Re: [FamilyofGod] Re: crying my eyes out/Shelley and Suzanne
Gods imperfect but precious child :)
ShelleyGlitter
From: Tina Simon <tmsimon2@verizon.
To: FamilyofGod@
Sent: Wed, October 28, 2009 7:03:09 PM
Subject: RE: [FamilyofGod] Re: crying my eyes out/Shelley and Suzanne
Do not take this as sarcasm, it's meant in a good way. I pray that, piece by piece, God would show you how he's going to use all this in your lives.
I used to question my blindness once in a while. I really couldn't understand how Joni Eareckson could be thankful for her quadraplegia. But then...
I began to think about my family. My sister is into all sorts of new age/Native American stuff, she's very able but bounces in and out of jobs, she bounces up and down with her level of involvement with her kids... Well, we had the same family... So, what's the difference.
A lot of it is my blindness. Because of that, I was sent to a blind school. I was a day student, but I had some of the best "old-fashioned" type teachers. If anybody loves reading coming of age high school type books, the aunt in Up a Road Slowly is a lot like the teachers I had. There's a lot of other family stuff, not that it was a bad family...again my experiences at my blind school prepped me for working later with the homeless ministry and other ministries where people had "bad" pasts.
Being kids, we would often ask each other: how did you go blind? I remember one of my classmates saying, without realizing this would be shocking to anyone: my mother threw me down the steps when I was two. We had lots of kids in foster care and abused kids. Again, God used and is still using this as I interact with people. There were also a number of kids with other disabilities: the only main thing was that you had to have a visual impairment. So I got to know lots of kids that were retarded or had some emotional issues. Later, I majored in special ed and minored in pshych..
I never got a chance to teach in a classroom, but I've used all this in one way or another in many ministries of volunteered for. God uses this many times when I answer a prayer need. When I pray, even if the situation isn't identical to mine, there's often a way in which I can relate; it changes the way I pray.
It's almost thrilling to see how God has used to many things in my life. I'm a middle aged woman who is a widow after eighteen years of marriage.
I guess, in America, the two main things I've not done are: have a child or get a divorce...but I've had break ups after involved relationships. I am not one of those Christians who became a Christian as young kid. (The reason I say, in America, is because I know that there are other countries that have some really major stuff, like war/persecution severe abuse. Praise God, I've not been through that. I think I'd rather not.)
Anyway, I know God can use everything in our lives if we let him...if we ask him....if we watch him...
God bless,
Tina
There are many other ways in which I've seen God use other aspects of my life.
From: FamilyofGod@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:FamilyofGod @yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Jolene Cardenas
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:29 PM
To: Family Of God
Subject: [FamilyofGod] Re: crying my eyes out/Shelley and Suzanne
And while the two of you are writhing in pain and anxiety, trying to figure out your purpose in this group and maybe even in your lives, I sometimes catch myself writhing in emotional pain and figuring out why I was not only born blind but was denied eyesight by God for His own glory. Why was I born blind? Why did my family disown me when I first knew how to feel my own feelings and think my own thoughts?
Why...why... why...Why!
I'm just desperately hanging on to the promise that whether I live 41 years or 100 years, this physical disability won't last forever and all the emotional wounds I bear because of familial disownment and the like won't last forever either. Only when I'm going through the internal agony of it all does it SEEM like it's gonna last forever.
Just how long is forever in Christ's presence which is pain-free, sickness-free, disability-free, death-free, and free of the cares and fleshly snares of this world, anyway?
Well, it's thankfully too long for my finite mind to try to figure out, that's for sure.
Just some thoughts and an eternal perspective on the right-now that has helped me to trust that God is nearby, even when I don't FEEL like He is...
I love you in Jesus name, sisters, just because He Himself first loved you.
in Christ my True Everything,
Jolene.
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.--Psalm 28:7 (NASB)
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