Tag: hard times

Marriage Ordained by God

On By vickleaIn marriage, Scripture6 Comments

My husband Harry and I have been married 51 years. When we had our fiftieth anniversary, we had a trip planned to travel by train and see the western part of the United States. Unfortunately, my health had other plans for me. Nevertheless, we celebrated quietly together. No one knows except the two of us all of the struggles we have had to overcome to stay together. Our adversity started before we were even married since my mom didn’t approve of Harry and did everything she could to dissuade me from marrying him.

Then, the military kept us separated for years. We moved, I stayed in new housing and Harry was deployed, sometimes for nine or ten months at a time. We figured out that we had actually been together physically a little over half the time that we have been married.

We persevered through it all, especially the disagreements that we had over how to live, where to live and other daily decisions. I had gotten used to doing everything and when Harry retired from the military, he wanted to take over and I just wasn’t ready to give up control. So, yeah, lots of problems.

Still, we stayed together, in spite of all of our difficulties and hard times. Why bother? After all, I was alone most of the time anyway and had learned to lean on God and not my absentee husband. The answer lies in the scripture above. God brought the woman to man; God ordained the union. We both believe that God brought us together (meeting on a bus, no less) and that He has been with us through everything…three children born in three different states, twenty five moves and eleven different states plus D.C. and now ten grandchildren. He has never forsaken either of us. We are companions for life because that is what God made us. He gave me to Harry, but He also gave Harry to me.

Devotion is most evident when you least expect it. Like when I had a massive stroke and was in ICU for several days. The doctors told Harry that there was nothing he could do, he should go home and rest. Instead, he settled down on the floor with a pillow and slept next to me. There was no chair or other place he could sit since ICU visits were supposed to be short. But he refused to leave me, telling them that hospitals scared me and he was not going to leave me alone there. He also quit his job so he could be at home with me, taking social security early.

God knows we have needed each other. When Harry was floundering for a new career after leaving the military, I was his encourager and his help for online job searches. I am still his tech support, in spite of my lack of a lot of knowledge.

God ordained marriage, one man and one woman for life. That is what Harry and I believe and we are committed to our vows before God and to each other “until death do us part.”

Betrayed by Family

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/26293/day/3

Oh, my! The story of Joseph has a happy ending but not before he goes through some really rough times. I can identify with Joseph because of events in my family when I first got married. I won’t bore you with the whole story but suffice it to say that my dad was in trouble and dragged my mom and younger siblings along with him to escape justice (at least for a while). I felt alone and adrift, pregnant with my first baby and not knowing where my family was for over two years. I was a new Christian, too, and I think the Lord is who saved my sanity during these hard times. My siblings were 19, 11 and 5 and I didn’t even know that they were okay. My mom wrote me a letter after two years were over and we visited them in FL, introduced them to their new granddaughter and tried to pretend that all was okay. But my trust for my father was gone…poof! I kept waiting for a second shoe to drop and more revelations about his past. It took many years but I finally came to forgive him and helped most of my siblings to forgive him, too. My dad fell off his pedestal and the harsh reality of drug addiction and all of the evil that comes along with it changed my life for many years after that.

I think that we all have skeletons in our closet that we don’t really like to talk about or remember. But reading the story of Joseph and how God used his hard times to make him stronger and use him for a greater purpose reminded me of all I had gone through and how God carried me most of the way.

Follow God Past Your Understanding

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/46391/day/2

With our finite minds, it is hard for us to understand when hard times come and God seems silent. He isn’t silent ever; rather, I think He is waiting for us to quiet our own hearts and minds so that we can hear His voice directing us. There is so much more to what is going on in our lives than what we can see. But our spiritual eyes have to be opened to appreciate God’s working things out for us. Thus begins the journey of faith and trust.

