on what the despair is over, as to how long it will take and what to do. Sometimes one just has to ride out the storm. Sorry to say that. But, there are things you can do to make the ride easier. A. Your network of caring, positive, loving individuals in your life.
B. Reading the bible and allowing God to speak to you through it. Reading the bible gives you power in your life. Let Him lead you, as to where to read. C. Taking care of yourself first. This sounds selfish, but, it is not. If you are in despair, it is hard to reach out to others. I speak from much experience. Example: In an airplane emergency, the passengers have already been instructed to put the air mask on themselves first and after that put it on their children. So take care of yourself, first! There is so much more I could say on this subject. D. Counseling from a pastor, a counselor, a trusted friend or family member. 3. Your question on a task to serve God: Here is an idea! I really believe on taking Sundays off! I mean if you can. It doesn’t always work that way, however is is good to get a a day of rest, like minimum work! In my experience I always get more work done during the week, if I just take Sundays off to have fun. Going to church is a good thing if you can, and read the bible and pray. Then ask God who you could go visit. This is the task. Maybe there is a need in your community. Maybe someone is lonely and needs a visit. Maybe someone needs a bag of groceries or just a smile from you…….It really puts things into perspective! However, carefully pray about who to visit. If they are in despair, it may pull you down. Start with people who are positive and bright!!! In my experience of doing this on some of my Sundays, I get out of my own problems and focus on others. It really works! God will lead you, you’ll feel the pull to go visit someone….maybe just a neighbor down the street. Just an idea for you and start….Bless you my friend! Be encouraged. I will pray for you today!!! Lora S.
P.S. You are worthy! You are loved!!! You have a purpose……Hold on girl……There will be better days ahead. Your project right now is to take care of yourself…….first….to become stronger…..
Everyday, drink your water, eat your apple, take a walk, call a friend, read Psalms 139….Put your name it!!! God does care for you and wants you to take time to smell the roses!!! After all, He made them……Thank you for your prayer,,,,wow…appreciated, I felt it!!! See we can pray for each other….I have tons to do…and little time to do it. However,,,,..Busy people are happy people (depending on what the busy is)!!!
Have a great day, Arlette! You deserve it!!! You deserve joy and happiness………………Here’s my smile :) for you….That’s the best I can do e-mail….
Dear Lora,
Thank you so much. The kindness of you and Linda is so amazing to me. That you both would take the time and write to me brings tears to my eyes. I loved reading your letter about the tax collectors and the woman. You are right that Jesus did not only forgive those sinners but sought them out in front of all those who thought themselves better than. Your words made me feel so loved. What a wonderful feeling that is! I thank you so much for your wise guidance and I pray that I will find your name and your words again here. May I ask you..is it selfish and sinful to pray for yourself? The Bible speaks often of selfishness. I read that despair is a sin and I try very hard not to feel that way. How I pray that I would have sisters like you here that I could talk to and ask questions of! God has truly blessed me in so many ways! I ask His forgiveness each day and thank Him for all the blessings He has given me, an unworthy sinner. I wish there was something else I could do. I wish there was a task that I knew served Him that I could work at.
Truly thank you Lord for these kind people! Thank you for leading me here to read your word. God bless and comfort them as they lead lost lambs closer to You.
Arlette, Hi girl, Just want to say that you are so special. God loves you more than you could every know. You are worthy. Remember the kind of people that Jesus hung out with???? It was the unworthy ones. He mocked at the Scribes and Pharisees who stood on the street corner and displayed their ‘holiness’. They couldn’t imagine how Jesus, being so plain and regular could be the Savior. The tax collectors were not looked upon with admiration. No one liked them. They collected the taxes, then collected more for themselves. It was expensive for the common people to pay taxes. I believe one of his disciples was a tax collector (Matthew?). My what a transformation! Remember the prostitute who washed the feet of Jesus with her hair. The so called Holy People were disgusted with Jesus. Then there is the woman who was caught in adultery. The people were going to stone her. Hum,,,where was the man who committed adultury with her?….Guess it was ok for the man, but not the woman. When Jesus bent down to write in the sand, he said ,’He who is without sin, throw the first stone’. Then one by one the people dropped their stones and walked off. Wonder what Jesus was writing?. One theory says it was the names of the men in the crowd who had cheated on their wives and the names of the women they slept with. That is only a theory! Who knows what Jesus wrote. The point is, they dropped their stones!!! No one is without sin,,,,,,,No one!!!! Jesus loves you, Arlette!!! Just ask forgiveness! That is it. Move on.
