livin'

PERSEVERANCE: "steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success"

So I've been thinking about this conversation I had with a friend earlier this week. We were talking about going through hard time in life and having a lot of decisions to make; things that anyone might be faced with. He told me that something he's been learning/thinking about is how often when faced with difficult times we (as christians) resort to praying it away. By that I mean, praying that God would "fix it", "take it away", "make it better", you get the idea.....but something he's been challenged to do is to, instead, pray that God would give him the strength to push through the hard times, live in the tension for a while, and find God in the midst of it. There is always something to be learned.
I feel like this is so true. We live in a world of quick fixes that don't really, in the end, fix anything. We seek immediate results and pill popping relief. How quickly we forget the things we've learned, character we've gained, and our relationship with God deepened by the times we've pushed through.
It's just something I've been thinking about a lot. I'd like to better at persevering.

posted by Amanda @ 5:13 PM