Seeing God in the Hard Times by Jordyn Redwood

This time of year can be difficult for people going through hard times. Everyone on social media is posting their thirty days of gratitude and all you might want to do is put a big red "X" through every post. As a nurse, I see lives turn head over heels every day. Sometimes, in small ways, but other times in a life changing event. That day becomes the before and after day.

This was Christmas for me last year. About a week before the holiday, my grandfather unexpectedly had a stroke. Complications of the stroke are what ultimately killed him two days before Christmas.

Looking back, there were blessings during that time. Conversations and bonding happened between distant family members. I solidified with my step-grandmother how important she was to my daughters as they had never known my biological maternal grandmother as she had died when my oldest was not even six months old.

To say the least, it put a damper on the holidays. I felt slightly robbed and so I decided to leave a small Christmas tree up through the year. I only took it down this last August just before my oldest daughter's 16th birthday. It would have been just too much to explain why it was still up.

I think it's natural to ask and wonder why we are suffering. Whether illness, loss of job, loss of dreams, loss of income . . . name any type of hardship you want here. However, more often times than not, when looking back, there is some sort of blessing in the tragedy. Most often times, it has pulled us closer to God. It's helped us to recognize His domain over our lives-- that really He is the one in control (all control freaks-- you can get in my pick-up truck. This is my daily battle).

I've suffered with migraines for years. I'm doing much better now, but there are still times that they get the better of me. This was the case a few weeks ago. I had worked several night shifts and still had one more to go when I woke up in the afternoon with a crushing headache. I've never called out sick for a headache-- let alone a migraine-- but there wasn't a way I could battle through another twelve hours with that pain. Graciously, my manger let me stay home without it counting as a sick call because another nurse was able to cover.

About 10:30pm, my youngest yells down from the top of the stairs with complaints of not being able to sleep. She wants to "snuggle". Now, she is fourteen, but whatever-- I'll take these moments when I can get them. After she was settled in, she immediately begins to cry. Fifteen minutes later, I'm able to coax out of her what's been going on. She says, "Mom, I'm so glad you were home and that you were up."

Which I wouldn't have been if I'd woken up headache free.

All I could think was, "This is the reason for my pain. This is why I'm home tonight."

And I was grateful in that moment.

Recently, a friend of mine broke her arm. Because of that injury, she was able to go on a trip with her husband who needed her support emotionally. An oncology nurse once told me cancer was a blessing. I was flabbergasted and asked her why. Her statement, "In emergency medicine, death is sudden and unexpected. In oncology, we have time to say goodbye."

It may not happen right away, that clear vision that hindsight represents, but look for it during those times of hardship no matter what the season. Always remember, God does not abandon His people.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Jordyn Redwood is a pediatric nursing supervisor by night, suspense novelist by day. She hosts Redwood’s Medical Edge, a blog devoted to helping contemporary and historical authors write medically accurate fiction. Jordyn’s novels have been nominated for multiple awards and she recently won the Contemporary Romance Writers Stiletto Contest with her novel Taken Hostage. You can connect with Jordyn via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and her website.

God Reaching Out to Us Through...Flowers

Missy here. After reading Linda’s beautiful story from yesterday, it reminded me of a story about faith through one of the hardest times in my life. When I suffered a miscarriage.

I wish I could say that my faith sustained me, and that I held tight to God and His comfort. But I didn’t. I was devastated and couldn’t even pray. I was angry with God. And I thought what I’m sure most of us have thought at one time or another: God, how could You let this happen?

I truly had a crisis of faith. And when it was over (or I thought it was over), I had decided that God really wasn’t interested in being involved in our lives. I decided that God was way far out there, had set the Earth to spinning, and would take us home to heaven whenever we died. But that in the in-between time, we were on our own.

Friends tried to comfort me. One good friend bought me this gorgeous basket of mixed plants. It was mostly green plants, ivy and such. But there was also a beautiful African violet as well. It was obviously a very expensive arrangement, and I remember feeling bad because I knew she couldn’t afford it. But she said she wanted to bring me something to cheer me up. And it did it bit. Of course, I’m hard on plants, and violets have never liked me. After a few weeks, the blooms were gone, and it became a nice basket of green plants.

