Are you going through a storm right now?
When passing through the storms of life, please remember:
- It could be worse.
- It will get better.
Stay strong, focus on what you can do, not what you cannot, and know that the clouds will soon part, and the sun will return again. – Doe Zantamata
We all will experience storms in life. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like them. I like things calm, peaceful – no drama and chaos please. Regardless of what I like, that doesn’t keep the storms away. Several times in these past couple of years I’ve heard this about life storms:
We are either feeling a storm approaching, in the middle of a storm or in the aftermath of a storm.
I knew we’d all go through stuff in life but somehow I thought I’d get to a point in life where it would all just be smooth sailing.
Several years ago I also remember seeing Sheila Walsh on tv talking about storms. She caught my full attention:
Just as storms show us all sorts of debris on the shore, when we walk through spiritual storms or emotional storms, if you walk through a really tough season in life, I’ve discovered in my life it will toss up some things on the shoreline of your heart. And I think what happens is, it shows you what you actually believe as opposed to what you hope you believe, or even what you think you believe…Storms serve a huge purpose because they actually show us where we’re at in our faith and what we believe. -Sheila Walsh
I thought about what she said. I knew that during some storms feelings of fear would grip me. It was at those times that I really had to steep myself in watching sermons. A long time ago I found out that watching sermons brought me comfort. Yes, I knew about reading the Bible and praying – sometimes I did that too, but for me, actually watching sermons seemed to offer me both comfort and learning (knowledge). I ended up feeling closer to God.
One day I was having a conversation with my daughter about this. I broke it down this way: When you get a headache you take an aspirin and your headache goes away. You don’t know how it works – you just know that it works. For me, it’s the same thing with God, with the sermons (when I’m fearful, upset, etc.). I like how Joyce Meyer breaks it down:
“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”
Keeping the Faith 