I'm looking forward to spending some much needed quality time with my family. Today is a very lazy day with my girls. Lying in bed watching movies. It has been good given I have dosed in and out of sleep due to still feeling jet lagged.
Since my last post, I have been thinking about what it is that I need...not want to blog about. I need to find my motivation again. I have received a lot of comments about the way I look and thought the numbers on the scales haven't budged much I feel better about myself. Giving myself the attention I need for myself and my husband and my girls. How will I be able to teach my girls about self confidence if I don't demonstrate it myself.
So today is a day of rest and then I'll be meeting with my good friend the Stokes Valley stairs!!! My weights have arrived so my husband and I are going to give a bit of cross fit training a go which seems to be the craze...and I'm all about phases and crazes!!! ....don't leave me alone in the middle of the night watching infomercials....you'll find a few packages at my doorstep later in the week!!
So today's post is about the trials that we face in our day-to-day living. In these trials we grow! That is the only way to look at it.
Trials
'Consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials.'James 1:2
James writes: 'Consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance...that you may be perfect and complete' (vv2-4). Peter writes: '...don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you' (1 Peter 4:12).Trials are the common thread that unites us. When you get through with one, chances are there's another one coming up the road. That's why James didn't say, 'if,' but 'when you encounter...trials.'
Observe:
(1) Trials come in various categories. They're physical, emotional, financial, and relational; it's not a one-size-fits-all deal. Some are shocking, like the unexpected loss of a loved one; others are more drawn out, like an acrimonious divorce or a prolonged illness. Some play out in public while others take place in your own private hell. Some are due to your own, or other people's mistakes; others have nothing whatsoever to do with human shortcomings.
(2) Trials test our faith. They bring us back to basics and remind us where our priorities should lie. Charles Swindoll says, 'During...intense trials I go back to...what I really believe... elementals such as prayer and dependence...getting quiet and waiting on God. Trials...force us back to the bedrock of faith upon which our foundation rests, and this becomes a refining and necessary process.'
(3) Trials mature us. When we're suffering there's a tendency to try to look for the quick way out.Don't do that. Trials are designed to make us 'complete'. By letting them do their work, you end up stronger.
(1) Trials come in various categories. They're physical, emotional, financial, and relational; it's not a one-size-fits-all deal. Some are shocking, like the unexpected loss of a loved one; others are more drawn out, like an acrimonious divorce or a prolonged illness. Some play out in public while others take place in your own private hell. Some are due to your own, or other people's mistakes; others have nothing whatsoever to do with human shortcomings.
(2) Trials test our faith. They bring us back to basics and remind us where our priorities should lie. Charles Swindoll says, 'During...intense trials I go back to...what I really believe... elementals such as prayer and dependence...getting quiet and waiting on God. Trials...force us back to the bedrock of faith upon which our foundation rests, and this becomes a refining and necessary process.'
(3) Trials mature us. When we're suffering there's a tendency to try to look for the quick way out.Don't do that. Trials are designed to make us 'complete'. By letting them do their work, you end up stronger.
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