Where does your satisfaction lie? My husband reminded me lately that my satisfaction needs to come solely from God. Both of us come from a broken world with broken people who hurt each other and can’t love each other perfectly. We try the best we can in our humanness, but only God can give me […]
Thank you, Bethany, for sharing your story with us! Tell us about yourself! Hello! My name is Bethany Lacock. I’ve been married about 10 months and my husband, TJ, and I live in Watertown, WI. TJ is a dorm supervisor at Maranatha Baptist University. I am currently a nanny in a little town about 10 […]
We’re so excited to start a new series! Between other, more devotional-type posts, we’ll be sharing the personal testimonies of women who are (or have been) in the valley of chronic illness. We hope their stories and words of encouragement can be a blessing to you! Launching this series for us is Lorraine. Thank you, […]
“A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices” John S. Dwight, “O Holy Night” When you’re weary, celebration feels overwhelming. Impossible, even. When you already feel poured out and drained dry, how can you muster up the energy to throw a party, much less decorate, dress up, find a gift, or even simply smile? And […]
In Fiction: A Type of Christ’s Sufferings I recently read one of my favorite series, a YA fantasy series by Megan Whalen Turner. In the second book, one of the main characters suffers a severe injury that leaves him permanently handicapped. He spends the rest of the book struggling through the physical and emotional aftermath […]
Snip. “Ouch! Mr. Husbandman, why did you just cut one of my stems off? I especially liked that one. I loved admiring it and wanted to keep and treasure it always. Why did you take from me what I valued so much?” “Because, dear branch, that stem was hampering new growth. If I had left […]
“So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.” Job 2:13 The book of Job, while offering a study of human suffering, also presents a study of human emotion, particularly the emotions experienced […]
We study the life of Job with the gift of perspective: we know how his story ends. We know what goes on behind the scenes. We know, as readers, what he as the main character never learns in his lifetime, a biblical study of dramatic irony. We watch and learn from his life like […]
We’ve already looked at Job’s response when he lost his possessions, his family, and his health. He responded with humble worship not only because he had a right perspective of God, but also because he had placed his security in God. His security was not in this world. Not in his possessions, not in his […]
After Job’s expression of worship in Chapter 2, his next speech is a poetic curse on the day of his birth: “Why did I not die at birth?Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?. . .Why is light given to him who is in misery,And life to the bitter in soul […]
The Valley