Wishing Away Your Life

When I was in Junior High, I remember saying to my Aunt Fae, "I wish I was in High School." What she said to me became one of the foundational principles that has formed character in me. She said, "Brenda, Don't wish away today. Be all here in the present. High School will come soon enough. Be all here, each day of your life." I thought about what she said, and put it into practice in my life.

We tend to "wish for High School" in a lot of ways. When we get to High School, we wish we were in College or wish we had a job...we wish we were married, we wish we had children, we wish our children were older, then we wish they were out of the house...grandkid...retirement........then, we die. We have wished our life away and didn't live in the moments we were given.

Looking back now, living in the present, caused me to take advantage of the moments I was given, both the good ones and the hard ones. I learned to face the difficult times rather than ignore or resent them. When my children were young and woke up night after night because they needed to be nursed, they had a bad dream, or had the flu and were puking every hour throughout the night, I realized that I had two choices in how I could respond. I could either accept my circumstances and embrace the moments with a good attitude, or ignore, get angry and irritable about them and wish this stage of life with my children away. Those long, sleepless nights when my children were cried, I would rock them and quietly sing to them, sometimes for hours. I was so tired and at the end of myself, the tears would come easily, streaming down my face, and I praised Jesus with my songs. That was all I had to give.

The hard times have become some of the most precious memories and growing times for me. I chose not to "check out" of the present, and wish for future. Instead, I chose to worship God through those hard circumstances. Those are the times, when I learned to lean on Him for strength when, I didn't have any strength left.

Our Children are watching the way we handle life's Struggles!

With the economy the way it is, so many of you are losing your jobs, your homes and having marriage problems. You are not able to pay the bills. Eventually, you are forced to move and that is like adding salt to an open wound. The whole complicated situation creates tension and fighting in your relationships. You begin to snap at your spouse and children, and yell about the littlest things. You loose motivation and want to pull back from interactions with other people. It seems like there is no way out. That is just the beginning and it can get worse from here...

As you step back and evaluate the situation, you realize that you don't have control over the circumstances and never really have had. Yes, there are things that you could have done differently, but your options are limited now. Who is really in control of your circumstances? If you are a Christian, the answer you would give is, Jesus.

But do you believe it? I mean really believe it, so that it affects the way you respond to life. If you did, how would you respond to the circumstances that He is allowing in your life now? There are only two ways to respond to Him in your circumstances, as a Grape or a Marble. If you think about the characteristics of both when pressure is applied to them, it helps define the two ways you can respond in your attitude towards God when life pressures you.

A Grape is soft and can be quickly squished. It surrenders easily to pressure. When this happens it is destroyed in its original form, but something new is produced through the process...grape juice and with time, wine. This represents your willingness to trust Him and to have an attitude of surrender to Him. When you do this, God will give you a peace that is unexplainable. He will transform you into someone new and beautiful inside.

The other option is to be a Marble. It is hard and resists when pressure is applied to it. A marble tries to escape from the pressure by rolling out from under it. Eventually, it gets crushed under the pressure. The only thing that is produced is shards, that cut and hurt. There is no new beauty that is created, just something to be swept up and thrown away. The result of this choice is a person who resists what the Lord is trying to do in their lives. They become hard, bitter, and angry.

Are you choosing to be a Grape or a Marble?
Are you living like you trust that God is in control and has good plan for your lives?
Are your children seeing you responding like you believe that God is in control of your current circumstances?
Have you asked Jesus for a heart to trust Him through the circumstances you are in, for your sake as well as your children's?

I would love to hear your personal stories that may encourage someone else on their journey to Trust Jesus when life circumstances are hard.