Still Alive, and Well too, Thank You

As is the case with all my summers, this one has been on the go busy and looks different than what I thought at the beginning of the summer. Lessons have been learned that I never realized I needed to learn, but am so grateful for. Grateful that the Lord works in spite of me, that even when things do not go the way I thought they should or would, none of it has taken the Lord by surprise. Grateful that the Lord is all-sufficient, one who is there, ready and waiting, even when I think that something can be done myself. Nothing dramatic or earth-shattering has happened, but the Lord keeps putting me in places where the only thing I can do is hold my hands, admit "I do not know!", and pray. What the Lord has taught is that He wants this in every aspect of my life....for me to realize that the only place I can go, the only thing I can do, is cry to Him, trusting Him with whatever it is. Not an easy thing. My pride, my struggle for independence, completely opposes the reality of my need to allow Christ to override in everything. How I wish that I would understand and apply this truth that is so clearly laid out in scripture, without having to be brought face to face with it on a daily basis. Its a daily, hourly, and sometimes momently, battle. And one that is not very pretty. But this too brings me back to gratefulness. Gratefulness because the Lord defines love, showering it on me all the time. "...love suffers long..." He sees me as worth the trouble, worth the patience, worth the work, worth the love, that He has poured into me, constantly brining me closer to Himself. That is something I know how to respond to! His long sufferingness, spurs me on to surrender. Surrender of my independence, of self-sufficiency, of myself. Wasn't that my struggle in the first place?! Ahh, yes, the Lord knows what He is doing! Praise Him!