This is a message of hope and encouragement to the ladies who heard me tell my story this morning.

For those who are simply dropping in to visit me today, let me give you a bit of background. I was a visiting speaker to a small group studying cultivating contentment. I was asked to tell a bit of my own story – how I seek contentment in my life, how I find it, how I live it out. I told the story of my dog and the lessons his devotion toward me taught me to live a life of surrender to the Master. I began by describing the conditions in the dog pound where we found our dog. I compared the life of an abandoned, lost, and neglected puppy to the human life. We too, if we are honest, have our own stories of heartache, sorrow, and fear. I said to the group of women, “How pathetic that I a human live in circumstances so like those of a dog abandoned to live in an animal shelter.”

My story is about my walk with God, how I don’t always walk well, how I listen to lies and let them destroy me, how I wish for my circumstances to change, how emotions often rule me, how I expect people to make me happy…

Then one day, I looked at my dog - - - looking at me. “He never takes his eyes off me. He is never far from me.” I realized that I did not hold my Master in such esteem. I had lots of lessons to learn, life changing lessons, in spiritual devotion.

At the end of our time together, I asked the ladies to write down those situations in their lives that represent despair, discontent, and sadness. Then I encouraged them to place the cries of their heart into the cage (a bird cage in the front of the room) and pick up the King’s battle cry – God’s command to “take up the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

I reminded them that when I took my dog out of his “cage” and asked him to walk with me, he immediately changed his attitude. He changed because he left his past behind and walked away, focused on a new life, a new future, a master who would claim him as his own. He submitted to me and chose to trust me with his life. My dog exchanged life in a cage with life devoted to me. He exchanged his bad habit of running away with a decision to remain beside me. He exchanged his way for my way.
I have just read and taken to heart the exchanges you long to make. I can relate to EVERY one. Thank you for your honesty. You are not alone. I thought you would like to know what ladies long to leave behind so they can rise to walk in dignity.

Your pain, sorrow, conflict or trouble – what ever it is – is a pearl in the making! God has allowed the irritant to enter your life and around it He is developing a story that will build you, strengthen you, and give you wisdom to encourage another. Meanwhile, take comfort in Lord’s battle cry,
Take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, believing that He will never, ever leave you or forsake you.

I know that to be true. Early this morning I began to share my story with you beginning form a point in time when I was 8. Today 5 decades later – yes that's FIFTY years later, I can stand amazed and say, “Although I have felt rejection and sorrow, experienced life-threatening troubles, cried buckets of tears over every manner of sadness, and hoped for the end to come quickly, my God has never abandoned me.”

Let today's results remind you, you are not alone.


I want to exchange my : heavy heart for joy.
-pride
-marital conflict
-life, that it might be a blessing for others
-my own ideas of life for openness and decotion
-insecurities for peace
-low self confidence for His confirmation
-attachment issues
-negativism
-guilty feelings (2)
-anxiety for trust in God
-insignificance
-feelings that I will be forgotten for God’s guidance
-disappointing relationships (2) forrestoration
-resentment
-anger (3) for His direction
-temptation
-pain for my children for moving forward with God
-fear (6) of failure, baby's death, husband leaving, not being liked, imperfection
-rejection (3) for first love
-laziness for discipline and devotion
-fatique (2)
-selfishness (2)
-discontent for content to live in the present
-doubt (2) for wisdom
-loneliness (3)
-deep family wounds
-busy life for God, family, people
-world
-emptiness
-frustration
-worry

Here is the hope: You have already been given a crown of beauty instead of ashes, oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. (Isaiah 61:3-)

Take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, believing that God will never, ever leave you or forsake you. After all, didn't he leave his throne on high and step into your space, asking, "What can I do for you?"