Storms

I know some of these posts have been a little "heavier" in content lately, but I like to share what I learn, just the little tidbits that affect me. Yesterday, on the way to church a famous pastor said, "Storms take us to where God wants us to be." And he suggested that rather than continually asking God to take away the struggle, we should be asking God what we are supposed to learn (and yet we are supposed to have the faith that God will in fact answer our prayers for healing/relief, if that is His will). We are put thru struggles to grow our faith, to grow our character. I then happened to be reading in Hebrews, where it says, in chapter 12, verse 7, "Endure hardship as a discipline, God is treating you as sons." We should want God to "discipline" us, because it means we are in His family. As I have said many times recently, I feel like we are in the calm of life, but there are always mini storms going on. I often ask/wonder why is Emily the way she is; why did God give us this challenge; why didn't He heal her or make her genes the way they are supposed to be. To be honest, I always felt that losing my mother at age 11 was enough of a struggle for one lifetime. But, God wants me, us, to "be" somewhere else, we still have some growing to do. We are supposed to be learning something, even everyday, as different aspects of her care frustrate us. So I wanted to offer these thoughts as encouragement to those who are in the midst of bad storms right now, and also to those who have mini storms, that become a part of life. God is making us into who He wants us to be, because He loves us.