Penny Thoughts - Endurance

There is a lovely book by Mary Ellen Edwards called MEE thinks, and I have been thinking about endurance. We are constantly counseled to endure to the end. I like to think of endurance as a very active word; we cannot just ‘be good’ like it is a single act but thrive and grow good!

I need to work harder and reach out and do more. We are so blessed and yet sometimes I get into these little slumps of feeling like I can't do much when we are already scraping the bottom of the barrel to get by. I feel like I can't live a full life while we don't have this that and the other. But then I rally, and lecture myself that money does not make or break life. So what, I can't get the gifts I want to give for Christmas and birthdays, but I can send a thoughtful homemade card, or serve, or give of myself. I just have to be more creative with how I fill my life. That is what I need to figure out how to do, because if I wait until we have _______, then it will have wasted years of living that can be great. We will have enough money to get by so I shouldn't worry about that. What I should worry about is what am I doing with my time now? Am I letting the few trials I have make me better? It isn't going to get easier; in fact, I often feel that it is easier to manage a little money then a lot of money. And how I am supposed to manage a lot of I can't make good out of a little? This is where the gospel sails in and saves the day! "He is the way" to a happiness that cannot be achieved by my own devices.

I have been reading all the books by Lucy Maud Montgomery that I can find and I recently finished The Story Girl. It details the adventures of a group of childhood friends and the lessons they learn as they grow together. At one point, one of them becomes very sick and comes close to dying, and the others resolve to pray, and this is what I want to share:

"We did, indeed, pray most sincerely for Peter's recovery. We did not, as in the case of Paddy (their cat), "tack it on after more important things," but put it in the very forefront of our petitions. Even skeptical Dan prayed, his skepticism falling away from him like a discarded garment in this valley of the shadow, which sifts out hearts and tried souls, until we all, grown-up of children, realize our weakness, and, finding that our own puny strength is as a reed shaken in the wind, creep back humbly to the God we have vainly dreamed we could do without."

Again, He is the way, the light, the truth. We are children of God and unless we are what we are truly meant to be we will not find a happiness that lasts. We can be a great power for good and the more you give yourself the greater you'll be. Self, you know this, we all do, but it must be a constant decision to actively endure and to give our will to the Lord and let him Make Great our strength.