Dear Friends,
Moths are a destructive creature. They are small, seemingly harmless. Sometimes pretty with their dainty, colorful wings. But allow one into a protected area of your home like a closet and you will soon find out the destruction this small creature can wreck on your belongings. The fabric, the very strength in the remnant of cloth will be compromised with small holes. Some are so small that they seem insignificant at the time, yet nevertheless they are ruining the value of the garment with each bite.
Our lives can hold that same type of destruction if we allow compromises in. The small things we think will be okay ‘just this one time’ or ‘as long as nobody knows’ weakens the very fabric of our Christian lives. It also pushes us down a slippery road to a place where we will not know how to return from. Have you ever heard the phrase “Sin takes you farther than you ever wanted to go and keeps you there longer than you planned to stay?’ It is so true! Sin is addictive, whether you want it to be or not. Once your body gets a taste of the forbidden pleasure it becomes very hard to back away from it and act as if you never indulged. Look at Eve in the garden. Once her eyes were opened to the knowledge of Good and Evil, her conscious was awakened. She now knew she was wrong, and she hid with Adam as God walked through the garden.
Genesis 3:8 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”
This seemingly simple act of disobedience, eating a piece of fruit, catapulted our world into the fallen state of death. Do you realize the reason grief is so hard is because WE WERE NEVER MEANT TO EXPERIENCE DEATH? WE would have lived forever without the introduction to sin. Instead, I am now dying daily to the heartbreak of losing a precious 3-year-old baby. People all over the world are hurting from sin and the consequences of it. This will be a battle until eternity.
Getting back to the fabric of our lives, we start our years with great plans. Plans to prosper and have good success. However, over a lifetime the vermin come and devour our plans. Marriages fail, babies die, families bankrupt, teens rebel, disease ravages bodies, friends become enemies and the fabric of our life suffers. The integrity and strength of the fabric become compromised with the holes of sin. These holes become a bitter end to our garment of life OR they become a healing balm of a life testimony. IF we can share them and point to JESUS, then and only then can God restore us.
Joel 2:25-27 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to shame.
27 Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame…”
What does sharing your testimony look like? Is it giving every dirty and shameful detail of our failures to show others how ‘bad’ we really were? No, I do not believe it needs that detail. I feel that you are able to share your failures in ways that do not give someone a picture in their mind. Instead, you are admitting to a failure, whether it be one of the eyes (coveting), physical (lust), or significance (importance) and you are giving confirming testimony how God redeems us and washes us clean of our sin.
As a disclaimer, you might wonder why I am talking about sin being so present in our lives. Yes, our family is being attacked, the remnant of our family fabric is being strained, but it is not my place to share others struggles, testimonies, or sins. I would suffice to say that ANY family striving to live for Jesus Christ will be under attack. If they are not under attack, then I would have them consider if the devil feels that you are not worth persecuting? Is your family so ineffective that he has no need to go after you? Are you making a difference in the pursuit of the Gospel? If you are raising an ARMY for Christ, you can expect the hard times. You can expect that satan would desire to destroy you and your children.
In our family, his greatest attack came from death stealing away our baby. How would we handle it? Would we become bitter? Would we be ineffective as we walk through grief? Would he have opportunity to slide temptations in front of our eyes, hoping we would numb our pain? What about you? How would you walk through this trial? Would you be angry? Bitter? You had better consider it now, because even if your trial is not death of a child, you will be given a trial. Will the fabric your life be weakened?
1 Peter 1:6-9 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Please pray for us as we battle the fiery darts that are being shot our way. Please surround our kids with a hedge of protection that as our “quiver of arrows”, they can be launched into the world to hit a sure and effective mark for Christ. Please lift our marriage up that we would be bonded so strongly together that satan has no hold in our life. I appreciate your prayers just as I appreciate being able to pray for you.
Blessings sweet friends…
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
I still believe in Millie’s Miracle
｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ Hebrews 11:1 ｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
︵‿︵‿୨☆୧‿︵‿︵
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