LifeVerse

Greg, our minister, has been preaching on Life Verses the past couple weeks and it has gotten me to think a little about about what my life verse is. Here are the three that Greg has talked about so far:

AUGUST 8
	SAMUEL - Speak, for your servant is listening
AUGUST 15
	DAVID - It is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's
AUGUST 22
	JESUS - For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.

After thinking and praying about it, I have found that I've had a couple my whole life depending on the place where I've been. The first one that I can remember is middle school. Things were changing a lot. I was going to a new school and I had finally gotten into the Junior High youth group. We went to the Jr. High Convention and some one had mentioned Proverbs 3:5-6, which says:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight."

"Leaning on your own understanding" - when I thought of this phrase the first thing that came to mind was doing something that I want to do because I thought it was right. How many times does this happen when you're young and want to be liked? How often are you put in situations where you want to do something but what you want to do is bad? Lots! Gossiping, using bad language, dressing a particular way...the list goes on and you can probably think of many more things to add. If I would trust in God and go against the flow and do the right things, he will make my paths straight.

The second Life Verse that I remember having was when I was a freshman (or close to it). The week of camp was based upon the Petra Song "I Am On The Rock" which is from Matthew 7:24-27 which says;

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

When I was this age I was sold out for Jesus. I was a leader in the youth group and I wanted my faith to be rock solid. I'll never forget going to Alum Creek and taking pictures for the slide show that Greg used during camp. For this one picture we found this huge piece of pavement that had a huge crack in it. There were like 5 of us on each side of the crack and the picture was of the 10 of us trying to pull apart this piece of pavement. I wanted my faith to be like that. No matter what happened in my life, Satan wouldn't be able to tear me away from what I believed and that I would cling to Jesus to get me through. With Christ as my foundation I knew that I could face anything and everything.

The third Life Verse that I had came when I was a senior in high school and it directed me all the way through the time I had gotten married. It's a popular one but when I first heard it I was amazed that I hadn't found it earlier. It ended up being our senior class verse from the group I graduated with at church. It was Jeremiah 29:11 which states:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

How comforting it is to know that through whatever crap I might be going through that Christ knows how it's all going to end and that I will come out victorious if I just trust and obey Him. There were times when I didn't know what I was going to major in for college. Times when I didn't know what college I was set on. Times when I was lost and confused. God knew all along what my future held. I just needed to trust him that His ways were better than mine.

My current Life Verse came shortly after I was married. Nate and I have faced many storms throughout the course of our marriage. I'll save you the complaints and frustrations but I've learned to cling to this verse to get me through. It's Romans 5:3-5, which says:

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Through the dirt of our life God has planted great things and it has made me into what I am today. We have suffered and we were able to persevere. Because we persevered, God has built my character and helped me to be a good mom to my girls and a good wife to my husband (or so I hope :) ). With character comes hope and we learn from the end of that verse that hope doesn't disappoint us. What is hope? A general feeling that something will be fulfilled. Someone or something on which expectations are centered. To be optimistic. These are all things that we weren't at the start of our "sufferings". I'm a pessimist by nature so to actually have hope is something new that I've learned within the past few years. I have to have hope or else it's too hard to put one foot in front of the other. I guess this is why this verse is my Life Verse for this season of my life. It's one that helps direct my life. So what's yours?