“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4 ESV)
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12 ESV)
So, for my last birthday (December 31,2023) my granddaughter Heather bought me a book which is called “Legacy Journal, A Generational Story,” only I am the one who writes the book. For it asked me all kinds of questions about my family tree, and who my parents and grandparents were, and who my siblings and spouse and children were/are. And it asked me about my memories, and places I have lived, and people I have known, and things I have experienced in life, and other such things as this.
So, I took a couple of days to answer all the questions in the book. And then it recommended including pictures, too, so I searched through my photographs and I came up with about 45 pictures. But I wanted the pictures to go right along with what I was writing, and so I decided to make the book digital (computerized), as well as on paper. So I scanned all the handwritten pages of the book into my phone and saved them as jpgs, and then I scanned all the photographs into my phone as well.
But I struggled to find just the right computer software package for me to make this book into computerized format and not just on paper. And although I am good at some things with computers, with other things I am not, and sometimes I get a little frustrated when I can’t make things work like I think they ought to, partly because of my lack of confidence in my ability to figure it out. But I called my husband to the rescue and he helped some and then I found something that worked and so I created the book.
But I also wanted to have pictures to put in the book that’s in paper format, and so I went to the pharmacy and I printed off all the pictures I had selected to go into the book so that I could put them in the paper version of the book, too. Now, I have never been good about organizing any of my pictures nor have I been good about identifying the people in the pictures. So I decided that I needed to write on the back of the pictures who the people were in the pictures, and then I stacked the pictures together.
What I did not realize, though, is that the pen I used had ink that smears easily, and so what I also didn’t realize is, that by stacking the pictures together, the ink from what I wrote on the back of the pictures was now smeared on the front of the pictures on people’s faces. And this is what I was doing right before I sat down to see what the passage of Scripture was for today for me to write on, and the passage was about trials of various kinds. And so I believe the Lord had that happen this way for a reason.
But one more thing. I had not had new eyeglasses in seven years, but I wasn’t really needing new ones until after I was sick last January with what they called Covid, where I could hardly eat anything for a month, and then I lost about half of my hair, and I was very sickly for about six months before I really began looking healthy again and feeling healthy. But we can only get eye exams once a year for our insurance to pay, so I waited until this past November to have my eyes checked.
My husband’s eyeglasses came in a week ago, but only one pair of mine had come in a week later, and I am still waiting on the second pair (my computer glasses). So that has been a little bit of a trial. Also, in the new glasses they made for me, the bifocal part of my progressive lenses is too low, and so I am having to tilt my head back to be able to read something I am holding in my hands. And so the lady who does the eyeglasses tried adjusting the nose pieces on the eyeglasses, but that is not working. So I will have to go back, and we may have to have them redone. We will see how that goes.
So why am I telling you all of this? I believe the Lord has had me going through these little trials this week with the eyeglasses, and with trying to find a computer package to work for me, and with me messing up the photographs to where I will need to reprint most of them now, in order to give examples of the kinds of trials that we may go through in this life. For not all trials are the big ones like a death in the family or a hurricane wiping out your home. And sometimes it is the little ones that get to us more.
So, when we read about trials we have to remember that this is speaking of these little ones, too, which sometimes sneak up on us and take us by surprise. So we have to be prepared for even the little ones, for sometimes they have more of a chance of unsettling us than even some of the bigger ones. And we are to count it all joy even when these little trials come our way, and we are not to let them frustrate us. Sometimes we have to just laugh, really. For all these little trials are here to test our faith, too.
And a trial doesn’t have to be huge to get to us, either. Sometimes it’s the little ones that get to us more if we aren’t guarded and ready and prepared for them. So, even these little things have the potential of bringing out the flesh in us if we are not careful, and so we need to be careful that we respond to them in the right way and not the wrong way.
So, I will wait patiently for my second pair of glasses, and I will wait patiently to get my new glasses adjusted to where I can read through them, and I will go to the pharmacy and reprint the photographs and do so joyfully.
Video Talk
https://youtu.be/B4jTIsAbYDk
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Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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