Progressions

Don't you just love dinnertime conversations when the whole family gets involved? We had an interesting conversation today. I don't know how it started buy my 17 year-old son looked at me and said, "You know how aging works?" I thought, this can't be good, I don't think I want to hear this. He said, "You're on a highway, going in a straight line, and every birthday is another city. You don't go from city to city, you're on this straight road with cities as markers." I thought, that wasn't too painful. Each of us got into the act, giving our own opinion of what aging is. I gave what I remember thinking when I was a child. "You're born, you drive, you vote, you drink, you get married and have kids, you have grand kids, and you die." Pretty sad, one more milestone and I'm gone! I saw each milestone a little more difficult than the last, making them easier to handle than just jumping to one later when we hadn't gone through the former.

I'm glad God stretches us in the same way. When I think of the difficulties I've gone through, they've progressed. Each one a little more challenging than the last. When I see the difficulty before me, I try and look back and see the things I've already gone through and how they've prepared me for what I'm about to face. The current trial is still kind of scary but I see how God has seen me through the previous trials and I have confidence that he'll see me through this one and others as well, because he is so faithful and never changing. I grow stronger through each one. One of my all time favorite verses is James 1:1-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." This verse reminds me of Paul, who suffered so much to spread the gospel. What I go through is dwarfed in comparison.

Thank you Paul for your great example, and thank you Father, for never giving me more than I can bear.