Part of the reason...is the 'raisin'

I have a friend,  the mother of two darling little girls, who is in the throes of disappointment as her marriage is ending.


I'm fairly familiar with that situation.


Nah.  I am very familiar with that situation.


I've watched her as she bravely moves through her life, the care of her children and her vocation with a sense of dedication and the realization that everything is going to be all right.


When I am met with this scenario I can't help but go back to my own life, at a time that I felt so lost and alone and unsure about the future.


And as I look back over the more than 30 years now, I can see God's hand again and again in my life and in the lives of my children.


So it's easy for me to tell my friend - it really is going to be all right.


But wait, what was it that helped me the most?


For me, it was the fact that I had been taught, as long as I could remember, to trust God with all things.  I have often recounted more than one time in my life that I prayed feeling like my prayers were bouncing off the ceiling only to rely on the "faith that had been instilled in me as a child" and to just keep trusting.


Which brings me back to my friend.


Her mother, whom I have met only once, sent me a nice note to tell me that she enjoys my blog.  I was happy to have an opportunity to respond to my new friend (I know I make friends so easily) and tell her how proud I am of her daughter. 


And then I told her - part of the reason is in the 'raisin'.  There is little doubt in my mind but that from a child my friend has known that God has a plan...and she is trusting in the Lord with all her heart (Proverbs 3:5).  And as we all know - you can't get a peach from a persimmon tree.


Something else that helped me was remembering an experience I had in college with my children's dad.  One day I was in a snit over something and he suggested that we should go to church that evening.  As I sat in the congregation a sense of calm came over me and I heard "Be still and know that I am God...".   I also knew that verse from my youth. 


I suppose that if there is anything I would like to hear about my children is that part of the reason that they are where they are today - is because -- you guessed it "of their raisin'."