I found this old post I wrote near the end of 2010. A much younger me, and yet much needed wisdom for older me today. May you need this encouragement, too:
“It would be so much easier if I knew now that I’d be published later,” said my writer friend and first-time mom-to-be.
As our conversation continued past writing on to parenting, I came back to this thought. “If I’d have known in those early, horrible years that I’d have an awesome almost twenty-year-old, it would have been so much easier.”
And yet in neither case are we allowed to know the end at the beginning. Why? Because the Lord calls us to a life of faith, of trusting in Him for the future—of our work, our marriage, our children—while we simply obey day by day. We run the race with the finish line veiled in secrecy. And really, would we want it any other way? If we knew difficult things were coming, we’d shrink back from facing them. If we knew good things were coming, we wouldn’t have learned to push through, to depend on God in the moment.
And so each of us puts one foot in front of the other, every moment of every day, trusting in the goodness of God and persevering in our pursuit of godliness. And when we cross that finish line, our circumstances won’t matter. It will be our character, forged during the race of life, which wins the prize.
Catherine West
A breath of fresh air for me today! Thank you! And Merry Christmas!!
Anne Mateer
Thanks, Cathy! So glad you stopped by!
Adeline
😀 this is such and i encouraging post! thank you for the reminder 🙂
In Christ,
Adeline
Anne Mateer
Bless you, Adeline! It's nice when the things we write to encourage ourselves end up encouraging someone else along the way!
Patti Lacy
Beautiful post…and great reminder for ALL those "waiting" periods!!!
Blessings,
Patti