Be truly glad

This morning, referring to the believers hope of Eternal Live, I read; "So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while." (1 Peter 1:6) As I stopped to question myself if I am always truly glad, I had to admit that I am not. When trials/problems confront me I do not always welcome them as something beneficial. But after they are past, usually I can look back and find something that was actually a learning and growing experience for me. Jesus, his disciples and many other godly people in the Bible had their share of problems, so why should I be exempt?

During the past couple of weeks I have been challenged with a few of those situations. A friendly family of termites decided to invade my house so they needed to be removed and the damage repaired. Shortly after that we had a heavy hail storm that did enough damage to my roof to necessitate replacing it which is still in the negotiation stages with insurance company and roofers. And I just spent an entire afternoon today at the office accomplishing basically nothing, working with a factory technician and our computer department trying to get a special printer that I use, operational again. Tomorrow we will pick up from where we left off today, hopefully getting it back on line. Every now and then I need to remind myself not to let these trivial things take away my joy!

Yesterday I spent a long day (6:00 AM to 8:30 PM) operating voting machines for our state's primary election. I was amazed how tired I was at the end of the day when we were running final documents and wrapping up things. It is always fun for me to see so many neighbors and friends at these events, and with the primary being less busy than presidential elections, there is much more time to chat. It must be all of that chatting was what tired me out.

Wednesday I have the opportunity to speak to a group at church about serving as a caregiver. I am having a difficult time distilling 2 1/2 years into a brief but helpful message for those that currently are, or may soon be in that position. Please pray that I will have wisdom to share the appropriate information that will be helpful for the group and will at the same time glorify our wonderful Lord.

Again...I am indebted to each of you that so faithfully stand by and encourage me.

Love to you all,

Chuck