You don’t have to ask again….if you want to you can, if it will make you feel better. You can ask every day if you want….He won’t forgive you more, but, He won’t forgive you less! He forgives you!!!!!!!! That is why He died on the cross or His dieing was in vane! He died for all of out sins.
Of course you have asked Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior. Then you get the goods!!!!!! They are yours for the asking……Forgiveness is yours!!!
Now about the faith part……Deep subject…hum..
Jesus said, ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God’. It was easy for me to have faith, because, I had a great relationship with my earthy dad. I had a great childhood. I trusted. I do know when I was 12 I doubted and wanted to know if God was real. He showed me. I wrote my first poem about God at that time and He also answered a prayer of faith for me.
If you will say, Jesus Help Me’, He will! Reading and Memorizing scripture will help. Hearing God’s voice is tricky. But, you will know, because, you will have peace and it makes sense. You will not struggle with whether it is God’s voice or not. You will know. If you doubt, then it is not. This is not always easy to learn. It takes lots of listening. If you don’t know if it is God’s voice, wait! He will show you in His time. I have learned to listen to God even on the little things, because when I don’t I learn the hard way! When he says turn, I turn. When he says, ‘Go’ I go! Because I have learned that questioning the small still gentle voice of God, I have regretted it over and over. Just start practicing. In practice we make mistakes. But, in time you will hear to recognize His voice, most of the time. All things we learn take practice.
Most importantly, You are worthy! He Loves you, Arlette!!!!You have my word on it!!! Arlette, I said that Jesus loves You!!! He does!!! He Loves You!!! Hold on to that! Take His love to the world. Read 1st Cor. 13
Bless you, Lora S.
Linda, Thank you for your kind thoughts. The gals on this site are so blessed to have you as a person who cares and a woman of faith. It sounds like you have been on this site for a long time. Maybe the negative thing I was speaking about was meant for someone else. Or maybe there will be something in the future that happens with a negative person, and you will know it is ok to keep you shield up! I am so sorry about the email you came to. That was from the enemy!
On the brighter side, ‘Good Girl’ you got yourself 5 carnations. I am proud of you……Enjoy them, sister!
Read the email I wrote to Denise about disappointments. Maybe it will help. Also know I am not trying to make light of anything. Just trying to be a sister in Christ that may help, as there is a time and place under the sun for everything……There is a reason I came upon this site. Can’t believe I clicked on it, as I get tons of emails daily……..Bless you, Lora
I love the way you have been reaching out to the gals on this site. You have said some very encouraging words to uplift them!
I don’t mind emailing you. I wrote down your email address. Bless you!!! Lora
Denise dear, Disappointment is a part of life. We cannot bargain with God to get out of it. We can plead and plead and He seems to just wait. We cry, we beg, we yell at Him and that is all right. He waits. He waits. Sometimes we bring on our own disappointments. We make choices that cause disappointments to come. We wish we could change the past. But, we can’t. All we have is today. The choices we make today. Two steps forward. One step back. The important thing is that we are taking those two steps. Hum,,,,How is your diet? Certain foods cause us to have less resistance to disappointments. This is a good time of year to eat God’s healthy foods from the garden or farmer’s markets. I have had many many many disappointments in my life. I do know that people in general disappoint! So to make yourself stronger, begin by taking care of yourself!!! The first moment when you wake up and the last moment when you go to sleep, fill your mind with positive thoughts. It is not easy! It is like exercising a weak muscle. Exercise your brain to become more resistant to disappointments, by eating healthy foods and turning the negative thoughts into positive thoughts. Sugar robs your brain of nutrition. Try to use sugar very little, except occasional treats. My message is – for your to strengthen yourself by taking care of yourself. Because, when disappointments come, and they will, you will become more likely to let them roll off your back. I am not trying to make it sound easy. It is not…..It may take months or a year to make the changes, but you can, Denise! Somethings we cannot change. It is our reaction to the disappointment. Go to Eph. 6 and take on the armor of God every day. Then ask God to surround you with His Holy Spirit. As far as your statement about there being a reason for everything, remember that God does say, ‘All things work out for the good, to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose. Hope this helps a little, if you are still reading this. However, maybe it will help some other gals who are reading………Bless you, Denise from Lora S.
