This week was very hectic and exhausting yet fulfilling on so many levels. Please continue to pray for Aryel as even elementary school can be full of drama and very hard. Praising the Lord that she is coming down on her Prednisone, but she still is on a high level for every day use. I pray that one day she will be free of Autoimmune Hepatitis and able to have a calm, happy life.
I got through some labs and X-rays and am praying that if anything is found, it will be something minor. “
"Every flower, even the fairest, has its shadow beneath it as it basks in the sunlight."
Where there is much light there is also much shade.” From Streams in the Desert.
The highlight of my week came yesterday when a childhood friend of Regina's texted me and said,
“I always have been very thankful for you starting my foundation with the Lord as a child. Thank you for being here for me now.” I was deeply moved and honored by her words. I had no idea that she would think that of me, but I’m entirely grateful to the Lord. It was balm to my soul.
I am a word person, starting with THE WORD OF THE LIVING GOD. People, you never know when your words will encourage someone at just the right time. Your kind words may help someone who is going through pain or unimaginable family drama.
What you say can mean life or death.
Those who speak with care will be rewarded. Proverbs 18:21 New Century Version (NCV)
Streams in the Desert
I have all, and abound (Phil. 4:18).
In one of my garden books there is a chapter with a very interesting heading, "Flowers that Grow in the Gloom." It deals with those patches in a garden which never catch the sunlight. And my guide tells me the sort of flowers which are not afraid of these dingy corners--may rather like them and flourish in them.
And there are similar things in the world of the spirit. They come out when material circumstances become stern and severe. They grow in the gloom. How can we otherwise explain some of the experiences of the Apostle Paul?
Here he is in captivity at Rome. The supreme mission of his life appears to be broken. But it is just in this besetting dinginess that flowers begin to show their faces in bright and fascinating glory. He may have seen them before, growing in the open road, but never as they now appeared in incomparable strength and beauty. Words of promise opened out their treasures as he had never seen them before.
Among those treasures were such wonderful things as the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy and peace of Christ; and it seemed as though they needed an "encircling gloom" to draw out their secret and their inner glory. At any rate the realm of gloom became the home of revelation, and Paul began to realize as never before the range and wealth of his spiritual inheritance.
Who has not known men and women who, when they arrive at seasons of gloom and solitude, put on strength and hopefulness like a robe? You may imprison such folk where you please; but you shut up their treasure with them. You cannot shut it out. You may make their material lot a desert, but "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."--Dr. Jowett
"Every flower, even the fairest, has its shadow beneath it as it basks in the sunlight."
Where there is much light there is also much shade.
