Ok, so I had this idea last night and ran with it. I'm gonna do this post every Friday (if the kids allow me to!) and hopefully you will join me. The only requirement is that you dedicate your blog post to something that builds faith. It can be a thought you had, Bible verses, quotes or excerpts from a book (make sure you give due credit please). Then come back here and link up so we can all be uplifted!
I am currently reading Get Out of That Pit by Beth Moore. It's a great book to read even if you are in a good place in life. At some point in our lives we all go through hard ships, and if we can be better prepared on how to handle them we may make it through with less scars. One friend I know read this book so she could better understand others in their pits and sympathize or help them through it. How ever you view it, it's a great book!
This excerpt is from the first section "When You Are Thrown Into A Pit" - talking about situations outside of your control. Something you need to know about Beth Moore (if you don't already) is that as a small child she was abused by a family member. And because this section involves her husband as well you should know that when he was 2 years old he was in a house fire with his 4 year old brother. Keith (Beth's husband) made it out but his brother did not. I hope your faith is built by reading this.
"Dear one, whether or not I say a word about my past, God uses it every single day without fail in my ministry. In friendship. In motherhood. In marriage. He does the same for Keith. Perhaps this only thing worse than child abuse is the death of a child. In two separate incidents Keith lost both his older brother and his youngest sister. Day before yesterday he spent an hour on the phone with a friend who'd lost her young adult brother in a freak car accident. He prayed for her and told her how he'd made it through the pain. He's done it a thousand times. Keith's past doesn't just come in hand every now and then; he uses it every day, whether or not the stories every come out of his mouth. It's part of who he is. And my past is part of who I am. Part of who God is making me.
Keith and I have been through so much - much more than we share with others - that every now and then the memories or regrets get one of us down. Last week Keith had on of those moments. We'd been discussing loved ones and their personality types. Were they sanguine, choleric, melancholy, or phlegmatic, or blends of both? he grew very serious and said, "What do you think I would have been like? You know, if all that hadn't happened. If Duke (his brother) hadn't died. If my family hadn't had all those problems. If I hadn't been so messed up and turned to so much sin. What do you think I might have been like?"
I could tell Keith was lamenting the potential he might have had if like had not tailspun him in a different direction. I believe the words that came out of my mouth were from God and not from me, because I wasn't smart enough or swift enough to think of them that fast. "Honey," I responded. "You're a much neater person healed than you would have been well."
Oh beloved, you keep thinking about how things might have been had that not happened. Would you be willing to hear those same words I spoke to Keith? You have the capacity to be a ten times neater person healed than you would have been just plain well. Your wealth of experience makes you rich. Spend it on hurt people. They need it so badly. If God can use childhood abuse and family tragedy, He can use anything."
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