I can remember when I was little, if I was scared, I would run & hide behind my mama.  This was mostly when I had maybe perhaps done something to my brother.  He would chase me & I knew, if I could find mama, I would be ok.  I can remember her saying to him,

” You have to be good to her.  She’s the baby.  You have to show her how a big brother acts.” 

(This was promptly followed by me poking my head out from behind her sticking my tongue out at him.)  And oh MY  word ya’ll, if that hasn’t been a reality check for ME in life.  Because, you know what?  People aren’t always nice to me.  And they really don’t care if I’m the baby or not.  But my sweet mama used this tactic to try to get us to behave. I can remember her having to stand in between me & my brother & I would hold on to her just as tight as I could.   I always trusted her & whatever I did, if I could get to mama, she would take care of me.  No matter if I were right, wrong, or indifferent.  I had that wonderful, special trust.

Do you ever have troubles?  Sometimes problems arise from a wrong choice or decision that you’ve made.  At other times, you don’t really have to be responsible for any of it & here it comes.  Either way, problems in life are just plain unwanted.  What makes an incredible difference in bad situations? How you handle it.  We can be afraid, angry, disappointed, or have a multitude of emotions.  We might start to ask God, “Why me? Why us? Why this?”However, we can trust, in the middle of all the heartache, that:

1.  The Lord will not leave you.  Hebrews 13:5  Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”(NKJV)

 

2.  The Lord will take care of you. I Peter 5:7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.  Things may not be exactly like you think they ought to be.  However, there are times the Lord takes care of us in a way we don’t understand. Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  If we only go to Him & trust Him, He will help us, period.  He will NOT leave us hanging out to dry.

3.  The Lord will turn tragedy into blessings.  One of the worst things that has ever happened to me is my mama’s sickness & untimely death.  I will Never. Get. Over. It.  But you know what?  God has blessed our family with deeper love for each other.  He sent people to help us through our hard times.  We always had someone we could depend on, around us.  He has caused me to appreciate life & to remember the wonderful example my mama left for us.  I realize that for 30 years, I had a precious mama.  Some people don’t have that.  Some folks have never known their mother or don’t have a Christian mother.  I was very fortunate to have had that.  I can pass along those qualities to my children & family.  I have a hope that I will be with her again one day.  Until then, I have got to keep on keepin’ on.

John 16:22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.(NKJV)

The Lord is always working behind the scenes for us.  We just have to trust in Him.  We readily accept good from Him.  As a part of life, sometimes we will have to accept bad, too.

Job 2:10  Shall we indeed accept good from God & shall we not accept adversity?(NKJV)

Life goes on.  Even in awful circumstances.  It’s ok to grieve the loss of a loved one, to get down & depressed about an erring child, or to feel like no one has any idea what you are going through.  Those are human feelings.  We just can’t unpack our bags & live in the land of desperation.  There are times we get stuck going through the struggles of life.  Just like a big ol’ tractor pullin’ a truck out of the ditch, the Lord can send people to help.  Let them.  I have said it once & will say it again & again.  Folks, we are all in this big ol’ mess called LIFE together.  We have to depend on each other.  I hope you are at a point in your life you have finally relented to this fact.  It makes things so much easier knowing you have people, who care about you.  Isn’t it wonderful to know we don’t have to go through trials alone?  We always have the Lord there with us.  He can do things for us no one else can.  We just have to simply trust.  Is there a struggle in your life today?  Pray about it. Seek others to help you.  Look to the Lord for comfort.

The psalmist David said in Psalms 56:3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. (NKJV)

I’m not saying your problems will vanish overnight.  I am saying you will be able to bear whatever it is, until things are better.  You will find peace of mind.  Only if you are willing to trust.  God’s love never fails.  We must give Him a chance to show us that.  Whenever I am facing something hard in life, I have to remind myself, there’s someone out there who has a worse situation than I do.  There’s always something to be thankful for.  Maybe it’s that things aren’t as bad as they could be.  No matter what, I have to be thankful for a loving God I can depend on.  It’s hard to see the other side of trials sometimes.  We just have to remember to slow down & take things day by day & trust the Lord to take care of us.  In times like those, we don’t know what we need.  We have to let the Lord handle our needs.  He’s good at that.   Just like the trust that my mama was going to make everything all better, God can do the same thing.  Even bigger & better.  Promise.

I am so glad you came by to visit me today.  Goodness gracious, I about got too serious & heavy hearted with all of this.  But sometimes it’s just that way, ya know?  This Sunday is Easter.  I sure hope you have your Easter frocks ready for church.  My grandbaby girl is going to look so sweet.  If you see her, you will be tempted to eat her with a spoon.  I would discourage any of that.  She has a tad of a mother hen for a mama.  My Miss Neenee is ready all but the shoes.  We will be getting those this week.  Oh the fun!  The kids & grandkids will be coming over after church.  We will be dying eggs, hiding eggs, running around chasing kids, eating good food, & oh the Easter candy.  There is nothing that suits me more than a marshmallow peep.   Until then, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.

photo credits: graphicsfairy, pinterest