Persevering Through Adversity

Psalm 40:1-2- “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”

Endurance is the ability to stand up under adversity; perseverance is the ability to progress in spite of it. These two English words are translations of the same Greek word and simply represent two different views of the same quality: a godly response to adversity.

I’ve been reminded and convicted of many things while reading through Jerry Bridges book “The Fruitful Life.” Here’s what the Lord has been showing me in the chapter on “patience”:

Whatever the source of my adverse circumstances, the key to endurance and patience it to believe that God is ultimately in control, working out EVERY event for my good and His glory. Romans 15:4 says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” I need to realize that God controls ALL my circumstances, even though I don’t always recognize His control.

Most often, people do not see the purpose of trials. But through the encouragement of Scriptures we should hope, and through hope we should persevere. Our Christian experience is not a sprint that is soon over; it is a distance that lasts a lifetime. It requires perseverance because the reward - the object of our hope - is in the distant future. Endurance and perseverance are qualities we would all like to possess, but we are reluctant to go through the process that produces them. That is why God is so faithful to allow or to bring trials into our lives, even though we shrink from them.

Bridges ends the chapter with this:

“The fruit of patience in all its aspects – long-suffering, forbearance, endurance, and perseverance – is a fruit that is most intimately associated with our devotion to God. All character traits of godliness grow out of and have their foundation in our devotion to God, but the fruit of patience must grow out of that relationship in a particular way. Only as we fear God will we submit to the trials He sends or allows. And only as we deeply apprehend His love for us in Christ will we find the courage to bear up under them. Trials always change our relationship with God. Either they drive us to Him, or they drive us away from Him. The extent of our fear of Him and our awareness of His love for us determines in which direction we will move.”

Father I pray that when I’m faced with adverse circumstances I would remember Your great love for me. May I “count it ALL joy when I meet trials of various kinds.”

In Your grace, You know where I walk
You know when I fall
You know all my ways
In Your love, I know You allow
What I cannot grasp
To bring You praise

Thank You for the trials
For the fire, for the pain
Thank You for the strength
Knowing You have ordained
Every day

Your great power is shown when I’m weak
You help me to see
Your love in this place
Perfect peace is filling my mind
And drawing my heart
To praise You again

In my uncertainty, Your Word is all I need
To know You’re with me every day

Yesterday I was able to get my little sisters out of the house for a while and take them to the park. We read and talked about a chapter of the book, “Girl talk” that we are going through, I had the girls write an encouraging letter to my dad to take next time they go visit him, we played soccer, volleyball, and football (well we attempted to :-p) and played on the playground. After the playground we went to the gas station and got icee’s. Here are some pictures we took:

Parent's Night Out Pictures

Parent's Night Out ended up being a lot of fun! Thanks so much to everyone who served!

Parent's Night Out

Recently the Lord has given me an ever growing passion to reach out to the younger kids and youth at my Church. For a while the Lord had been laying on my heart to arrange an event that would serve the parents of the Church. Well… it’s finally here! Tomorrow night the singles at GCC have an exciting opportunity to serve the parents by doing a “Parents Night Out”! This will be the first time we’ve ever done an event like this. I’m so thrilled and over-joyed with the fact that the parents (who definitely deserve a break) will get to spend a night out together! And the best part about this whole thing is that we get to spend a whole whopping six hours with their cute little munchkins! I’m sure there will be MANY coffee runs throughout the day =)

Please pray:

1. For strength and stamina for all the helpers
2. For a safe time and no injuries
3. That everything will run smoothly and that it will be a fun time
4. That this evening will be a blessing for the parents
5. And most of all that it glorifies God!

A BIG thanks to all the singles and youth that are volunteering to serve at this event! Thank you so much for all your help in advance!

Knowing me, I’m sure I will have lots of pictures to share on Monday :). Until then, have a wonderful weekend!

Praise God From Whom ALL Blessings Flow

As I shared yesterday, this week I’ve been feeling pretty weighed down with my circumstances. The Lord has been doing a wonderful work in my heart the last couple of days. The way I thought situations would go at the beginning of the week have slowly been changing. Thanks to Amber, I was off work yesterday and today and have been able to catch up on many things that I’ve needed to get done. We also found out why our basement floor flooded again. One of my sisters (not going to mention who ;)) accidentally left our hose running the whole night before. There is a very small hole in the concrete on the side of our house which was why the water was coming in. It will just need to be sealed. Praise God that it isn’t anything too big!

I stand amazed daily when I look at my circumstances and the faithfulness of God. One day I was feeling weighed down, and now, today, I feel that I’ve been filled with the joy of the Lord! Just when I wanted to give up, the Lord intervened and took those desires away. He truly does not let His Children be tempted beyond their abilities! The Lord knew exactly what I needed and I feel His grace falling like rain upon my life! I need to not be tempted to ask God why, but rejoice at the fact that this is where I’m called to be right now. The Lord has called me to lay down my life to serve my family and until something else comes, I will be doing the same thing day after day. This past year has brought me to my knees many times and I’m sure there will be many more times that I will sinfully be tempted to lose heart, but those are the moments that always lead me straight to God. Thank you Lord for Your AMAZING and SUSTAINING grace!

Thank you all so much for the encouraging e-mails I’ve been receiving! I thank the Lord daily for caring friends like you!

GREAT is The Lord!

