Teaching

If you extract the precious from the worthless you will become my spokesman. ~ Jeremiah 15:19

This has become one of my key verses. It reminds me that it's not your past that makes you significant or unique, but what you do with it. Many people have suffered things, but only a few have come forward to make a difference in the lives of others because of it. Some have done it through career choices, some through better parenting, some through sharing their testimony. My mom's favorite verse is Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." My mom was another person who was determined to make a difference in someone else's life because of what she had seen, what she had experienced. My mom is a hero to so many because she didn't let the worthless events of her past keep her down. Instead, she extracted the key points that would help her grow and then dumped the rest.

Last night, my husband and I were preparing for a teaching we will give this coming Monday. It's a subject that's taboo to discuss in many settings. We were talking abut how we would present it and he asked me if I would give my testimony. I hadn't thought about it until that moment that this would be the first time I would share my testimony with people I don't really know. At the time when we volunteered to do this teaching, the group was a lot smaller and we had walked closely with the majority of the people for two years or more. Now, however, the group is much larger and there are quite a few people I don't know. But this morning, the Holy Spirit whispered, "extract the precious from the worthless." This is an opportunity, not to shine a light on all the ways the enemy targets and attacks our marriages and lives, but to give all the glory to God, because it is only with His help and His strength that we can even be able to have a testimony to share.

Thank you, Father God, for this opportunity to give hope to somebody who might be in the midst, to share Your wisdom with those who might be on the verge, and to share Your love with everyone there, because we all need it. Lord, give us clarity of thought and speech as we give our this teaching, in hopes that it might change, encourage, or inspire even just one life. Lord it's all for Your glory that I go. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.

If God is for us, who can be against us? ... I am convinced that...[nothing] in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord. ~ Romans 8:31, 38, 39