I want to remember...

On Wednesday night Jim read the following passage from 1 Peter 5:6-10, and Rhett roared: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.  Be alert and of sober mind.  Your enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." He roared, of course, because he heard the word lion.  It cracked me up, and I wanted to make sure I remembered that.  But I also want to remember what this passage, particularly the last verse, has meant to me over the years.  After my dad and grandmother passed away my senior year of college, my roommate, Ashley, had her hands full helping me get back to life and deal with my grief.  She is now a Christian counselor, and we like to joke that I was her first client.  Nothing in my life, up until that point, had tested my faith and rocked my world in such a way.  I remember walking out of the hospital on the evening of October 31, 2002, the day we buried Daddy and unexpectedly lost Mimi, and thinking, "How do people do it?  People that don't have a hope greater and higher than this world?  The hope of Jesus and eternal life in Heaven?"  The pain and sorrow of life here can be so overwhelming.  It just wouldn't be worth it without His love and grace and hope and promises.  I knew right then that I would be leaning on God to get me through, and I can tell you now that I never would have made it through without Him and the people He put in my life during that time, one of them being my soon to be husband.  And my faith was strengthened through my suffering more than I ever could have imagined.  You just don't get that kind of close to God without it, or at least I didn't.  And there is nothing, ever, that could separate me from Him.  Now, back to my verse.  One day, I came home, and Ashley had taped up on my bathroom mirror an index card with 1 Peter 5:10 handwritten on it. I couldn't tell you how many times I read that card and held onto that verse.  And still do.  It is marked in my Bible and Ashley's note card is also tucked in there.  Thank you, Ashley!  Think about it:

 "And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a LITTLE while, will Himself RESTORE you and make you STRONG, FIRM and STEADFAST."
1 Peter 5:10

So true and so powerful!  And so funny that my baby boy is alert enough during a sermon to roar like a lion.  Ha!  On a lighter note, the other day I was on the phone with Julie and she referred to Gracie as a "firecracker."  Rhett heard this and started saying "wee oo wee oo."  Can you figure that one out?  Firecracker sounds like firetruck, and he sure knows how to make a firetruck sound!  He is one smart cookie!

I know I am way behind on the blog and have a lot of posting to do.  I just didn't want to forget his "roar" and "wee oo wee oo" from this week!