I'm Horrible At Coming Up With Titles

Ack! The weekend just flowed right into the start of the week and I realized I didn't post Sunday's Lent inspiration. We did have a wonderful weekend though! Saturday night my MOPS group put on a date night out catered by a Mexican restaurant for dinner and our pastor and his wife spoke about marriage and parenting. Tyler's mom came down to watch Wyatt and we just had a really nice night out. Sunday after church, we went out for lunch with 2 other families (both have 15 month olds!)... and then Sunday night Tyler had some fellow flight students over for a study group and we grilled out for them. It is such a blessing that we are both starting to connect with people and build friendships... I have a lot of thoughts on that, hmmm, maybe that will be its own post.

Anyways.... this week I wanted to link up to this devotional from Grace Notes, by Philip Yancey. It goes along with what I am studying right now in my bible study and that is that we will experience suffering. Sometimes I think people have the (wrong) impression that life for a Christian is just happy and perfect and everything is hunky dory! Sure, God does bless with good health, and finances and possessions, and overall happiness.... but, he does not promise these things. Ever. All good things come from His hands (James 1:17), but they are not a guarantee. In John 16:33, Jesus says, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world!" There are several places in Scripture that we are told that we will experience trouble, suffering, and heartache.
What a Christian is promised by God is... "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5 This is how a Christian can experience hope and peace and joy in the midst of life's sufferings. We should expect suffering as a part of our time here on earth. But that is the beautiful thing about this Easter season...... we are reminded that Jesus conquered death when he rose from the dead and we have eternal life free of suffering awaiting us in heaven! We need this reminder all year long, not just during the Lent season.

Also, this is unrelated but I know I have a few young moms that read so I wanted to share this post "Ten Fun Ways To Keep Easter About Jesus" at the blog, "We are THAT family." (I don't have a problem with taking part in the commercial aspect of Easter and Christmas, but as Wyatt gets older I will make it a priority to keep the focus on the real celebration of those holidays!) That post has some great ideas for Easter!