Emphasis Preaching Journal

It seemed to Sherry that everything that could go wrong, did. Her mother was in and out of the hospital eight times during the last year. Going back and forth to the hospital took a lot of time and energy from her. At work some of her friends had been laid off, due to the slumping economy. While she was glad she still had a job, her workload increased without an increase in pay. Then there were little things around her house that needed repair. She was at wit’s end. A friend invited her to watch James A. Michener’s Centennial with her. Her friend received the DVD set as a Christmas present but no one wanted to watch it with her. Reluctantly Sherry agreed to watch the mini-series with her friend. The episode that touched her was of a pioneer woman and her daily struggles for basic necessaries of food, clothing, and shelter, all with the presence of danger. After watching the episode suddenly her problems did not seem so large. She believed that no matter what would happen to her God would see her through her difficult days. The apostle Paul reminded the church at Rome that each and everyone of them was a beloved child of God. Paul wrote “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” The challenges they faced are certainly different from what we experience in 2009, but the one constant is that we are beloved children of God.