"Never pray for an easier life"

"Never pray for an easier life--pray to be a stronger person. Never pray for tasks equal to your power--pray for power equal to your tasks. Then doing your work will be no miracle--you will be the miracle." Those words by Phillips Brooks were in my devotional reading yesterday. I take it as solid truth that everything that touches us (heartaches, bad news, difficult people, hard circumstances, illness) is first filtered through the loving hands that hold us. Therefore, He is both able and glad to answer our prayers for strength for life and power for our tasks.

Today I will continue to make final corrections to the SIM magazine stories according to feedback from the people involved around the world. (After I complete a draft, I always send it to the field directors and to the people who first told me the story, to be sure it's accurate and up-to-date.) This is the fine detail part of the task--not my strongest gift. So I pray that God will give me "power equal to the task"--to be sure I don't miss anything.

Maybe you can use a laugh. A dad was reading Bible stories to his young son, and read, "So this man named Lot was warned by the angel to take his wife and flee out of the city. But his wife turned back and was turned into a pillar of salt." The son looked up curiously and asked, "But Daddy, what happened to the flea?"

Thanks for praying for Chuck. He seemed to cough less last night, but he has serious pain in his chest and still has a congested head.

Blessings,
Carol