Hope within Pain

Hope can be a tricky word. It can be a casual word as we hope that our team will win the big game, or we have hope that the weather will be great for our big event, as a child our hopes can involve simple things like mom making our favorite meal, or going to the play ground to play. It is a word that can be loosely thrown around as you go through your day, your life; or it can become a bigger word in your life if you turn your hopes toward the Lord Jesus Christ. I was confronted with a person recently who didn't sound like they had much hope; I was talking about spending eternity with Jesus and they interpreted it as if I would be spending an "eternity being dead." The conversation brought tears to my eyes, because I know with out a doubt that death will not have a hold on me when it comes. I will be alive with Christ and spend my eternity with Him. You see I have to have this hope in Christ because this world I am living in right now is so painful some days. I have given my faith and trust to Him and I search for this hope in His word. He gives me the strength day by day, just like the Israelite people received manna from heaven each day as they needed it. They received just enough to survive for that day, they had to go out and gather it and prepare it to nourish their bodies though; thus I gather my bible and my devotional and search His word for my hope. I struggle in my life with brokenhearted painful situations; things like loved ones that are far from the Lord, also over a disease that is stealing the life of my grandson. In the book ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT ADVERSITY; Dr David Jeremiah says-- "Obviously none of us longs for struggles, for suffering, but in the reality of life it does come to us all at some point. No, we would rather not feel the sting of pain. But God does have a purpose in pain that we may not understand in the present. He may be using it to drive us to Him as our only hope, our only source of dependence." I have been driven to the Lord, to my bible-His word, and yes they are my only source of dependence. When we feel like we can't take another moment of the hurting we can reach out to our Savior to literally save us. I can't even remember how many times I have done this very thing. In the book THE ONE YEAR BOOK OF HOPE by Nancy Guthrie she says, "I have delved deep in His word to confront my very real fears, feelings, and thoughts with scriptural truth. His truth can sooth our fears, change our feelings and shapes our thoughts." Whether in the sunshine of life or in a storm there are promises of hope in God's word to meet all of our needs, to give us peace amid the problems and strength for every struggle. One of my favorite truths in the bible comes from Philippians 4: 6-7--- Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand,. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. There it is my hope within pain—— Adversity is not something we want to go through, but God can and will get us through it and as I struggle through my painful situations I would rather put my hope and faith in Him and not this world. Romans 15:13---I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace as you trust in him. Then you will have more and more hope and it will flow out of you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Cynthia Mealhow

Adversity Reed 1

Why does God allow pain? ---“The word of God is brutally honest about the reality of life. Sometimes in the process of growing up in God’s family, we feel the sting of adversity. It doesn’t feel good, and we would not really desire it. But God has a purpose in our pain that we may not see or understand in the present. We can trust that our pain is no secret to Him. Everything that happens to us will become a platform for the glory of Him who” “ ….works all things according to the plan of His will….” (Ephesians 1:11). “ God uses problems in our lives to drive us to Him as our only hope, our only source of dependence.” ----These are quotes from the book “Answers to Questions about Adversity” -- by David Jeremiah, and of course the Bible. I have only started reading his book and I am already benefiting from his wisdom from God. Over the next few weeks I want to share bits and pieces that speak to me with you all. ----Now here is some of my own thoughts---I would be surprised to hear about someone who walks through their days looking around every corner for adversity. I would think they would need to seek some counsel for that kind of behavior. But on the other hand there are people out there that go through their days with the thinking that it could never happen to them. I don’t think that is healthy either. ---We all need to have a healthy respect for life and the gift that it is. We need to also remember that God does allow stuff to happen. It is tempting to throw your hands up in the air and ask God “why” (and I’ve done it) when something comes along that is painful, and that is okay as long as you don’t curse Him as you are doing it. But nothing that happens to us is a surprise to Him. He has all of our days planned out and we only have to seek after His heart for them to be revealed to us. If it is not your desire to seek Him in life you are most assuredly missing out on the best there is for your life. In this reading I didn’t really learn anything new because I was already holding onto His promise that “He works all things according to His plans….”, and I know that His plans are far better then anything I could think up. I have yet to understand how He is working, but I can see bits and pieces of God in the way Reed has been behaving lately. He has been our sweet active Reed for the most part, he just can’t walk, but in his eyes and actions I see peace, love, and acceptance of what life is giving him. Yes he is only 2, but I see Jesus when he reminds me to fold my hands and pray, when he wants me to help him stand so he can dance to Jesus loves the little children and of course sings Jesus Loves Me. ----What the natural world sees and says (Doctors, internet, etc.) in our Reeds case does not look good for his future, but when we put our hope and total dependence in our Heavenly Father, the supernatural is on our side, and isn’t God’ supernatural power something that all of us; whether out loud or quietly hope will step in and here our cry for help? I am driven to Him everyday of my life, even when things are peaceful in life, but when those days of adversity come, I am so glad I have my relationship with my Savior to catch me when life knocks me down.

