We Can Do Hard Things

Daily Gratitude Year 7-Day 292: Today, I am grateful we can do hard things.

"I've never met a strong person with an easy past." 

Great quote. Source unknown. The truth is timeless. We learn to survive hard things by experiencing some tough stuff along the way. 

Most of us don't sign up for the hard things. In this fallen, imperfect world where sickness and evil are present... difficulties happen. They arrive unexpected and unwelcome... but they arrive.

God gave us stewardship over the earth, but that is not control. He set the earth the perfect distance from the sun for human life and set the moon and stars in place to guide the night. We can love and care for the earth's lands and oceans, but he determines their width, their depths and the rains. He is God. We are not.

He allows things to happen that we do not understand, but it doesn't mean he is absent or disinterested. He is sovereign and that can be tough to swallow. Still, I am old enough to know that today's disappointments and struggles, may be His hand at work in ways we will never understand. Especially, in the moments of discouragement and life disruptions. His plans are not revealed to us like a fortune cookie. 

His heart longs for us to return to him. Does he allow a crisis to get our attention? I will not pretend to know the mind of God. In fact, I know well that I cannot fathom the wisdom of His ways. I simply long to trust him with my days... all of them. The good ones...and the difficult ones, too

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit." -Psalm 51:12

"...  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." -Matthew 28:20

The hard days and nights will come and go, but He will never abandon his children. Everytime we get through something hard, we are better prepared for the next trial. Press on. Press through. Press into the shelter of His mighty and comforting hand. 

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. -Philippians 4:13

All things... even hard things.

Today, I am grateful we can do hard things.