Struggles in life can wear us down, break us and make us weary. I know people who are struggling with health conditions right now and fighting to get through them and just get back to living life with the people they love. Some are struggling in grief as they have lost someone they love to death. There’s also the practical issue of living costs which have risen to the point of increased stress of how are we going to pay bills and buy food. Speaking from personal experience, I tried so hard to make a difficult relationship work out, I became tired and truly exhausted. I thought if I could just be good enough that I could make my first marriage work out.

When we face hard situations and challenges in life where do we turn for help? Most of the time we don’t have much control over any of it. You can be the healthiest person and still face a diagnosis that makes you question your own mortality. The economy is like a crazy roller coaster, you can do everything right and still struggle financially. Relationships are hard, people are naturally selfish and families suffer dysfunction and chaos because of it. Marriages break up and kids live in broken homes.

I have lived through a lot of heartbreaking situations, many because of my own choices and many because of other people’s choices or just by chance because we live in a fallen world where the results of sin affects all of humanity. I was a very broken young woman who had a difficult childhood of feeling voids of not having a father and watching my mom struggle as a single mom, then becoming involved in a bad relationship that caused her to be depressed. I never knew what a healthy home looked like because of the brokenness of the grown ups in my life. In turn I made choices that affected my children. Generational dysfunction really has a snowball effect in our lives and the lives of our children.

As I left my childhood home of chaos I found myself in an unhealthy marriage where fear and domestic abuse was the norm. I was constantly trying to make things work out, fighting for peace and harmony, hoping for a better life for my children. I felt hopeless like I was beating against the wind and getting nowhere. Then one day I started reaching out to God, I didn’t even know how to pray, but I was desperate. One thing I know for sure is that if you reach out to God, He sees and hears you.

My life began to change when I turned to God, when I began to be still, stop my struggling to control things and listen for God’s voice in my life. I’m not talking about an audible voice, I’m talking about listening with the heart to find first and foremost that I was completely loved by God. I read the Bible, starting with the gospels which are the stories about Jesus coming into the world to love us and save us from sin and brokenness. Wow, my eyes were opened and I began to see clearly.

It took years of walking out my faith, learning, growing, failing and getting back up. Breaking free from dysfunctional and co-dependent behaviors. Becoming emotionally healthy takes time and commitment to walking in the truth of God’s word. Hope comes through the light of God’s love in the darkness of this world.

1 Peter 1:3-9 “Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can NEVER perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result, the salvation of your souls.”

Living hope is what we need to face the struggles of life here in the world. No one person is immune from facing the trials of life. Through faith in God we realize all these things are temporary in the light of eternity and the number one gift God has given us is Jesus and His love. We can trust that God is with us as we walk through the trials.

Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest…”Matthew 11:28

Rest in His love for you my friends, He will guide you and comfort you no matter what you are facing at this moment in time or no matter what comes your way up ahead. I have found peace in the midst of every storm that I have weathered and one day there will be no more tears. Until that day comes, because Jesus lives, I can face every tomorrow with joy even when it’s raining. May His light shine through us as we live for Him and bring comfort and encourage one another during times of struggles.

In His Peace,

Sharon Kay