Let it Live!

How are you feeling about your life? Have you found yourself on a path in your faith journey that you felt was going along fine only to have a set of difficult circumstances come in and devastate you, someone you love, or someone close to you?

When we are faced with harsh circumstances we may question whether we are living the way God wants us to live and wrongly believe that the harsh circumstances are evidence that God is not happy with us. We may falsely believe that bad things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people.

During tough times or when we experience substantial failures, we may feel less productive overall, and our life seems to lack meaning. Those times often make us feel like we have less value or significance, especially in the eyes of those who are closest to us.

During those times we all face a turning point when we need to decide how we evaluate our spiritual condition and consider what the hardships in our lives mean in God's eyes.

When we go through those challenging times we need to feel the embrace of the nurturing arms of God around us. God cares about us no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in, and God's care and support lead us to greater peace, rest, joy, stable presence, and renewal despite the feelings of diminishment we may experience due to the storms and stumbling in our lives.

That is why on this Children's Sabbath Sunday, we are using the themes of patience with self and others, God's time, and finding your sweetness to live a balanced life in Christ! As individuals, and even as a church family, we want nurturing and restoration when we have been depleted by life, but also forgiveness when we have made mistakes personally and in our assessment of others.

What people see on the outside when we seem weakened by life's downturns does not reveal our potential nor our desire to be fully understood not only by our missteps, but by the renewing of our minds which binds us all, of every kind, together in God's love.