Reed

March 4 2015 It has been a week since we all heard the devastating news of our dear sweet Reeds disease. We are all in shock and are experiencing fear everyday, every moment of the day. I have shed a ocean of tears and begged God for Reeds life. I am trying so very hard to cling to my Savior; searching for verses in His word for comfort and hope. My moms favorite verse comes to mind often, Proverbs 3:5&6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your way.” What is something in this world that you trust with all your heart? As I sit here thinking about that question it is very hard to think of anything in this world that I can truly trust that much. Love for someone special can be something that we want to put that much trust in, but we all know that people are all faulted and love can fall apart. We long for certain things in our lives with our whole heart and sometimes put trust in ourselves to achieve these things, but alas not all of these desires come true, and may fall apart. God wants us to put our trust in what we can’t see instead of what we can see. If we could see everything that God is working on do you think we would like some of the ways He is working. I would say a resounding NO. I certainly don’t understand what He is doing with Reed and how He is working, but I choose to trust Him because I find hope in Him and that hope is so much better then hope in this faulted world. That brings me to leaning on our own understanding--- do you ever lay awake at night trying to understand why something may or may not be happening in your life? How futile is it to try and try to understand when understanding is not always possible. God brings understanding in His time and wants us to wait patiently for Him. I know, I know when your heart is breaking over a circumstance that may be happening or maybe it is not happening and you want it to; it can be so hard to “wait patiently”. We learn in Psalm 5:3 we are to “wait in expectation for God to answer prayer.” In Psalm 40:1 we read “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He turned to me and heard my cry.” Don’t get me wrong I still don’t understand and I have a very hard time waiting patiently when my little boy is hurting. The last part of the verse is “in all my ways acknowledge Him and He will show me the way, show me what He is doing, help me to understand. I cannot do anything on my own, I am declaring that to all who are reading this right now. Nor do I want to take one step without acknowledging my creator. I know with my whole heart that God created me, he loves me, formed me in my mothers womb and He is the keeper of all my days. He is the keeper of ALL of our days. He formed Reed in his mommy’s womb, He loves him even more then we do and is the keeper of Reed’s days. Acknowledging God and trusting that He knows what He is doing, waiting patiently for understanding can give us peace in this very hard time. Can we give Reed to Christ and trust Him with his whole life—who else’s arms would you want to place your child in. I place Reed is Christ Jesus’s arms of mercy.

Time is fleeting

God is not a God of confusion, He is a God of order. He has our life ordered for us, but when we stray from that order, and try to do things our own way; that is when we add confusion and sometimes trials to our lives. When we turn our hearts back to God, and seek His heart; things start to make sense again. How do we measure time? Is it measured as it passes us by; as we turn a different age, or by how we spend each moment? We all learn from it; whether we know it or not. We look back on it; sometimes with fondness; sometimes with regret. When we are young we abuse it, but don't realize we have done so until it has passed,and we would like it back. God gives us all a measure of it, and your time is part of His grand design. He puts it all in order before we even take our first breath. Then He gives us the choice as to whether we will seek out His order of time. Within our own measure of time life can change in a moment. We all learn that at some point in our lives--- it may be a change with joy attached to it or it may be with sorrow. I have been looking back at my measure of time; more so as my anticipation of life turns into my memories of life. Like many I have and still do not use it wisely sometimes. So I guess it can be measured by our use of it--- years, days, hours, moments and seconds. I think of my mother, and the time she spent here on earth; she always knew who held her time in His hands. Her Savior; Jesus Christ was her designer of her time and she knew that He was with her as she took every step, and "standing at the end of her life waiting on the other side." Amongst the chaos of life who do you trust with the whole of your time, your life. Do you choose yourself, or would you like to see what grand design your Savior has for you. He is waiting for you to come to Him and experience time and life eternal with Him. Cynthia Tansey Mealhow 2013 Quote-- Already There-- Casting Crowns

