The Fire

How stubborn are we that we have to go through the fire over and over again?
How many times is God having to turn his back from our sin because we won't listen to his calling?

Yesterday I talked to a really special friend of mine for only the second time this year, we have parted and come together many times and I consider her one of my best friends in the world. We met in college in Tennessee 12 years ago now. I was the maid of honor in her wedding in 1997, she has been going through some very stressful struggles in her spiritual walk, in her family and in her marriage. She had to go through a very painful experience for God to get her attention.

Several years back, I went through a very similar experience, except it wasn't nearly as traumatic. I don't know why I didn't have to suffer like she did to hear God, but as I watch others around me it pains me when I look at the years I wasted while I was being stupid. I had told God that I would NOT go to Church again til he told me to. She did a similar thing. We and many others have wasted time, and now are looking back at those wasted years wondering just what we missed. God is constantly blessing us, but how many of those blessings did we miss due to our disobedience?

I pray daily for her marriage to be restored, she has the promise that God gave her that it will be, and her husband also feels the same way.

I use this lesson for my family daily. DD is only 5, but she knows that she must be obedient. I am able to show her how I have been disciplined, and I am able to discipline her to show her the same Love that God shows his children. DH, on the other hand, is still having trouble seeing it. He was not raised in a Christian home, so he has never seen the effects on anyone other than me. I am so thankful thought that God got a hold of me early in our marriage to rescue me from the temptation to walk again. While church isn't the most important part of the relationship with God, it is something I need, and I know my family needs it too. Now just to get more than DD to go with me, at least she enjoys church and gets ALL excited when its time to go.