| |
A dear friend sent me an email a couple days ago; I was truly blessed, and touched by it, so I wanted to share it with you. =)
______________________
"What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear
what a priviledge to carry
everything to God in prayer
...have we trials and temptations?
is there trouble anywhere?
Jesus knows our every weakness
take it to the Lord in prayer"
That is one of my very favorite hymns. When I really sit down and think about it, I wonder so much at how JESUS.....the Creator of everything and Lord over everyone, is MY friend. and He wants to have a relationship with me. Picture your entire church congregation, and everyone you know sitting in it. Jesus is ever so present...loving and leading the entire church.....but He's also thinking about YOU, Mandi. Out of an entire crowd, He wants you, and He sees you, and He's holding you ever-so-tightly right now.
My very good friend once told me something that really encouraged me. She told me to picture a 11-month old baby, just learning how to walk. The baby scoots around....pulls himself up, tries to walk....and falls. He scoots forward and tries again. Many times, the baby goes between scooting, crawling, and trying his best to walk...and it takes him a rather long time to get across the living room floor! Meanwhile, the baby's parents are watching. They are making sure he doesn't fall off of the staires, or anything, but sometimes they let him bump his head on the table and pull himself up. They don't rush to pull him up every time he falls, either. They want him to learn how to walk on his own. They, in fact, WANT him to walk, for his own good. But do they rush him, pressuring him to hurry up and walk? No, they are patient....wanting him to walk for his own good, and yet lovingly and patiently waiting...protecting...and watching.
That's what God is like. =) One of God's wonderful qualities that we can so often forget, is that He is infinately patient. We are His precious children, sister...just learning how to take baby steps. Sometimes it gets discouraging because we have SO far to go!! We fall and hit our baby heads on the table, and get discouraged. Today, I shall pray for you that you are able to grasp how wonderfully patient He is. Remember the beautiful verse, "love is patient?" since He is Love itself....He's patiently standing over us, loving us as we learn how to walk. ::happy-sigh:: what a beautiful Love He is.
I hope this encourages you, my sister. I am here any time at all that you want to talk about anything.
____________________
"Two are better than one, because they have good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up."
|
