A Little Sunshine

 I don't know who said this, but someone in my family did. It might have been my dad... but I might have made this up in my own head: "It feels like we've been living under a curse." Yeah, it's been that bad. We (my family) always joke around New Years/ January that something bad is going to happen. Well, we made it through January, but February hasn't been that great.

*I was going to say February hasn't been that hot, but it has. Today is Tuesday, February 27, 2012, and it is seventy degrees outside. WHAT?!*

Let me take back my last statement that February hasn't been that great. Yes, my dad may have said it feels like we've been living under a curse, but as I was talk to my mom on the phone yesterday, she asked "how can things be SO good and SO bad at the same time?"

I won't make the big long list of horrible things that have happened. The message my Grandad brought to us months ago at church keeps rolling over and over in my mind: "Don't whine, don't complain, don't make excuses." So I won't. But I will tell you just what happened this past weekend. We had to take my sister Christina to the ER. My "never-gets-sick-and-has-definitely-never-been-to-the-ER-before" sister Christina. It was scary. Evidently she had a couple of virus/infection kind of things going on inside of her... and it got ugly. But at the same time, I was at the Predators game and they were going nuts being awesome and it was so much fun! And I had just spent all day with my family at a bridal show, having SO much fun! Again, so good and so bad at the same time. It seems to be a pattern. 

So, I'm sitting here thinking (and lately I've been thinking a lot of things) about how awesome God is, and how much he loves us. You see, the thing is, we HAVE to go through trials, through tough times, through storms, to become the people he wants us to be. To fulfill the purpose we need to fulfill. Just think about every sermon you have ever heard about the alabaster box. It was a beautiful box, but it had to be broken for what was inside to be used. We have to be broken to be used.

But God must know that we couldn't handle all the brokenness without some happiness. Moreover, He WANTS us to be happy, it pains him when we suffer, so he gives us good things too, like a win for the Predators and sunshine in February. You know what? That makes me proud to call him my God. I don't think there are any other gods like that out there. I know there aren't. 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4