Correction

I just thought I would share the tuggings of my heart. 

I was doing my daily bible study in Job 5 yesterday. 

Job 5:8-18 is the text I read.  This spoke to me so much that I wrote about 6+ pages in my study prayer journal of just a situation in my life that God corrected and taught me to trust, listen more, and to be happy even during those hard times of correction!  WOW!  Such amazing words spoken to us.  Praise the Lord.

In verse 8 "But as for me, I would seek God..."  In the past few years God has used one situation bound together with another to correct and show me what He was going to do in
my life.  He wanted to promote some character and depth of integrity in me.
Whew buddy did he ever do that.  And some of those ways to promote these things were a little humiliating and some were VERY hard to deal with.  In fact I didn't deal with them right off.  I put it off and put it off until I just couldn't any longer.  It's like in the Rocky movies.  You let the enemy punch you and beat you half to death and all the while you are waiting for that moment the enemy gets tired so you can retaliate.  Well, guess what.  The enemy NEVER gets tired.  He gets all his energy from and feeds off of our defeat. We need to seek God in EVERYTHING!  Not just seek His will when you are thinking of changing your career or city.  All the time.  And here's the kicker. We can't let let other's talk us out of the path God has laid before us. What did God tell you?  Get up and walk!  Follow that path no matter how many bends or turns, hills or valleys. I even put my fingers in my ears and just ♪la, la, la, la...and tell myself... God is who He says He is.  God will do what He says He can do.
I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ.
God's word is alive and active in me.
No matter what you are saying I'm walking on this time!  I am going to believe God! 

Well, I chose to believe that God was preparing me for something.  Something bigger.  For an entire year I seemed to go from one valley to the next.  There were about 6 valleys from the summer of 2008 to the fall of 2010.  A little over two years.  Not only did i figure out how to be patient with God but also to trust.  It has and is one of the roughest journeys I have been on.  Through my marriage, my family,closest friendships, and my church family God allowed situations to happen that would change who I was, am.  God loves me, His daughter! Even when I reject His way and I fall on my face, He loves me.  He forgives me.  Just in, Awe! 

Marriage.  Just thinking of falling into a marital valley is difficult and scary.  I believe it's so difficult because it involves more than just you.  Not only do you have to 'fix' what is broken in you but you have to wait for your spouse to 'fix' what is broken in him.  Or better yet, wait for God to work in your husband.  Even better is shutting up and quit controlling so you can see God work in your husband.  Work in your family.
I refer back to Hebrews 13:5."Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have; for He God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down relax My hold on you! Assuredly not!"  God will NEVER leave us helpless and without a way out!  There is a way out of every valley or struggle we have.  We have to trust God to show us the way out of the valley permanently!

If I would have listenend and followed God I would have avoided the frequent visits to the same ugly valley.  Why must I be so stubborn?  At least now those valleys have been filled with God's grace and mercy. Praise Him!!!


Family.  Ohhh, the pain your family can cause.  Especially a blended family with more baggage than any spoiled teenage star!  It can get pretty ugly. And, for me it did.  My family, including parents and siblings, has went through many health situations and misunderstandings and non/miscommunications.  I think strife in a family is one of the best laughs Satan has.  He sits back in his cozy furnace and just waits for someone to not be on top of their game and WAM!!  He will throw a wrench in the mix and tear apart those you love most.  It hurts and it's stinky!  God doesn't want strife.  He actually says to cut it out of your life if it can not be resolved. In my current family situation I have to just continue to lift them up in prayer. 

Friends. There are times in life when your friends will change.  Sometimes we as women makes friends with others because of something we have in common.  Children, church, job, social group, etc...  When life changes sometimes those friends grow apart.  It's a natural part of life.  But, when all parties involved make mistakes or say hurtful things it become a little more difficult.  I LOVE the friends that I have made in my young adult life.  Only by God's wonderfulness have I found a way through the fire and come out on the other side with friendship still there.  Which leads me to forgiveness. We all had to learn to forgive.  For me it took time to forgive others and myself.  It took almost the entire two years of valleys and mountain tops to fogive myself for hurting someone I loved.  It took less time to forgive my husband, my family and my friends for hurtfull words or actions.  That made me realize that I had some personal evaluating to do.  Lots of work to do... but that's another blog post. :)  I am letting God heal me! 

I know this is a long post but I felt I needed to share the tuggings and outpouring of my heart.  God bless you today and may you already to know how much God loves you and will NOT leave you without a way to get out of the valley you may be in.  :) 




Here is the full verse
Job 5: 8-18
"But as for me, I would seek GOd, And to God I would commit my cause-
Who does great things, and unsearchable,
Marvelous things without number.
He gives rain on the earth,
And sends waters on the fields.
He sets on high those who are lowly,
And those who mourn are lifted to safety.
He frustrates the devices of the crafts,
So that their hands cannot carry out their plans.
He catches the wise in their own craftiness,
And the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them.
They meet with darkness in the daytime,
And grope at noontime as in the night.
But He saved the needy from the sword,
From the mouth of the mighty,
And from their hand.
So the poor have hope,
And injustice shuts her mouth.
"Behold, happy is the man who God corrects;
Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
For He bruises, but He binds up;
He wounds but His hands make whole."

Blessings,