I am kind of melancholy today. It is Christmas break from school and I am alone at home to do lots. You would think I would be euphoric.
I am missing my mom and Scott's mom a lot lately~everyday. There is not a day that goes by without thinking about something I would love to share with them. They say grief gets better over time~ for me I don't cry as much, but I think about them all the time.
I don't want to be one of those people who can't look forward to the future because I live in the past to much, but turning 50 has been a hard number for me. I can't really pinpoint why this is, but I am not exactly where I thought or hoped I would be at this age. If you ask me where I had hoped to be I'm not sure what to tell you. I married young, had our girls young and so maybe it is the Grandma thing. I compare myself to Scott's mom at this age. She was a very young Grandma (late 30's)

But life is what it should be right now because all of our days and times are ordaned by God, and He does not make mistakes. I know in His time I will be a Grandma and hopefully be able to take care of them often. I say that losely because I want their mommys to be able stay at home with them. It was the most rewarding job I ever had and even though we had little finacially we had enough because the time with our girls at home was worth more the any material thing.

God has been so good to Scott and I--we have not understood some things that we have gone through, but I know He was with us and walked through all of life with us. He doesn't promise tomorrow to anyone, but I know that if tomorrow doesn't come for me I will be in a more wonderful place with my mom and Scott's mom having a wonderful reunion. Time marches on and there is nothing I can do to stop it and so I will direct my mindset towards hoping for and looking forward to 51. :)

Anxiety and Contentment

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving , present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6 & 7

This is one of my favorite verses in the bible---I claimed this verse for the first time when I was a teenager, and very anxious about my future. It carries me through my days because I am prone to worry. I tend to worry about so many things I can't do anything about, and when I manage to convince myself of that I pray. Prayer is what I should have done in the first place in order to ward off the worry. It is one of the first things I think about, but because of sin worry creeps in and my faith falters. Yes my faith falters, it is at those times my emotions take over and I become a basket case. Does anyone else have this problem. I bet you do, especially if you are a women. Women tend to let emotions overwhelm them before they claim God's peace. Can you claim God's peace for your life, your future, your family?

I have been reading a book called---Calm My Anxious Heart, by Linda Dillow and in it she has four things we need to practice in our lives----

1-Choosing to give our anxieties to God
2-Choosing to pray SPECIFICALLY
3-Choosing to be thankful
4-Choosing to dwell on the positive

Wow those are a prescription aren't they.
---being specific in our prayers is helpful to us, God already knows what we are coming to Him about.
---Being thankful for the things, situation and people He has put in our lives right now, there is a purpose for everything and everyone. Try thanking God for what He is doing even though you don't understand it right now and being thankful for what is to come.
---being positive is a hard one for me. My mind always goes to the negative in situations. I have had to really work at this all my life, it is a sin pit for me.

"Beware of what you dwell on for that you shall surely become."---Ralph Waldo Emerson
This quote is convicting in my life.

Our thought life --not our circumstances--determines whether we are content.

I hope and pray that all of you can Choose to give your anxious thoughts to the Savior.
Also we all need contentment, inner peace separate from our circumstances. It can be achieved through a shift of attitude more that a change in circumstances.

Believe me as you read these words I am constantly working on my self in every area I have talked about here. Pray for me as I pray for you.

LOVE YOU All---Cynthia---Mom

I'm waiting

It has been awhile since I wrote a blog. Maybe I have been feeling to bloggy lately. I have thoughts I need to write down and express, I do in my journal but I have been thinking lately I need to connect to whom-ever out there.
I had a conversation with someone close and dear to me recently. He had questions about life and God just like so many of us do. The evil in this world is so in your face now days that it just makes you want to cry out "come quickly Lord Jesus." Everything that I see going on in this world points my thoughts in one direction, it won't be long until our Savior comes again.(one day to us is but a moment to God though, so we don't really know when it will be) Christ is coming to rescue us, but He will not rescue all of us. He will gather His faithful, people who have called upon His name and accepted His free gift of eternal life. A life with out heart-ache, physical pain, lose, and hardship, in a place that He is preparing right now at this time. A place that I know my mom, mom-in-law and others I have witnessed go before me now dwell. Where their questions about life and God have already been answered. My mom use to say that it is not for us to know the why of everything that God is doing in this world. It is for us to accept Him and His love for us and build a relationship with Him so that He can reveal to us, in His own time the answers we seek in life.

I wait in anticipation Lord, I will serve you while I'm waiting, I will worship while I'm waiting.