Weathering the Storms of Life

Weathering the Storms of Life
Thursday, August 15, 2019 by Dee Lundgren MA LPC

“What happened to the trees?” I wondered as I looked out the window facing our backyard.

When we built our house in Indiana there were only a couple of trees on the acre of property.

So we needed trees. And always in search of a good deal, we bought four small maples on clearance. The bargain trees were only a few feet tall with trunks that looked more like skinny twigs. The tree trunks were supported in three places.

Bob dug four holes and planted the maples. They appeared to be doing well the first year. During the second year my husband unfastened the supports to the trunk. It was time for the young trees to stand on their own. The problem was they couldn’t stand. The trees pathetically bent over with the top of the trees on the ground.

A strange sight.

What went wrong? The trees’ trunks should have been strengthened by the Midwest snow, wind, and rain storms. Instead they were weak having been artificially supported.

This story reminds me of the lesson taught in Psalm 1. The Psalmist compares delighting in God’s word to a healthy tree. A tree able to withstand unfavorable conditions. A tree with a strong core. Unlike my bargain maples.

When we have a continual diet of God’s word we will be prepared to weather hard times

We will be spiritually resilient to hold up under the painful losses that will occur in each of our lives.

Before I lost my son, I had a steady diet of God’s word. Gradually God was deepening my spiritual roots and strengthening my core.

After my son died, God brought to mind Bible verses. Verses that ministered to my broken heart.

I was confused and hurting but I didn’t doubt that God was real. God felt especially close. I had a strange calmness in the midst of devastating loss.

Whenever I opened the Bible I would read and reread various Psalms. I found it difficult to know what to pray. Everything seemed too overwhelming. So I would find a Psalm that expressed my heart and would pray the verses back to the Lord.

Even if you have not experienced a great loss . . . now is the time to let God strengthen your spiritual core through the scriptures.

And if you have experienced tremendous loss it is never too late to find help, hope, and healing from God and His Word.

. . .. but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers (Psalm 1:2-3).

What do you find helps to strengthen you spiritually?

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Comments

Yvette From Washington, DC At 8/23/2019 9:53:14 AM

Hi Dee, Such a true testament of how the Word of God, can truly ground us to weather the storms in life. God's Word never changes and is always able to support and strengthen us through our darkest times in life. Thank you for this reminder that we are never alone. Yvette