I admit to being afraid of what the Lord thinks I can handle and consciously making my own trial by remodeling my home for four years, hoping that would be enough of a trial. I realized recently that I needed to have more faith in the Lord’s plan for me, whatever it entails. Now that my house is almost done (and yes we are talking about moving) I am starting to see how my kids may have been negatively affected in a spiritual way from all my busyness with the house. So my own trial choice may not have brought the results I wanted. (I guess I am forgetting the extremely clear answer to prayer that told me to buy this house and make the drastic changes that would make it workable for my family. It was one of those prayer experiences I share at church because when I prayed in desperation to know where to move, the address was spoken in my mind and I had written it off as too much work).

I feel that when we say to the Lord, I am ready for some action, bring it on, He just might. Because this life is the time to prepare to meet God. Justine, even though it must be frightening to have felt the Lord let go of your hand, I think you are right that he wants you to learn to walk on your own so that you can have the strength to go to Him. He loves you more than you know, and must be waiting anxiously for you to take His hand again.

Thanks for asking this question. I hope you are strengthened to bear all these trials and have everything you need. God bless.

I’m still spending my days crying when I think about my accident. The neurologist’s voice keeps echoing in my head, “you almost died.” “One more hour, and well…” “This could have easily been fatal…” I’m just so grateful to be alive, that I just want to hold my husband’s hand all day long, and kiss on my kids. The stresses of all this other stuff have been largely mitigated by that.

I’ve decided I don’t care if I asked for it or not. I just want to learn something and make something out of it. Whether it was of my own making or not, there’s no point in not making good out of it.

I just think I need to hold on to the Lord even when He’s let go of me. He let’s go so I can stretch, and if I’m not the one holding on, I’ll really be left to my own ruination.

Happy days, ladies!

Another layer of this is that I recall hearing a few times that we shouldn’t seek trials, so in that sense, I don’t think we necessarily ask for the things we get, but like someone said, I think we did in effect agree to have trials (maybe even some of our specific trials) before the veil was drawn.

The phrase, “God won’t give me any more than I can handle,” has taken on an additional meaning to many. One that means things they do experience in their life won’t be painful. That if they do the right things they’ll be protected from those things.

I think the phrase, “being stretched” is more accurately descriptive. Stretching at first produces some pain, a pinch in some cases – more if the muscle is tighter. It depends on the person and the situation. But after, if you’ve stretched properly you actually perform better, with less pain, because you stretched.

For me, sometimes the stretching has been so great that I was to the edge of what I felt I could bear. But I knew I could turn to the Lord, the experience we had strengthened and solidified that testimony.

Taking the end of the quote from m&m and this discussion another step, just as I couldn’t be the cause of what happened to my daughter I was really afraid of what was next. If life would need to get more difficult in order for me to continue learning, what the heck would be next?

That fear ate at me for a bit. It no longer does, thankfully. Not because I’m not afraid of that kind of trial, that will always be there, but perhaps because I’ve had other things since then as well that helped realize again the kind of power that truly is on our side to help see us through whatever we face.

I’m still not sure that we ask for it though. Did Job?