Much has happened in my 39 years, in more recent times I have changed, I have grown spiritually and been strengthened by life’s challenges.  What has changed most significantly is my response to the challenges I face. Life has many lessons to teach if we are a willing student, by God’s grace I have learned to respond by trusting in His promises. Despite what my circumstances look like, no matter how hard life gets, He is still in control and He can be trusted. As you read the following poem I pray you also shall heed to the beck and call of Jesus, as you do, may you gain confidence and assurance that He holds you in the palm of His hand… never shall He let you go.

I have been through the valley of weeping,                                                                                                            

The valley of sorrow and pain,                                                                                                                         

But the “God of all comfort” was with me,                                                                                                     

 At hand to uphold and sustain.

As the earth needs the clouds and sunshine,                                                                                                      

Our souls need both sorrow and joy;  

                                                                                                             

 So He places us oft in the furnace,                                                                                                                  

The dross from the gold to destroy.

When he leads thro’ some valley of trouble,                                                                                                         

His omnipotent hand we trace;                                                                                                                                   

For the trials and sorrows He sends us,                                                                                                                   

Are part of His lessons in grace.

Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning,                                                                                              

Forgetting the Husbandman knows                                                                                                               

 That the deeper the cutting and paring,                                                                                                                 

The richer the cluster grows.

Well He knows that affliction is needed;                                                                                                                    

He has a wise purpose in view,                                                                                                                                

  And in the dark valley He whispers,                                                                                                              

“Hereafter Thou’lt know what I do.”

As we travel thro’ life’s shadow’d valley,                                                                                                           

Fresh springs of His love ever rise;                                                                                                                          

And we learn that our sorrows and losses,                                                                                                              

Are blessings just sent in disguise.

 

So we’ll follow wherever He leadeth,                                                                                                                        

 Let the path be dreary or bright;                                                                                                                                

For we’ve proved that our God can give comfort;                                                                                                   

Our God can give songs in the night.

Streams in the Desert, Zondervan Corporation, 1996, p. 239