“Mom, will you proofread a paper I have to hand in for class.”
Me: “Sure!”
These were the first words typed on the page.
Initially I felt a punch to my gut. Out of all the experiences our child could write about, four years later she chose this. “Oh goodness, how did my getting diagnosed with cancer change her life for the worse,” I immediately thought.
I took a deep breath and continued reading. Yet what I read surprised me. Although our child wrote about how hard it was to experience for her Mom to have cancer, she also shared how it taught her many life lessons, and will help shape her life.
I share this with you today because with COVID, and all that is happening in the world, it’s easy to think, as I did when I was diagnosed with cancer, that what our kids experience will forever impact them in a negative way.
Yet I invite you to join me to...
pause. breathe. pray.
May we open our eyes to the truth that the hard times are opportunities for refinement, for ourselves and our children. A quote that reflects this truth is:
“God changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls, and coal into diamonds using time and pressure, He's working on you too." - Rick Warren
Yes, times are challenging yet it’s often the hard times that are what help us grow more into the person God made us to be. Rather than this time being a weight on our shoulders that crushes us, may we ask God to help us instead place it beneath our feet so we can use it as a stepping stone to be who He made us to be.
And maybe we will find ourselves four years from now sharing our story of these challenging times and the life lessons we learned that have helped shape our lives.
With love and hope,
Shawn
See, I am doing a new thing!
- Isaiah 43:19