Finding Joy in the Hard Times

On By vickleaIn Dr. Denison’s Forum, Quotation and Citations, Scripture1 Comment

I haven’t written a lot about what has been going on in my life recently because I didn’t want to share how hard things suddenly became for me. We went to our son’s house on Thanksgiving and I ended up staying for two additional weeks to do childcare, similar to what I did last year. The difference this year is twofold: one, I had not prepared to stay, so I did not have a lot of my warm things with me; and two, the infant is now a very active toddler and my seven decades have difficulty keeping up with him. I have been home this week as my son and his family celebrate at Disney. I am so blessed to be home for almost two weeks, spending time with my beloved kitty and my even more loved spouse, taking care of errands and just settling comfortably into my chair with a warm blanket tucked around me. Next week I return to Maryland and my duties there. Yes, the work is harder for me than I want it to be, but God is allowing me to be a witness for a season, so I am trying to approach the situation with joy. My husband will be with me for Christmas and then he will come back to Virginia for the month of January while I remain behind.

One of the offshoots of my stay there has been higher blood pressure, a condition that my nephrologist wants me to get under control because of the effect on my single kidney. So one of the first things I did when I returned home was schedule an appointment to see my cardiologist. I saw the physician’s assistant instead and received a prescription for a new medicine to add to my Beta blocker. Unfortunately, I reacted badly to the medicine with some rough side effects, so now I am awaiting word from the doctor’s office about what, if anything, I should do next. Meanwhile, I am praying and hoping that the high blood pressure will pass and I will level out again. As my husband said, I am anxious about my numbers as I take the reading each day, so it is not a surprise when they are higher. I am trying to control my thoughts and thus my hypertension, but I’m not too good at it.

I read in Dr. Denison’s Forum today about joy and was happy to discover a quotation from Henry Nouwen. I hope that it speaks to you as it spoke to me. I encourage you to follow the link to Dr. Denison’s post and to sign up for his Forum. He gives a refreshingly Biblical insight into current events! Dr. Denison’s Forum

Henri Nouwen observed: “Joy does not come from positive predictions about the state of the world. It does not depend on the ups and downs of the circumstances of our lives. Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world. Jesus says it loudly and clearly: ‘In the world you will have troubles, but rejoice, I have overcome the world.’

“The surprise is not that, unexpectedly, things turn out better than expected. No, the real surprise is that God’s light is more real than all the darkness, that God’s truth is more powerful than all human lies, that God’s love is stronger than death.

Joy is not based on circumstances, but on the unwavering truth of God’s Word. And that is a fact that I can live with!

Have a blessed day and may you find joy and peace in your life, no matter the circumstances.

Thankful for the Hard Times

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song, testimony4 Comments

When things get hard, I get closer to the Lord. I push in and almost try to become a part of Him as I pray, sing, whatever I have to do to get as close as possible to the only one that I know can help me.

This morning, I read the testimony of a young woman who went to be with the Lord in February. Her dream was to sing for a wide audience and sing she did, with all of her heart, on an American show on which she was a favorite. She never got to win the final prize or record in a big studio or become famous because she died. But it is her testimony of how she faced the hard times of cancer, and a husband who left her in the midst of her illness, that has stayed with people and crossed the internet repeatedly. I share that with you today just to ponder if you, too, think that you should be thankful in the hard times.

God Is On the Bathroom Floor

The testimony is not perfectly written, but it is heart-wrenching and a true testament of turning to God when things get hard. I cannot imagine what this lovely soul went through, but I know that she went through it with God.

It has always been easier to be thankful when things are going well, when the sky is blue, the weather is perfect, the kids are all healthy and other relationships are in the right place. But that is when I have found that sometimes I forget to be thankful, just because everything is so good. Then, along comes something difficult: a lost job, a staggering economy with high prices, illness, or any number of other things. At those times, I don’t hesitate to go before the Lord and thank Him for His guidance, provision and love. So, why am I (and probably you) so accustomed to going to God readily in the hard times? Because we know that He is our shelter, the only real refuge we have from the onslaught that is life.

I have never suffered as Nightbirde did, but I have faced hard times. And I know that the only answer is finding and holding on to faith in God, no matter whether you find Him in the bathroom, your bedroom or out walking around in the woods. In a world that is spinning out of control, I am thankful that God is stable and holds out His hand to each of us to keep us stable, too. God holds us up if we just call on Him. Our call starts with thanksgiving for His loving presence, in the good times, in the hard times, at all times.

“Hold On To Me “ by Lauren Daigle