Words of Hope - Guest Post and Updates

Mini has been a busy girl.  So busy in fact that she still hasn't found the time to get her blog going!  So I wanted to share her latest column article.

 

Before I share the article I wanted to brag on her a bit.  When I say she is a busy girl I'm not kidding!  In the last couple of months she has been inducted into the National Beta Club, had tons of activities stemming from her Youth Leadership Class (we got to sit in on municipal court yesterday....that is a post of its own, entertaining and yet so, so sad) as well as receiving notice that she was selected for Girl State in May, all while maintaining straight A's. 

 

  She even managed to work in writing an essay on what Safe Driving Means To Me sponsored by country singer Craig Morgan and our local Sheriff's Department.  She won the grand prize....a limo for 8 hours on prom night (she wasn't going to prom but I bet her she could win and she did! lol).  When they interviewed her on the radio she told them she lost a bet and won a limo!  You really never know what your kids will say. 

 

All this was done while working around her new hobby.  I blogged last fall about the new woman in Wonder Hubby's life.  Well that heifer has gotten her claws into Mini too!  That's right, Mini has discovered fishing.  As a matter of fact she has joined her high school's bass fishing club with Wonder Hubby as her coach!  She is fishing her first tournament tomorrow and it is important because she turned down a modeling job because she had to fish!

 

 So, I am cutting her some slack about not having her blog up and running because she really is super busy.

 

Hope you find something inspiring from this week's article.

 

Words of Hope

I know you’ve all heard it said before. “God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him”. This is commonly heard when things aren’t going so well for someone or when tough times are ahead. The purpose of this phrase is to ease one’s mind and let them know that everything is going to turn into rainbows and sunshine because they know that God is working for them…. But what if it doesn’t? This is something very hard for Christians to grasp. The things in their lives didn’t turn out the way that they had imagined they would and now they’re asking God why He let these things happen to them, or are even questioning the presence of God. After all, it’s really hard to feel God’s presence when you’re not getting the exact things you’ve prayed about, am I right? Well, what if there’s a different outlook? God has really laid this subject on my heart recently. It was at a Wednesday night worship service that it began. I was singing my favorite worship song, “Your Love Never Fails”. Over and over again, we sing “You make all things work together for my good, no, You never leave me!” and my mind just wanders off. “What about those times when people DON’T get what they want and things go badly? How are things working for their good?”. And it’s like at that moment God tells me clear as day that we don’t know everything. I know, I know, this is a hard revelation. Ladies and gentlemen, as humans, we don’t know everything. We may think a situation NEEDS to turn out a certain way and if it doesn’t then God just doesn’t listen to our prayers. But what if that situation needed to turn out differently from how you imagined it in order for God’s overall plan for you to blossom into something beautiful? What if His plans are so much better than your plans could ever be? It’s kind of along the lines of the stories that go to the tune of “I was late for work, but if I had been running on time I would have been involved in that major wreck that happened 5 minutes prior”. We may not be able to see the benefits of our failures and heartaches immediately or maybe ever, but I choose to believe that they do exist. I believe there are about a million different paths our lives could take, but God chooses the one that leads to our happiness and His glory, but only if we choose to listen. If we get mad and deny God every single time something doesn’t go our way, we are not doing our jobs as Christians. Through the storms and the sunshine, we were made to know that God loves us and has a plan for us, if only we serve him with all of our hearts, minds, and souls. I will end with lyrics from the worship song previously mentioned. Let these sink in deep and praise God that He never changes.

            “You stay the same through the ages, Your love never changes. There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning. And when the oceans rage I don’t have to be afraid, because I know that You love me. Your love never fails!”