Some quotes that came at a perfect time for us (From Barbara Johnson’s, “Pack Up Your Gloomies in a Great Big Box, Then Sit on the Lid and Laugh!”), I think we posted them around 2/09.

“When the flood waters of the cesspool have come up to your very soul, you don’t need challenges; you need COMFORT. You need a friend to come alongside and say, “I am hurting with you...I am standing with you…I am weeping with you. I am undergirding you as best I can. Link your shield of faith with mine and somehow we will make it together.” Pg. 13

We loved that we could (and still can?) share our struggles with you and you would send us words of COMFORT. You (at least, most of you) didn’t tell us to suck it up, quit talking publically about your struggles, just do this or that and it will be all better. You just told us you were praying with us-you linked your faith with ours and got us through many tough times.

“Whatever comes to any of us is sent or allowed by God.” p.15

“When we believe that nothing comes to us except through our heavenly Father, then suffering begins to make a little sense to us-not much, I admit, but a little bit, and that’s all God needs to work in our lives, just a mustard seed of faith. Then we can see that God is using our pain to work something in us that is redemptive. Every trial or broken relationship goes into God’s oven and eventually we begin to “smell” like cake or fresh bread. Even our suffering counts for something!” p.17

“God calls us to be faithful; He did not promise we would be successful.” P.101

He didn’t promise us we’d be successful in the eyes of the world, often not even in our own eyes. But HE is faithful, and HE calls us to be faithful. He is the prefector and the rewarder of our faith.