This week has been a whirlwind of emotions for me. I’ve really just been tempted to give up…with Bruster’s that is! I need to keep reminding myself that this is where God has called me to be. I don’t know how my parents would manage if I told them I was going to get another job. Not because I’m doing a great job, but because it’s VERY hard to find reliable employees without supervision from someone in my family, and right now dad can’t devote any attention to Bruter’s so I am the one to handle everything. This week many things have come up and happened that have been unexpected. Here is a little update. Please continue to keep my family in your prayers because as the month goes on, I think it is just going to get harder.

I’ve been having a lot of difficulties with scheduling at work. People have been calling in sick/not showing up for their scheduled shifts and finding people that are willing to work/come in when I call them has not been working too well. Moving everything from one store to the other has started. It’s going to take a couple of weeks to get it all done mainly because we don’t have storage for everything to go to one store.

My dad was able to get away from the garden center late last night to spend the night at home to get a good night of sleep. It turned out that he didn’t fall asleep at all. He has been working all day until it's dark and is becoming tired and needed that sleep. It really is like a father going out to war for his family. As he left this morning, he was very weary and that was hard for me to see.

Right after my dad left, Victoria came running up the stairs yelling “mommy, mommy our closet is flooded again!!!” Sure enough, my mom and I went down stairs to see what was going on and there was about a half an inch of water sitting in Victoria and Karah’s closet. This is the second time that section of our basement floor has flooded this month. Mom, Victoria, Karah, and I got it all cleaned up this morning but there is still water coming in and we’re not sure where it’s coming from. It rained a little bit yesterday but nothing that would have caused a basement to flood. We’ve replaced different sections of our basement floor at least five times now. All we can really do in situations like this is just laugh! Though it is hard, we have all learned that having a complaining attitude is not going to help things. Obviously God has my family in this house for a reason!

This is a picture from when the closet flooded during huricane "Fay." They had to cut the wall to find out where the leak was coming from but they never found the source. This time the water is going in other other places.



I was reading in Psalm 145 this morning and was reminded of the GREATNESS of our God, “…I will extol you, my God and King, and BLESS your name forever and ever. EVERY day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. GREAT is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable…”

Though we are in a rough season right now, the Lord truly has blessed my family in many ways! He is FAITHFUL and He is GREAT! He is at hand and this is building my family up! When I’m faced with a difficult circumstance at work, I need to bless the Lord and remember His greatness and mercy upon my life. I truly am doing better than I deserve and it is only by the grace of God that I can say that!!!

Little Children by God's Grace

“The person who is truly humble before God is also humble before God’s Word. God says He esteems the person who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at His Word."

Luke 18:14- “For everyone who exults himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exulted.”

“As we search the Scriptures, we must allow them to search us.” As I was reading this, I stopped, and thought to myself, “I’m not always one to do this.” I need to not only search the Scripture that I read but allow the Holy Spirit to guide and show me what He wants me to teach me while reading the Word. Far too often I do the opposite of this.

“The contrast pointed to the Savior is not that between ‘educated’ and ‘non-educated’ but between those who imagine themselves to be wise and sensible- and those who live under the profound impression that by their own insight and their own reasoning’s they are utterly powerless to understand the truths of God and to accept them.” –Norvel Geldenhuys

Luke 10:21- “ I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden those things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

God views us as “little children.” If Jesus proclaimed to the Father that He was a “little child” than I MOST DEFINITELY am a “little child” of God and I need to humble myself before Him and realize that I cannot do it on my own. I cannot be a self sufficient person! By God’s grace, He has provided sources such as, my parents, His word, and the Holy Spirit for guidance and wisdom. May I remember that daily! May God help me to be humble enough toward the Scriptures to be found in that group Jesus called “little children.”

“When a believer is truly humble before God and His Word, he will also be humble about his own gifts, abilities, and attainments. He will realize and gratefully acknowledge that all the he is and all the he has comes from the land of God. Our attitude of humility in regard to our salvation should carry over to recognition that any of our abilities and achievements are equally a result of God’s grace.”

1 Corinthians 15:10- “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

Bruster's Closing

As of today Monday, September 22, 2008 one of our Bruster’s stores is going to be closed for good. We opened this location in January of 2008 and it has been a struggle to make it a profitable store ever since we opened. It just isn’t in a good area for an ice cream shop. It has been up for sale for almost three months now and we haven’t gotten a single call. Our original intention was to sell the store and keep it up and running. It is to the point now that it is cheaper to close the store and pay the monthly lease than continue to keep the store open. This past weekend I announced to all the employees that the store would be closing. That in itself was not an easy thing for me to do. The Lord has blessed us with excellent staff there and I really value the relationships that I have been able to build with them. It is sad to see them go but hopefully if it all works out we will be able to keep two of the girls to work at out other location.

This store has been/is a very big financial burden on my dad. Please be praying that the store sells very soon. Both of my parents are already stressed out enough with other businesses. It would be a HUGE weight off their back to not have to worry about this any longer. They are trusting God and know that He is sovereign and will eventually send someone to buy the store if the Lord wills.

I’m heading over to that store later today to assess the situation and figure out what we will need to move over to our other store. It is going to take a big family effort to move everything. My grandfather, Jonathan, Amber, and I will hopefully be able to handle everything without having to take my dad away from other things he needs to be focusing on.

Thank you all once again for faithfully praying for my family! It is a blessing to know you all and to have you in our lives.

1 Corinthians 10:13- “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”