From Glory to Glory

I shared with my SS class this morning a bit about what God is doing in my life right now. It is so awesome and I will tell you as I told them. I am not boasting in anything I have done, I tell you for His glory and His alone.

I have had brittle diabetes for 39 years. I have been near death numerous times. I have renal disease, gastopareisis, neuropathy, and chronic anemia--all results of diabetes complications. I don't feel well a lot of the time. God has given me strength, People! He has enabled me to clean my house, making a place for my Dad to move in. I have been able to keep awake during the day to do things with my daughter and things I need to do as a housewife and writer. I have driven back and forth between my house and Daddy's cleaning his to sell, and have continued to write--almost completing the book God has laid on my heart to write.

He has provided strength in my weakness. He has carried me when my legs were too weary to move. He has given patience that I thought was rotten in the bottom of my fruit barrel. Over and over again He has shown me how much He loves me and how willing He is to do for me. I am so humbled that He has chosen to use me in these ways. (I won't ask Him why. He might rethink His decision!)

I asked several months ago to be taken on the wildest ride of my life--and boy, did I ever not see this coming! But make no mistake--it is awesome. My Momma dying 3 1/2 months ago drove me straight to the Throne--I had nowhere else to turn. My Daddy was in his own grief and turmoil. My Momma was always the one to give me comfort and she was gone.

Daddy's Alzheimer's and all the junk associated with it has taught me a total dependance on God I thought I had, but really didn't. Trials came as a result of the Fall of man, but God uses them to show us His magnificent glory.

I believe one of the truths we can glean from Paul's exhortation to us to do everything without complaing is this: even the trials, suffering and persecution come with their own rewards--the benefits of seeing Jesus closer, knowing He is holding us tightly, far, far outweighs the hurt of what we experience here on this earth.

I can truly thank Him for the chaos in my life, for the loneliness I felt when Momma went to live with Him, for it all--I am thankful. I have found a new facet of Him that I never would have seen and I would have been less complete without that experience. From glory to glory!