Hi Lora well today started out positive, I even bought myself 5 carnations when I was out with my daughter-in-law but came home to the most disturbing email I have ever received. It was all on car accidents, with very graphic pictures which just flooded back all my horrible memories of that August day. I cried and thought Lord here I am trying to get myself together and hang in there and this happens, WHY???? As far as letting go of negative people in my life I don’t have a problem with that as I only have two friends that live in the same city as me not including my son and family. One of my friends is non christian with whom I have shared and shared the Love of Jesus with and the other is a Christian who does have marital problems but she is my one and only Christian friend I get to see and have coffee with. All my other friends are long distant friends. So when I said I couldn’t let got I meant of the hurt and loss of Lee-Anna’s death. Thanks again for your kind words there is so much more I could share with you but don’t feel right doing so on this site. But I do appreciate your love and prayers. Hugs, Linda!!!
Hi Linda, My letter said, ‘move on’ and ‘hold on’. I said ‘let go’ in reference to negative people. You have a purpose to ‘hold on’. Hold on girl!!!
Are you talking about not being able to ‘let go’ of negative people?
The only time I said ‘let go’ was to let go of negative people. Are you able to let go of negative influences who try to take the life out of you? Hum? We all have them……Surround yourself with positive people! Friends who pull you into their circle and then hurt you over and over are not true friends. Be cautious……You need positive, uplifting friends. I am trying to help you heal………Allowing God to gently heal you is a way to move on. Certainly, you move on with Lee Anna with you……Her memory, her smile will live on, the way she lit up the room when she came home from school, her kindness, her love, her gentle spirit, her genuine friendship, her consideration of others, her sweetness, her flair, her beauty, her energy, her light, the peace she had in her heart, her faith, her companionship, the list goes on and on. She is alive. She is with you my dear. Not in the same way, I know. My heart really goes out to you for your loss. The years don’t make it any easier and August is a difficult time for you. Thank God you have your faith!!!Bless you! Lora s.
Lora now I have more and more tears falling down my face. You are so loving, caring and Full of Jesus! Your words of encouragement show it and what you say is true but I have to be honest with you I truly don’t know how to let go even though you just told me how to it just seems too hard or impossible for me to do. Why, why do I feel that way? I don’t know if you would ever want to email me personally, if you do I have listed it above when I shared with Arlette but if you choose not to as Arlette did I totally understand. Thanks again for your prayers and heartfelt email. Hugs, Linda!!!
HI Linda R., Thank you for your lovely comments! I feel that I know you! My heart is warmed by your lovely spirit! I feel so sorry for you. That your hurt does not go away. You smile on the outside and hurt on the inside. And oh for so long. It is time to move on. Lee Anna would want you to. Your heart is broken and has been broken for too long. It is time to mend. Your love for Lee Anna can help mend your heart. Let her love she has for you help to heal you…Yes, you will cry, but it is time to feel again and release. I can’t imagine and I’m not trying to. I have a close friend who lost a teenage child last year. She smiles on the outside. How can she smile on the inside. My heart goes out to her. My heart goes out to you, Linda. This month is a most difficult month for you. It is time to make peace with August.
I hope I am being gentle enough with you. I don’t mean to make light of this time of the year.
It is your month of pain, you dread every summer. I do believe that God can help make this a time of beautiful flowers for you! Fill your month with flowers. Flowers for you and flowers for Lee Anna. Pictures of flowers and real flowers. When you look at the beautiful flowers think of God filling you with His healing grace. Lee Anna is there with you, in her spirit. I never knew or believed that until my dad passed away…Can’t explain it….but, sometimes I feel him in the presence of my Savior, who is with me. Sometimes, not always, but at the right moment, my dad’s presence is still near. He was 90 when he passed away, but sometimes in my spirit I see him young, in his Navy Whites, smiling from ear to ear. He doesn’t say anything, I just know everything is alright!
