Some thoughts...

The older I get, the more I realize that we were made by God and for God, and until I figure that out, life just wasn't going to make much sense.If you think about it life could very easily be viewed as a series of problems: you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
I think maybe the reason for this is that God is more interested in our character than our comfort.
God is more interested in making our life holy than He is in making our life happy.
Ya know, we can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been one of the more fulfilling years of my life; in many ways I sense a better understanding for God’s will. Yet at the same time this year has been the toughest, with our daughter, Liz, being diagnosed with leukemia.
I used to think that life was filled with a series of hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop experience, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's more like standing in the median of a highway; things are coming at you from both directions. Sometimes the heavy traffic is coming from one direction; like the hills, yet at the same time there is traffic coming at you from the other direction, the valleys. At all times you have something good and something bad working in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
We can focus on how God might choose to use you, or you can focus on our problems.
When I focus on my problems, I'm going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain. But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get my focus off myself and onto God and others.
We, (Christine & I), discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of people, God was not going to heal Liz or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her the opportunity to share her faith and spirit, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
We have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more, and to love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
I remember reading, that's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Throughout the past four months one word seems to have risen to the top, so to speak. That word is, “believe”. Tonight I would like to add to that word. A friend of Christine’s gifted Liz with a cross and on the cross it reads, “Believe, there is always darkness in the light … and know there is light in the dark.” God can use all things for good, according to His perfect will!