This is the first verse that Eva and I memorized together! On Monday mornings we get a new verse and try to commit it to memory by the end of the week. My sweet, heaven sent friend, Jill, provides the verse in her blog www.shinegirlsshine.com!
What was meant to be a fun, simple exercise for my daughter has turned out to be a life changing exercise for me! I have ALWAYS heard that God speaks to us through His word. And many people have experienced this for themselves. However, I did not expect Him to teach me SO VERY much about my life through such a short, simple verse.
OH BUT HE DID!
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"
It is no simple task to get a 5 year old to memorize something. We would wake up and repeat the verse...and go over it while she brushed her teeth. We would repeat it in the car in the mornings and again on the way home. I would find myself repeating it at work as well. It became apart of our everyday! I then found myself wondering what the verse meant.
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength!"
Hmmmm.....it sounds nice ...but I don't really "get it".
Friday rolled around and Eva and I memorized our verse. We treated ourself to a piece of candy or two (or in Eva's case 3 or 4) and went on our way. Life went on and more verses came.
Then the week before Christmas, our Pastor called and asked me to share my testimony in church as part of his sermon. He said that Chad and I have been through a tough few years and he wanted me to share how God was getting us through. I told him that I would...hung up the phone...and started to think...
I took a few days to reflect on my life. I guess we have been through a lot in 24 months time:
- I lost my mom to cancer. She was my best friend and biggest fan!
- Chad has been fighting a "mystery illness" for almost a year...which we still don't understand. We have heard terms such as rocky mountain spotted fever, pneumonia, pulmonary lesions, lupus, and wegners granulomatosis. (google it!)
- Then a few short weeks after Chad got out of the hospital he lost his job. This was a job he was so excited about...a job that he worked hard for...a chance for financial freedom! It was a HUGE blow to his self-esteem and a blow to our finances.
So, I guess on paper all of that looks pretty rough.
but in reality... It has not been.
You see, the day my mother died is the day I surrendered myself to Jesus. I decided to give my ENTIRE SELF to Him because the way I was living before just was not working for me. He woke me up and called my name! It was time!
I decided to follow Jesus on April 7th, 2011.
It has been 1 year, 9 months, and 29 days
...and friends ...life has NEVER.BEEN.BETTER
Please understand that I did not say that life has been easier because clearly it has not been easy.
However, circumstances that should have shattered my world and thrown me into darkness and dispair did not and have not.
Instead I am OK, in fact, I am JOYFUL and STRONG and HAPPY!
Realizing this brings me back to that sweet, simple verse.
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"
WOW! I understand! I get this verse now! This verse is my life.
So the next time a friend asks"how do you handle it all so well" or when someone says "I could never go through all of that!" I will simply say: "The JOY of the Lord is my strength". This verse is my life and it can be yours too!
With JESUS there is NO better way to live.
I encourage each of you to surrender every aspect of your life to Jesus. Ask Him to show you how! And be on guard...because He most certainly will!
Our Elf on the Shelf brought Eva her first bible verse to memorize!
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