Sweet Sundays
on 03-08-2009 at 11:36 PM (67 Views)
"A Pair of Shoes"
I am wearing a pair of shoes.
They are ugly shoes.
Uncomfortable shoes.
I hate my shoes.
Each day I wear them, and each day I wish I had another pair.
Some days my shoes hurt so bad that I do not think I can take another step.
Yet, I continue to wear them.
I get funny looks wearing these shoes.
They are looks of sympathy.
I can tell in others eyes that they are glad they are my shoes and not theirs.
They never talk about my shoes.
To learn how awful my shoes are might make them uncomfortable.
To truly understand these shoes you must walk in them.
But, once you put them on, you can never take them off.
I now realize that I am not the only one who wears these shoes.
There are many pairs in this world.
Some women are like me and ache daily as they try and walk in them.
Some have learned how to walk in them so they don't hurt quite as much.
Some have worn the shoes so long that days will go by before they think about how much they hurt.
No woman deserves to wear these shoes.
Yet, because of these shoes I am a stronger woman.
These shoes have given me the strength to face anything.
They have made me who I am.
I will forever walk in the shoes of a woman who has lost a child.
Author unknown
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Our speaker in Church today (not our pastor) spoke on these verses. Before he got to the verses he told of how steal is made stronger by first making it weaker. Steal must first be heated very hot, where it becomes weaker, then it is cooled very rapidly (usually by water) and this is what makes it stronger.
My thoughts immediately went to what has transpired in the last year... Two pregnancies... a cystic hygroma... CVS testing... and in the end two miscarriages. I can only pray that, as Mike (I think that’s his name) said this morning, God in His sovereignty is using what the devil thought would get me down, and making me stronger.
As Mike continued to talk about Paul’s ‘thorn’ and how he begged God to take it away, but knew that God’s grace is sufficient enough; I continued to think of the poem that is above and thought, “Oh I wish this could be taken away, but I know better, I will ALWAYS be a woman who has miscarried two (please NO more) babies. I will never be able to have the innocence and joy of pregnancy that was there for Faith and Megan.” And I hate that!!! But he came back to the steal, and so must I. God is using this to make me stronger.
This whole thing reminds me of a time in HS when I was struggling between two homes. ‘N’ told me of how gold is refined and made more pure. When a goldsmith is refining gold he will turn up the fire (heat) below it to raise the imperfections to the top, then skim those imperfections off and continue the process. So heat (aka: trials) does quite a lot for a Christian... it can help to get imperfections ‘out’ and when cooled properly, make us stronger... and more like Christ. Praise be to God!
I very muchly needed today’s sermon!Tristasmother - 03-25-2009 08:50 AM
Stina - I took a materials class in college that didn't explain steel-making as well as you did above based on the speaker's information. It is amazing that through weakness we can become stronger. So many times, it's just easy to see my weaknesses and how broken I feel, but it's nice to know that, if I will let God, the end goal will be my increased strength through him.
Thanks for sharing!
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