Cyndi's Journey

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

Tonight as I rocked my sweet baby girl to sleep, I thought about how God chooses to heal some people and not others. For a moment, I thought about how unfair it is that my children will probably grow up without a grandma at all, as their other Grandma passed away from colon cancer five years ago. It just doesn’t seem right that God would choose that for my children. As I was thinking this, a familiar song by Aaron Shust came into my head. Some of the lyrics are “To God alone be the glory, To God alone be the praise, Everything I say and do, Let it be all for you, The glory is Yours alone.” This song reminds me that my life is not all about me and ensuring that I am happy all the time, it is about bringing glory to God. That is our purpose in life and our one goal should be to know Christ and make Christ known. If losing a close loved one brings God the most glory and draws us closer to Christ, then that is what is best for us and for His eternal Kingdom. This is a hard concept to understand and except, but I know that God is going to provide awesome role models for my kids and I know that He will turn everything into good for us because we do love Him.

A sweet family friend recently gave each member of our family the book Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman. This is a great book to help people through times of hardship and pain. The entry for yesterday spoke to me greatly. Here is an excerpt from it:

“Around the turn of the century, a bar of steel was worth about $5. Yet when forged into horseshoes, it was worth $10; when made into needles, its value was $350; when used to make small pocketknife blades, its worth was $32,000; when made into springs for watches, its value increased to $250,000. What a pounding the steel bar had to endure to be worth this much! But the more it was shaped, hammered, put through fire, beaten, pounded, and polished, the greater its value.”

Sometimes I feel like that steel bar, beaten and pounded down. During these times, I just have to remember that God is using this pain to make me a stronger person and witness. If we never experienced pain in our life, then what kind of person would we be? The pain is what makes us stronger and draws us closer to Christ. Just as the steel is beaten and pounded to be molded into something incredible, God is molding us and using our life experiences to shape us into something beautiful and incredible.