It has taken me quite a while to write this first post. I knew what kind of content I want this blog to have, but I wasn’t sure how to begin.
I have decided to start with why I named this blog “Through It All”. We all experience trials and circumstances in our lives that make us take a step or two backward. It could be an illness, loss of a loved one (emotionally and/or physically), a financial crisis, a job loss, etc. This blog, at least in the beginning, will focus on how I began to learn how to trust God in the midst of my husband’s medical issues.
Why, you might ask, did I decide to write a blog? The short answer is that I felt God told me to. The longer answer is that my husband passed away after I had been praying for him, knew others were praying for him and I was having a hard time understanding why he still died. I began to question my faith in God. A part me understood that my husband’s days had already been determined by God (Psalm 139:16), but another part of me wondered if there was something, anything that I could have done to have changed the outcome (very self-centered of me).
I couldn’t listen to the preachers on television because it seemed that every message was about people having miraculous healings and it was adding fuel to my self-doubt.
About this time, I read a booklet by Joni Eareckson Tada, entitled “Where is My Miracle?”. That small booklet helped me to start putting things into God’s perspective. Then I came across a book that I had bought earlier, but had not read by Laura Story, entitled “When God Doesn’t Fix It”. It’s a story about what lessons she learned about herself and her relationship with God while she dealt with (and is still dealing with) the effects of her husband’s illness and disabilities. That book was very helpful to me because she asked herself the same questions that I was asking myself. I could identify with her. Each chapter ended with myths she had and truths she learned about God. She ends the book by encouraging the readers to tell people their story of how God has worked in and through their lives.
This is when the idea of a blog began to surface. At a Biblical Counseling conference, I spoke with a wonderful woman, Shari Neal, who confirmed that I needed to write down what God had shown me and taught me “through it all”.
So, here I am! Come join me as I take you on my journey of experiencing God’s love. I encourage you to add your thoughts, struggles, and stories of praise, for these are all chapters of His Story.
. . . Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. - Isaiah 43:1b-2
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. - Isaiah 48:10
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Christ Jesus: - 1 Peter 1:7
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28
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