Reason to Rejoice

Two days in a row!!!  Crazy, huh?!  :) I have started reading a book that one of my closest friends recommended:   Messy Beautiful Friendship .  I am on page 38 and I think it is one of the best books I have ever read.  This lady knows me.  I want to quote something she said in her book and show you how beautifully it tied in with my Bible study for today. "When I am disappointed with my friendships and I take time to dig a little deeper in my heart, I inevitably find that I'm looking for my friends to relate to me as only God can.  I want God to give me good friends and when he has, I've been prone to shove him aside for the attention, wisdom, and companionship of those friends, despite knowing that they were intended as gifts rather than replacements.  People are not fillers for a present God, and God is not a placeholder for future friends." (Messy Beautiful Friendship, Christine Hoover, pg. 38) She goes on to describe how God has t...

Have you ever started working out and you have those aches and pains and wonder if it is really worth it all?  Your trainer keeps telling you to push through and the results will show up and you will be pleased in time?  The burn and the pain that you are going through you somehow know will be worth it, so you just keep at it. That is kind of how life feels sometimes.  Right now my life is sort of in this painful, dull ache of a time.  I can't really pinpoint the actual culprit but I know that God is doing something.  He is telling me that, in the end, it will be worth it.  Each time my heart feels that stab, I just keep telling myself that there is some purpose in it.  When my happy gets bumped and my feelings are on the bluer side, I simply let out a sigh and know that it will all be worth it.  I have to confess that this type of thing is hard for this girl.  I am an over-thinker and highly sensitive.  I can't say that each time I ...