Don't Covet Your Neighbor's...Trials

The past couple years have been hard ones for our family.  The things that have happened have hurt - deeply.  There's been times when I've literally said, "I'd rather have cancer!"

But isn't that how it is so often - we're tempted to look at other people's trials and think they're easier than our own?  Pretty much the same way that we covet other people's blessings.  We forget that God's heart lovingly plans our way every bit as much as His hand guides it.  I don't learn trust when everything in my life is rosy.  I learn to trust when things go "wrong." God knows what is needed in each one of our lives to get rid of all the self sufficiency, selfishness, self-centeredness...all the ugly SELF stuff.  There's been a lot to work on in me!  Still is...

We need to learn to say with Job, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gave and The Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of The Lord,"

I can do this when I remember that "This light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison."  The  trials are heavy in this life, for sure, but someday all that weight will be glory!  What will it be like to be "weighed down" with glory??!

I hope that I am learning the lesson of being thankful for my very personal trials.  "God, The Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer's; He makes me tread on high places."  Yes!!  Even through deep, deep hurt.  Perhaps especially through deep, deep hurt!

Gratefully...