JOY IN THE MORNING

A few months ago I started using these words, "Joy in the morning!" often as a reminder that things will not always be as they are at the present.  True to his word, the Lord allowed me to experience those words this morning. 

In the book published in December of this year I wrote a poem called the Prosperity of Adversity, which I am going to include once again in my blog today.  I have had many times in my life that this poem was so fitting.  When I wrote it in the book, I didn't realize I was fixing to face some extremely strong storms once again. 

Each time I was about to give up, during the battles of the last two months, the words to the poem found their way to my lips.  Instead of spouting anger, frustration and accusing the Lord of not taking care of me, these words flowed from my lips,

"This is a bridge and not a wall."

Each string of bad events that came against me, I started reminding myself that the rocks Satan was throwing at me were not going to destroy me.  I would place them under my feet and I would use them to step higher and become a better person and not a bitter person. 

I had felt I was writing that poem for my readers, when in fact it was the very poem that carried me through the last storm. 

Lisa Villarreal was a neighbor of mine in Burkburnett whom I grew to love deeply.  She and I would go out late at night and sit on a swing that I had in our front yard.  We both have some very fond memories of those times.  She called yesterday and we were talking about how our prospective can change our whole life.  I just wished I would have learned the things I've learned this last year when I was in my early adulthood.  It could have saved myself many headaches, anger attacks and moment of deep depression.  Sometimes we feel the event we are faced with is going to destroy us when in fact,  it isn't the event that controls us, it is our prospective and how we handle the event. 

Pastor Keith made a statement last week in his sermon.

"When you go through a storm you will either make God larger or you will make him smaller."

How true is this! 

Prosperity of adversity is the greatest riches of all,

To learn that whenever bad comes our way: it's a bridge and not a wall.

The bitterness that we once had, was laid down at our feet,

They became the stepping stones of success and not a path of great defeat.

The greatest servants in the world, have learned adversity to extreme,
Learning not to focus on the hurt but focusing on Christ supreme.
Finding the Lord will always catch us, no matter how far the fall,
When it seems the bottom is falling out, on the Lord is who to call.

The bridge of crossing is easier now as we watch the waters flow,
The trials are being washed away so that we will be free to grow.
As the time passes by, so do the things that once did weigh us down,
Prosperity of adversity is not a weight, but it's a crown.

(Written by Sherry Long)
Inspired by a sermon preached by Charles Stanley