Hello again friends! As I explained in my last post, I took the month of December off in an attempt to celebrate the great event that is the birth of our Immanuel.
And as best as we could, we did just that. We did most of the things I had hoped we’d do. We were able to read some of our advent devotional (ahem . . . some, but it was great). We crafted with friends. I made hot chocolate (they hated it, by the way). We watched movies and let the kids stay up late. I napped and generally tried to cease from my striving.
“Don’t think that your case is unique. This popular lie questions God’s care: all sufferers are tempted to believe that their suffering is unique. This lie immediately renders all counsel irrelevant because no one understands and no advice applies. The result is that the aloneness you already experience is now an established fact, and you are given ever more permission to despair.”
2. Don’t minimize or compare your suffering. As we began to pray better as a church this past year, our pastor encouraged us not to compare or minimize our form of suffering. If we compare ours to another’s, we’ll never dare to ask God or anyone else for help or prayer. Someone else’s suffering is always worse. We forget that God cares like an attentive father and is present in suffering.
“Your decision is between calling out to the Lord or not. This is the choice that has confronted those in misery throughout history. Listen to the prophet Hosea, who wrote these words on behalf of the Lord: ‘They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds’ (Hosea 7:14). You can sit in silence or cry to the Lord. You can cry on your bed or cry to the Lord. These are the two choices.”
What will I do with my suffering? Try to figure it out? Try harder? Distract myself? Isolate myself? Or will I humble myself and cry out to my God, while letting those who care about me into my struggles?
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 [ESV]
God never wastes your struggles. What a comfort you will be to someone one day when you say, “Oh yes, me too!”
PRAYING the Word
“O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.” [Psalm 3:1-5 ESV]
*I’m so happy for you to enjoy my coloring pages and printables for your personal (not commercial) use! Use for Bible studies, church groups or events, and Sunday school classes are all fine! If you’re in doubt, I’m happy to answer any questions. All artwork and photos are copyright Marydean Draws. If you share this, you’re awesome (!), and as a courtesy, please link back to this post and not the PDF file. Thank you!!
mother of 3 says
Dear Mary's husband
I want to say thank you for believing in your wife and the gifts she has. Thank you for enabling her to blog and write and draw so that the hearts of weary mommas and burdened daughters and feeling-less-than sisters such as myself can be encouraged by her refreshing honesty, her simple praise, her creative illustrating of God's beautiful Words. Thank you for believing in her role on a greater mission field than your own home, a larger audience than own children – though certainly her ministry of motherhood-discipleship is paramount in your heart. You share her with the world, you let God speak through her fingers and pen, and the magic of the internet is the Holy Spirit's tool to bring her into my living room and breathe life and hope to the humdrum of homeschool and laundry, traveling husbands and strained in-law relationships. She is a gift, of which I am sure you well know. And I am blessed that you recognize this and support her in using her God' given gifts to make Him famous. May you both be radically blessed, and divinely protected. May your children grow to be fervent and passionate for Christ. May He take you all deeper into His love and grace as you exalt His name together.
MarydeanDraws says
Thank you–from him and from me! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