He is with God. Ten thousand times harder to loose a child. Linda, I am sending a prayer faster than email….Be blessed my friend!!! You are not alone! No one can replace Lee Anna. This precious child who was snatched away from you. She is perfect with God. What do people do without the Lord?! What hope do they have?! When I get up to see the stars in the summer night, I am beyond amazed at God’s Creation. Look at the North Star. Lee Anna may be watching you from there! Remember, every other star circles around the North Star. Or pick the brightest star of all and think of her there with God. And also, think of the Big Dipper as as holding a sky full of love for you!!! Everyone sees the Big Dipper, but do they every think of it in those terms? When you can’t sleep at night, God is awake. I go out and surround myself with his presence under God’s magnificent canopy of stars… He will speak to you and answer your prayers in His time. You are not alone! Hold on….you have a purpose to hold on…Lee Anna wants you to hold on to every precious day as a gift….Surround yourself with positive people…..please! Positive people with a Capital P! Let go of the negative ones, you can’t fix their problems. Take care of yourself first!!!Then you’ll have the strength to take care of others.
Bless you my sister in Christ, Lora S.
Patti first of all it is WONDERFUL to see you back on the site as you have such a wonderful Ministry of Encouragement and Sharing your life experiences. Patti you are a real Blessing to me too more than you will ever know and next you are much too kind in your compliments, all I want and desire is to be used of God in any way that I can and if it can be sharing what has happened in my life I am more than willing to do it. I am so Thankful for this Devotional Site it has literally changed my life and given me a whole new network of friends all over the world. I would really like to encourage each of you to take the opportunity to share your heartaches, prayer requests or encouragement to others on this site God has made available to each of us. How Blessed we are to be able to Freely share Gods Love with one another.
Hugs, Linda!!!
Linda…what a gift you are to me….your testimony, your faith…your courage to face life without Lee Anna… and go on to encourage others.
I came here to the blog…I’m not sure when…but a year and a half…?? The Lord ministered to me thru you…..I am so thankful for you!
I praise Him for you in my life!
Oh Lora with tears running down my face I thank you for your lovely and meaningful prayer. You know you prayed for just what I need and have lacked over the past 23yrs. No one has ever prayed such a prayer for me like that since Lee-Anna passed away. May The Lord Continue To Richly Use You For His Glory!!! Hugs Linda!!!
I have to agree with Rosalie. This is one of the best devotionals I have ever read….
Linda R. I am so sorry for your loss. Lee Anna would be so proud of you and your outreach to others. I want to pray for you. This is the first blog that I have ever wrote. I know that God led me here.
Dear Father in Heaven, Thank you for your many blessings, daily. Thank you for your love, your care, and the best gift of all; the gift of eternal life. I bring my sister in Christ Linda, before your throne. I ask for your loving arms to hold her in this time of grief. I ask that you would bring many opportunities to share the love of the Lord Jesus Christ into her life this month. I ask that you would spare her so much sorrow and replace it with warmth and good memories of the special times she had with her daughter. Give her loving comfort in this time. Help her to embrace the days. Help her to wake up with joy and not dread in her heart, looking for opportunities you present to her. Give her special ideas as to how to reach out to her community. Please send positive, understanding friends into her life to spend time with. Please give her strength and the beauty of the Lord. Please warm her heart, fill her soul, hold her, love her, heal her, uplift her and give her sweet sweet sleep in the night. In Jesus Precious Holy Name, Amen……….(Bless you, sister!)
Dearest Arlette God loves you Unconditionally. You are a Very Worthy Person to Him regardless of what sins you might have done as the Bible says All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God!
Arlette let me share something with you and now the whole devotional site but to be Truthfully Honest with you as much as I Totally Love and Trust on Jesus I have yet had the privilege of truly hearing His voice or even a whisper but I Believe and Know By Faith that He is with me each and every day. Arlette if you feel as if you would like to email me please feel free. My email address is lrohne@shaw.ca. Let’s pray okay?
