Pain Teaches Us

 This is from one of my first blogs 10 years ago: 

It is true that the fruit of the spirit grows best, not on the hilltops, but in the valleys.  Though hilltop experiences are nice, it is in the hard times that I have been refined by fire.  I felt the most alive when I was on mission trips in third world countries like India and Mexico.

I have learned most, not when something came easy to me, but when I had to struggle to accomplish something.  Every day is a struggle for me to keep my mind focused on good things. 

As Peter says, “Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold…may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  (1 Pet. 1:7-8)  My faith is more important than my happiness.  We will all have to give an account one day for what we do in this life.  Peter states that my suffering will bring “praise, glory and honor” when I am judged in the last day.   

Paul says, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen but what is unseen.  For what is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).  Paul says that my troubles are “light.”  Granted I may not see them in the midst of the trauma as light, but looking back on it, they may seem light.  He also says they are “momentary.”  They only last for a short time.  In the perspective of how long eternity is, they can seem to be only a second in time.

Amen past Lisa. Good job! :)