We like the good...
Illustration
Object:
We like the good times, but we are not so sure about the bad times. We like to get our degree in college, but we are not always happy about the long time of hard work and stress that we have to endure for it. Then the suffering may go on while we are trying to find a job to pay for the cost! We wonder when these ups and downs will ever end. This passage tells us that they never will! There will always be good times and bad times.
It was suggested to me that I keep a diary. Then I could look at it when things were bad and see that I overcame them. When things were good, I could be warned to prepare myself for the struggles yet to come.
I had a group in one church write down the highs and lows of their lives. Then I asked them to mark the times they felt closest to the Lord. They all wrote that they felt closer to God when things were bad. They needed him, and they also knew that he would understand!
The burdens God has laid on us will bring us closer to him. We will know that everything beautiful will come in its good time! It can teach us that dreaded thing called patience!
I subscribe to a magazine called Reminisce. It is mainly for older folks who like to look back to their past. It emphasizes the good times, but it still brings back memories of all those other times that this passage points out.
There is a time to be born and a time to die. We don't mind the first, but why do things have to end? When we can't look ahead and see God's great reward for us it makes it hard to accept, but then we realize that when that time comes there will be no downsides! It will be unending joy! It will be totally different than life here with its ups and downs.
That list of ups and downs will give us something to meditate on for the rest of our lives. Some people living today can't remember a time when there was no war. We wonder when or if there will ever be a time of peace.
One thing that makes it hard is the television news where there seems to be a war somewhere in the world every day! We need to remember times when there was peace for the U.S. like between WWI and WWII and the next few wars. It is hard for some soldiers to remember, but it is important to remember the ups and downs and thank God for being with us in the downs and thank him for the ups!
It was suggested to me that I keep a diary. Then I could look at it when things were bad and see that I overcame them. When things were good, I could be warned to prepare myself for the struggles yet to come.
I had a group in one church write down the highs and lows of their lives. Then I asked them to mark the times they felt closest to the Lord. They all wrote that they felt closer to God when things were bad. They needed him, and they also knew that he would understand!
The burdens God has laid on us will bring us closer to him. We will know that everything beautiful will come in its good time! It can teach us that dreaded thing called patience!
I subscribe to a magazine called Reminisce. It is mainly for older folks who like to look back to their past. It emphasizes the good times, but it still brings back memories of all those other times that this passage points out.
There is a time to be born and a time to die. We don't mind the first, but why do things have to end? When we can't look ahead and see God's great reward for us it makes it hard to accept, but then we realize that when that time comes there will be no downsides! It will be unending joy! It will be totally different than life here with its ups and downs.
That list of ups and downs will give us something to meditate on for the rest of our lives. Some people living today can't remember a time when there was no war. We wonder when or if there will ever be a time of peace.
One thing that makes it hard is the television news where there seems to be a war somewhere in the world every day! We need to remember times when there was peace for the U.S. like between WWI and WWII and the next few wars. It is hard for some soldiers to remember, but it is important to remember the ups and downs and thank God for being with us in the downs and thank him for the ups!
