POT of JOY - Ingredients Part IV

Oh, it’s great to be sipping coffee with you and writing from my heart to yours! Grab your coffee and come on in for another stir in our pot of joy we are cooking up to enjoy in our days ahead!
Going back to this whole rejoicing thing during a painful time, I’ve learned something else that has helped me with the ability to rejoice, to have joy in and through a tough time; it’s the ability to step outside of myself, because it’s really not all about me, and yet, if I believe that He will do what He says He will do (Jeremiah 29:11) – which is to give me a hope, a future; to help me, not to hurt me, to prosper me -- then suddenly I can see the bigger picture and I can rejoice during this tribulation.
When I think of how my life is changing because of God calling my son and his family to another state, I must confess that I am not quite capable of thanking Him FOR it while I'm walking through it, but rejoicing over what I know He is doing in it will bring Romans 5:3-4 to life within me for I know that this painful separation will produce perseverance – STOP! Let’s define perseverance: steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success! Oh, yeah, that fits to a T!
Preparing for this separation in and of itself has produced a sort of patience within me that I didn’t even know existed within the likes of me. Have you ever traveled 1450 miles in a mid-sized car with two dogs and a five- and nine-year-old? I am so rejoicing right now as I relive every mile of that trip, a trip that could have been a nightmare – and would have been a couple of years ago – but was absolutely the most amazing time I have ever spent with them on so many levels. That’s not to say there wasn’t a hint of frustration and struggle, but the joy far outweighs the struggle; hence, perseverance! And perseverance keeps us from the distractions of doubt, thanklessness and complaining. We need perseverance for the long haul, the “high” way to heaven.
Along that highway wrought with those struggles which produce perseverance, there is a sort of dip in the road when we discover the unfamiliar but likable sense that perseverance produces character and we become more comfortable in our Christ-like skin. See, character is what you are when no one is looking and is formed by your moral compass! Life has proven over and over again that the more I am tuned into my moral GPS, the more I am consumed by hope!
So as the tears flow steady on the drive home, I am filled with hope, knowing that the important lessons He has loved me enough to teach me are being learned and practiced, and despite feeling like the flesh of my heart is being torn away with every mile, I know the next time I see my son, and hug him to me as if to never let him go, I will see a man God is creating more and more into His likeness.
Tearfully joyful,

Evinda