God Never Promised Us a Rose Garden

Life is hard. God never promised us that life would be easy on this earth. But He did promise to walk with us, guide us, strengthen us, encourage us, feed us, provide for us, and so much more as we travel in this journey.

The story I have written here began in the early spring of 1993. I have been a believer in Jesus Christ much longer than that. I have been a believer since earliest childhood, becoming a born again believer on Thanksgiving night 1969. My life has never been easy. In reading the Bible I find that I am very much like the children of Israel, grumbling day after day when they don't get life as they think it should be and forget to honor God in spite of how they feel. I grumble too much. I whine. I am a small child begging for a special toy I've seen and want desperately. I cry when I don't get it. On the other hand, I rejoice when I see that getting what I wanted wasn't the best thing for my life. God always knew best. Over the years I have come to trust Him in such a way as I never thought I could in the past. When I first asked him back in that spring of 1993 to teach me to trust Him, I had no idea what would come of that request. Something I have learned along the way that makes me stop and consider my path and the choices I make along the way is that whenever I start to walk ahead of God, things happen that I don't like. Every time I jump ahead of God, I seem to turn in the wrong direction. You would think that after all these years of study and the quest, I would instinctively know what way to turn even if I do move ahead a bit. But no. That child wanting that special toy is always there, always wanting, and always reaching out to things that are not good for me. But once I turn around, either by pure choice, or by result of some consequence of my misdirection, I find some reward for returning to the right path. This summer when I decided on my own without asking God if it was the right thing for me, I ventured into the world of online dating and met up with a scammer. Fortunately, I saw the light quickly and turned back around. But not without battle scars, not without pain and heartache. The reward? A lot of new friends from around the United States and the world. And most of all, another spiritual marker placed along the path to remind me that here is a place where I ventured off on my own and failed to seek God's face first. Here is a place where I found my footing again and turned back toward God.

Maybe this is why I am back blogging again after another absence.

Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.