Posted on 18 May, 2015 at 7:05
Since I was a young girl I believed in working hard to get the things I wanted. I was fourteen years old when I worked my first summer job, and from then on I was hooked. I absolutely loved the fact that I could get the things I really wanted and did not have to bug my mother for it. Growing up in a big family you got necessities not wants. My mother had this saying when we would ask for something, and say I really want it she would reply "you're old enough for your wants not to hurt you". I knew it was not easy for her being a single mother and I didn't want to add any additional stress, so I didn't ask for much.
When I was eighteen years old I felt like I was on top of the world. I was in my senior year of high school preparing for college. I was working, going to school, able to get things I wanted, and able to help my mother out. I said to myself "Self you’re doing pretty good,hard work pays off". Then something devastating happen we had a fire and our house burnt down. We lost everything we only got out with the cloths on our back. My reaction was “oh God not again! “ This would be the third time we lost everything in a fire. Isn't it crazy how you can be on cloud nine and then have it snatched from under you? That's what it felt like someone just came and snatch everything from me. In that moment I felt like I was having part of the Job experience. I say part because thank God all of my siblings survived however Job lost his children.
When I say I went through a state of depression I'm not kidding I went through. I wanted to understand why we keep going through this, losing everything, what was the purpose? I would ask God why he allowed everything to be taken from us. Please understand that this was my teenager self who didn't look at the big picture. The grown me understands that the teenage me misspoke when she said "God allowed everything to be taken", because we still had breath in our bodies. I was comparing my experience with Job but the teenager me was looking at the lost portion of Job's story. However she neglected the portion of Job's story that talks about the double for your trouble.
When I look back over my life I can truly see that every fire that we had, and lost everything we got double for our trouble. Today I don't get torn up about the lost of stuff, because I now understand that stuff comes and goes. I understand that as long as there's life in this body I have an opportunity for the “double for your troubles” blessing. I can truly testify to that because today I not only have double I have an over flow! I'm trying to get rid of some stuff! What my teenage self had achieved my adult self superseded that and have gone to a place she couldn't imagine.
People of God listen sometimes there will be lost it's part of this life. The Bible says Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble (Job 14:1). However the Bible also says And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). If you want a double for your trouble blessing, you first have to go through the trouble!
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