Suffering and Hope

  I've been pondering suffering and its connection to so many good things like character building and hope for a few days now. Like the marrying of different and opposite flavors combined to form one exquisite taste, these two different and opposite states of being combine to form one divine and exquisite result. The end of a recipe that combines the tastes of sweet and sour brings delight to the taste buds and a life that combines suffering with patience and perseverance builds a persons character and brings forth hope. The best example I can think of I can draw from my own life experience. For 6 years my husband and I tried to conceive a child. I suffered physically through fertility treatments and painful surgeries and we suffered emotionally as month by month passed with negative results. The joys of friends and family having children turned to tears of empty sadness for my husband and I. We tried to be patient and flooded heaven with prayers for a child of our own. As each year passed a gentle strength began to grow in out hearts, the value and appreciation we placed on having a family increased exponentially as time marched on and fewer tears were shed as the meaning of Gods grace became more evident. One day the suffering seemed to have been replaced with acceptance of "whatever" Gods plan was for my life, A thankfulness for the blessings God had already given me replaced the empty want and peace and joy flowed into the dry cracks of my broken heart. New life flowed into my soul and I spent months basking in the warmth of the fathers love and enjoying a peace I hadn't known in quite some time and then without any effort or planning at all God placed a new life in my womb. The gift was a complete surprise. A miracle from heaven, neither earned nor   deserved but a gift of mercy and like salvation, a complete gift of grace from God. Our beautiful daughter "Hope" was born December 2nd, 1997. We were able to put her under the Christmas tree that year and celebrate the gift of "Hope" as well as the gift of Gods son, Jesus that year and every year since. Hope did come from suffering just as Gods word proclaimed in Romans 5:3. Hope continues to show he daddy and I the love of God. She is truly a child of promise and has a great ability to Love and bring hope to others as well. I have no doubt that Hope came in Gods perfect timing and had we not gone through 6 years of suffering we would not have been ready to take the responsibility of raising her in the strength and admonition of the Lord.