Dear Jesus I bring Arlette before You right now. Oh Heavenly Father You and You alone see here where is and the struggles and helplessness she feels in her life. Lord I just pray that right now as she confesses all her sin to You that You would fill her to overflowing with Your Wonderful Peace, Love and Joy! Help her to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that You have Forgiven and FORGOTTEN every sin she has ever committed and help her to Totally , 100% lean and put All her Faith and Trust in You! Hold her close and send Christian Friends into her life to encourage her in her walk with You. I Just commit her now to You in Faith Believing I pray these things In Jesus Name Amen!!!
Hugs, Linda
Dear Linda,
Thank you for taking the time to write. I read your comment and was given such hope. I am trying very hard to trust, totally and fully, in Him. I cannot describe the pain that has been with me or the helplessness I feel. I have come to understand that while I believe and have faith it is not as strong as it needs to be. I learned that I can pray to Him to increase my faith and surrender to Him. I am struggling with accepting that there are things beyond our own understanding and that it is there that faith must be. I am struggling with feeling Him in my life, hearing His voice even as a whisper and truly believing that He loves an unworthy person full of horrible sins as I am. Thank you again for sharing your daughter and your journey.
Thanks for the Great Devotional and the reminder that God is continually working in our lives. I can so distinctly thinking exactly 23 yrs ago that everything was going good in our lives. It is almost like you get to the point where you feel You have everything under control and Forget Who is Really In control of our lives. Well 20 days later my world was turned upside down more than I could ever imagine it could be! Our 15 1/2yr old daughter was killed instantly in a car crash. Unless you have been there you will never begin to understand what has happened in your life. Lee-Anna was so very special to me as when she was only 10 months old my first husband passed away from open heart surgery at the age of 21yrs old. Needless to say Lee-Anna and I had become very close over the next 4yrs till the Lord brought a wonderful Christian man into my life. We married and had two boys so now we were a very Happy Family of “5″ until August 24th 1986 at 3pm that Sunday afternoon. My heart was broken and my questions were Why!!! Lee-Anna was a Very Happy 15 1/2 yr old and she Loved The Lord and it radiated in her smile. Her favorite words we “Keep Smiling For Jesus” which we put on her grave marker. School friends wrote in that next years school book on a page dedicated just to her that Her Smile was so Beautiful and some even though I didn’t know her personally every time I saw her she Always had a smile! Anyways I could go on and on but what I want to say is BOY did my (our) life change with such a Great Loss! I slowly began to realize that God NEVER Makes A Mistake and say oops that person wasn’t suppose to die yet! No He is in Total Control of our lives and when bad things come our way it causes us to either turn to Him for Strength and grow closer and closer to Him if we Truly Believe He is in Total Control and Nothing absolutely Nothing Good or Bad doesn’t happen to us that hasn’t first passed by Him and he allows it to happen. Don’t get me wrong it has been hard, I miss Lee-Anna to this day, I hate this month and can hardly wait for September to come. But through it all God has given me numerous opportunities to share my experience with others, encourage others who have just gone through the same experience and brought some wonderful friends into my life some of which I have met through this devotional. Just for a quick example two years ago I met or wrote a lady who had left her email address because she was so distraught over the sudden death of her 18 yr. old daughter in a car accident. We have become good friends and with Gods help I was able to encourage her and continue to, to this very day. It was Lee-Anna’s time to go and I truly believe that and one day I will be with her again in Heaven!!!
Dear Heavenly Father I just bring Denise before You right now, Jesus You see all the disappointments she is facing in her life and I Pray that You would encourage her, lift her up above her circumstances and just allow her to know You are In Control of her life. Please wrap your Loving Arms ever so tightly around her. Send her Christians friends to be an encouragement to her. Fill her with Your Peace and allow her to rest in You. I Pray all these things In Your Name in Faith Believing, Amen & Amen!!!
Hugs, Linda
This is so true. But, sometimes it is hard to remember there is a reason for everything. I find myself wondering when will things be right and why do I have all this disapointment.
This is one of the best devotionals I have read. How true–we don’t want to let go of too much so many times. Thank you. May prayer for today is that I’ll let Him prune as much as He would like to.