1 Peter 1

Hey Quest, I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

So here are some pretty cool things from 1 Peter 1:

1 Peter 1:6-7 ~ "In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." I love these verses so much because they are so encouraging and uplifting. The truth is, we're ALL going to go through struggle after struggle after struggle in our lives. What really matters is how we handle them, how we react to these struggles. They are really God's ways of testing ("the genuineness of") our faith. And they almost always make us and our faith even stronger...so something good can definitely come out of something bad. "Every set back in life is a chance to rise up even stronger."

Here's part of a poem that goes along with/has the same message as 1 Peter 1:6-7. It's called "Heavy" by Mary Oliver...

That time
I thought I could not
go any closer to grief
without dying

I went closer,
and I did not die.
Surely God
had His hand in this,

....................

Then said my friend Daniel
(brave even among lions),
"It's not the weight you carry

but how you carry it-
books, bricks, grief-
it's all in the way
you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not,
put it down."
So I went practicing,
Have you noticed?

Have you heard
the laughter
that comes, now and again,
out of my startled mouth?...


1 Peter 1:22 ~ "Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a [pure] heart." This is the verse that Whitley put on my award for "sincere spirit" at camp. Always remeber the importance of sincerely and genuinely loving one another. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ~ Plato

Hopefully more people will start reading/posting on the blog again... :/
And are there any prayer requests out there?

God bless! And happy 2010. (:
-Haley