April 3, 2013 Greetings My Friend, It is the week after Easter so the question I have is “Have you thought of a journey with the Lord?” I don’t think I can state often enough the importance of a faith journey in the Lord. It is a decision that can affect you for eternity. To me eternity is hard to wrap my brain around. I have lived 59 years and that seems forever and ever. Eternity is longer yet. I like that when we die we go onto something else. It sustains me. Even living this life for eternity and the lessons we need to live forever and ever sustain me. The teacher who taught over the radio that we are living in redemptive time helps me to keep on keeping on. I find life very sobering when I realize we can choose our eternity. We can accept Jesus and the cross or reject it. God gives us the choice. Accepting Jesus means a life of “No more pain, sorrow or tears.” That thought sustains me often. Sometimes this life’s trails can overwhelm me big time. I find myself wanting to give up and go sit in a corner and suck my thumb till the end comes. As I read the Bible and learn that hell won’t be a fun place to live I find myself trying to tell the good news of Jesus’ life and the cross. I don’t want my worst enemy to endure that. I really don’t which always surprises me. I have been treated badly by some people. I don’t care if I ever see them again but I don’t want them to live in hell and I want to offer them the hope I have. I believe that the Bible is the truth the real truth and in it I find God and His love for me , for His creation that fell from grace. When I was in the midst of abuse I always felt that if “He” needed to hit me then I should “turn the other cheek.” As I have left abuse behind me I realize that Jesus did not let others abuse him for the fun of it. Jesus often told them what he thought in a very straight forward manner. Jesus did endure the pain of the cross for us. He did it so we would have a way into heaven and an eternity with God. Once I have given my heart to God then God begins to do a work in me. I love that as well. I am not the Janet of 30 years ago. I am not the Janet that allowed Him to punch me in the face, the stinging words and the like. I will tell people the truth and I try hard to not knock people over with the harsh facts just to blow them away. I learned “truth in love.” That is my goal these days to always tell the truth in love. It does not mean beat someone up for the sake of being mean and telling the truth. I like living “truth in love.” The more I learn truth in love then I don’t find myself getting back just to get back at someone. I don’t say mean things in truth to watch another feel pain. I don’t like to do that. I do love people enough to tell the truth in a gentle manner though. Junior can be blunt about truth. He isn’t doing it to be mean. He is trying to be honest even if the answer hurts from time to time. For me I like to be tender all the time so I tend to watch how I say things the best I can. I try to say the hard truth with as much compassion as I can. Junior has lived a rough life with a very rough crowd and sometimes the only way they can “hear” what you are saying is by speaking the way they talk. I can’t do that. I don’t want to do that. I am not a rough person by nature and I cherish a gentle approach. It is who I am. I marvel at my relationship with God. God had me figured out long before I had me figured out. If people get tough with me I usually will get an attitude and not listen. It is the way I am made. God has known this about me from the beginning. I find it amazing. I have grown in God’s tender love of me. He knows I will quit listening when I am strong armed. I have learned more in the hugs than I ever learned in the beatings. It is how I am. Junior knows this as well about me. If he wants me to get something done then he will speak to me gently and ask for it. I will come through more often this way than if he berates me. When I retired and my health kept going south for a while I found myself sleeping and sitting a whole lot. I have realized that I am not being lazy for the sake of being lazy. Junior kept telling me I was lazy. As we see my health issues continue to come under control we see me moving about more and doing more. I truly do what I can when I can and then there are days I do nothing more than sit. Headaches, digestive struggles and even my tendency to fall at the drop of a hat have plagued me these past few years. So I have learned to do what I can when I can and sit when I can’t. I marvel that God knows each of us so personally that He knows when to be tough and when to be gentle. It amazes me. I have grown so much with God’s tender hand on me. I let go of strongholds and move on with God’s tender hand on me. I reach out to others with the love I’ve been given so I may not be the one to speak to a rough character but I am the comfort a person may need for their struggle. I helped M a long time ago. She reached out when she was getting beat up and we went to Celebrate Recovery and she was able to leave her abuser behind. We have a tender heart because we know the sting of abuse and we hold each other up often. She is a sister in many ways to me. She understands when I have a fearful moment and she can generally talk me back to the present when I need help. I want to ask “Have you given God your heart yet? Is it time?” May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you. Love Janet