Christ, Coffee, and Cornfields

  Life is a fascinating thing. I think what makes it so is the unpredictability, the moments and times that throw us for a loop or catch us off guard. It's especially interesting to reflect on times of trial. My life over the last few months has certainly been tumultuous. Lots of things have been going on and taking place that haven't been very good. However, as I'm sitting in this difficult period and thinking and praying about it all, I have noticed two key things.   1) The good things in life are made better when they come during times of struggle. Think about this: do we appreciate the beauty of a single flower more when it's in a blooming garden or when it's surrounded by weeds and thorns? A single rose is far more alluring when it is the only one on a thorn bush than when it's in a bouquet.   The program I'm in required that I take a class which I wasn't very happy about taking. It met 8 hours a week and easily had another 5 in outside work to...

As followers of Christ, one of the most difficult things we are called to do is to follow Him when the world is pulling us away from Him. As I have gotten older, Satan has been trying even harder to tear me away from my Savior and Lord. It is a constant struggle, one that I fail to overcome on my own. I am currently battling it out with the Devil, even as I write this. He has been trying his darndest to get me to fall. He has been trying to get me to sink to the level of the world, when I am striving for the standard that the Lord has for me and all who follow Him. This battle will not be won by me. It will be won-- no, it has ALREADY BEEN won-- by Jesus! I am so very weak, but in 2nd Corinthians 12:9, the Lord says that "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Isn't that a beautiful promise?! The best part is that when God tells us something, He means it. He will always follow through. God makes His path for us known in His timing...

  God is the single thing that keeps me sane. He is what allows me to get up in the morning, sleep at night, and keep my head up in times of trouble and in normalcy.   Life has been throwing quite a few curveballs lately, with work, school, and my personal life. It is EXHAUSTING! Seriously. Some days I want to just stay in bed. But then I remember that life keeps going whether I want it to or not, so I get my butt up and about. And no matter what happens in my day, good or bad, God uses those hours to show me how blessed I am by His Graces. The Lord has blessed me by the fact that I am alive!   I never regret living. Never .   I've been thinking about this a lot lately, mostly because I feel like my life is a small disaster (in fact, it is not; I realize that lots of people have it worse than I do.) You see, I have fallen victim, like so many people, to the feeling of wallowing in self-pity and thinking that my issues are the most important thing in m...