A Truth Revealed By YouTube

I just visited my dear friend Elizabeth's blog and saw this YouTube video which got me thinking about where I am in my relationship with the Lord. What do I do in the storm? Where do I get my shelter? Sadly the truth is that I have stopped looking for shelter. You see, for quite a while it has seemed that I have found comfort and shelter under an umbrella, yet just as I start to get dry under that umbrella I find a puddle, and I find that I am engulfed in the storm once again. So, several puddles later I find myself avoiding the umbrella all together. I no longer trust the umbrella to protect. I trust the storm.

Forgive me Father for avoiding you. I have trusted my circumstances more than I have trusted you. You have proven yourself over and over again, to be gentle, loving, and protective yet I have allowed the lack of change in my situation to convince me that you don't really care. You are bigger than any storm I may encounter and I will trust you to protect me, to care for me, to love me. Thank you Lord for opening my eyes to the condition of my heart.

I'm Just a Blogger Newbie

Well, I'm starting to figure out how to add to and change the look of my blog, which has been pretty fun so far. I know for sure that I've not figured out all the cool things you can do here, so here's the question of the day...What is your favorite blog trick? Something that helps set your blog apart from everyone else's, or something that just makes your blog look cool.

An explanation

"A Journey Toward Hope," the title of this blog, sums up my walk with the Lord. My journey with Him has been one out of despair, and hopelessness into a hope resting upon Him; His love, His faithfulness, His trustworthiness, His gentleness, His forgiveness.

Hope for me was once a "four letter" word. To hope was to set yourself up for disappointment, and I learned at a young age that I did not like the pain that came with disappointment, so my solution was to give up hope. I no longer allowed myself to get excited about the things that could be, only the things that are guaranteed to happen. As we all know, there are very few guarantees in life, so I did not get excited all that often.

It has taken me a long time to learn that hope is not a bad thing, as long as I place my hope in the right things, namely my Heavenly Father, my Abba. And in trusting Him, He has traded the ashes of hopelessness I brought to Him, with a beautiful garland of HOPE!