Hello Friend!
It is so hard to hear the life stories I hear sometimes and I can only imagine how difficult it is to live through them. There is a lot of heartache and pain in the world. It’s difficult to be in it but also very painful to watch. Some of what people have lived through is unfathomable – it doesn’t even touch my worst moment. All I can do is listen. And pray.
For peace. For healing. For reconciliation. For strength.
I have walked in my own shoes but I really haven’t walked in anyone else’s so, given a situation, it’s hard to say if I would have done things better or worse or at all.
What has helped you most when you have been on a difficult road?
Love,
Liz
prayerpointsbyliz 
I wish I could write that I have a sure fire method of handling life’s tough moments but I don’t and I do. Since everyone has a different perspective and life experiences that is impossible. Good example: natural events( I refuse to call them disasters since they are part of our planet’s natural occurances) being from California I am familiar with earthquakes, fires, floods, blizzards, long distance influence from volcanoes. Get me in a situation with a tornado or hurricane and that experience doesn’t work( translation I would be quivering like a bowl of jello). But the more I have lived the more I realize that experience does count and the reliance on God’s words works the best. Am I always kind and patient. NO! There are times when kindness and patience work and there are time when it doesn’t. Anything that endangers my family’s safety and the gloves come off! I become cold, unyielding and for some people who cling to the idea that a woman needs to have man make decisions I am downright frightening. In 2003 I had to evacuate from home due to an approaching wildfire. I was told to leave my horses behind to die in the fire because they “were only horses”. I couldn’t trailer them out because I don’t have a trailer nor vehicle to pull it. My reply was “Like Hell!”. That was to county animal control and then of all people the Army National Guard. I wasn’t loud, filthy language, just a Mom protecting her family. My horses were rescued by the local mounted posse and I evacuated to a friend’s house. Did I pray? Enough that I was afraid if I prayed any harder there would be an earthquake. God didn’t send an earthquake but nine days later He sent a snow storm, in October! Was I stressed out? So much so that I didn’t recognize the person who helped trailer my horses , even though I had worked with him for two years. That taught me that being stressed changes my ability to think.
I have had other times that are life changing in good and sad ways, death of family members, birth of an unexpected child (not to me, but to others I cherish) divorces, being treated for melanoma, living through the after effects of that treatment, through it all I know that relying on the Lord works. Hs answers might not come immediatly, but, they always come in His time. Is this easy? No. I try to remember what my Lord and Savior went through to save me from my sins. Then I try to not repeat any prior mistakes and not to be afraid to ask for help. I have had to be a very self reliant, thinking person so I used to think it was wrong to ask for help. It has taken me awhile to realize this, I can’t do everything. I try to remember this saying “Just because I have teeth that doesn’t make me a dentist!” And first and foremost from Ecclesiastes, To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven… A sense of humor helps, along with compassion, taking time to chose words carefully and not to be afraid to act nor to ask for help. I have had to put boundaries around my life so that I can live the way God designed me to. Sometimes when you do you need to realize that will cause a lot of friction, but never forget without friction you can’t move forward or stop when you need to. To lighten this long missive, the babies I referred to were born to married couples who were told they couldn’t have children, my friend Emily thought she had food poisoning and the other is a wonderful veterinarian who looked at me with a straight face and said “I’m pregnant and I don’t know how it happened.” Boy oh boy did I have fun with that one! I told them each about Egyptian flu, in six more months you become a Mommy! Pronounced Mummy.
h