I don’t have time in this post to tell all the amazing ways God worked on me. But one major one was that I attended a Walk to Emmaus. And on that retreat, I found out a woman had been praying for me by name ever since I first registered—before the miscarriage. And she always burned a candle when she prayed for me. She was going to give it to me on the retreat, but my candle had burned away. It was so touching to know someone had been praying for me even before the pain of losing the baby. Even through the time when I was refusing to pray.

On that same retreat, my table leader was 8 months pregnant. Oh, talk about pain! When I walked up and saw her, I was so bitter. I wanted to crawl away and cry. But when I eventually shared with her about my loss, she wept. She said she almost hadn’t attended the retreat but felt strongly that someone needed her there, and she went anyway. She shared with me some personal things that helped me to heal. And by the time I got home from that retreat, I was in a much better place. My faith was restored, and I knew God had been with me all along, even through the dark times.

Jump ahead two and a half years. After seeing an infertility specialist, we finally got pregnant again. And this time, I delivered a beautiful baby boy, Tyler. I was so happy. But I have to admit, there was a little twinge of sadness that hung over the joyous occasion. It hurt to think of my other babies (I actually had a second miscarriage a few months after the first one). But I was very thankful as I took my son home from the hospital.

The next morning, I got up and walked through the dining room. And I couldn’t believe what I saw. For the first time in two and a half years, the violet had bloomed! I stopped in my tracks and cried my eyes out. I just knew it was a gift from God, an assurance that my other babies were with Him. It was like they (and God) were sending a welcome gift for Tyler. And a gift for me.

God is good. And He gives us what we need. He cares for us even in times when we don’t think He’s near. He touches us through other people. And He touches us by the simple blooming of a flower.

Blessings Through Adversity--Real Life & Fiction

One day my dh looked at me as I was planning a new story.
I use a spiral notebook to write out my hero and heroine personalities, backgrounds, motivations and challenges.
He looked at it and said, "You're kind of like God."
I was speechless for a few moments. Then I asked, "What do you mean?"
He said, "You plan their whole lives and know what will be best for them."
He got it.

When I plan a story, I create realistic characters, meaning they have problems, troubles from the past, and something to learn. That's the tough part--on them. As the author, I can't go easy on them. I have to keep throwing things at them, that demand change and growth. If I'm too easy on them, they won't change and they won't be prepared to receive the blessings (love) God wants for them. (And I won't have a story anyone including my editor will enjoy!)

Sometimes I will actually be too nice to my characters. I mean I'm not a mean person and I hate pulling out rug after rug from beneath my heroes and heroines. But if I'm nice, there is no story.

In my second Love Inspired, NEW MAN IN TOWN, I planned that my heroine's grandmother who raised her was deceased before the story began.

Imagine my surprise when in chapter two my heroine started driving to town to visit her grandmother at the local nursing home. I grabbed the steering wheel and said, "Hey! She's at the cemetery!"
My heroine wouldn't give in and there she was going into the nursing home. Then I knew why I had tried to rid my heroine of her grandmother, her "Mommy Dearest" grandmother. The grandmother was the villain!

And I didn't want her messing with my hero and heroine's lives. And interestingly, that book brought me the most readers letters. Every woman wanted to tell me about a manipulating, conniving, self-centered women in their lives. So without Grandma Dearest the story would not have had the impact it did. It wouldn't have forced my heroine to see her grandmother for what she was and to begin to have a relationship with her dad and his second wife and her half-sister. And she wouldn't have been ready to have a grownup love with the hero.

I don't know what challenges are in your life right now. Illness, unemployment, prodigal children, mourning. Life is never easy for anyone. I've learned over the years never to look at someone else and say--"Oh, she has it easy."

We all have our public faces and our private suffering. EVERYONE. No one gets through this life without paying hefty dues.

The secret is that if you love the Lord, the suffering is always for a purpose.

He doesn't torture us for the fun of it. He loves us enough to force us out of our comfort zones and sometimes He's pretty rough with us.

Especially if we resist change. Better to go with Him and find out in the end what the purpose of the present challenge was.

A friendly warning--learn whatever truth or change is necessary the first time you're confronted with it. Don't make God give you a make-up assignment!

"For we know that all things work together for good for those called according to His purpose"!

God loves us enough, not to let life be so easy we remain immature. He loves us enough to make us grow up! And be more like Him.