encouragement

people go through a lot of stuff in their lives. i'm beginning to realize that i'm presented with very similar sets of challenges each time. i may be wrong, but i feel like God allows this to happen so that i may be strengthened in my areas of weakness. a friend encouraged me with a word from the Lord on how my Father's heart is towards me: God's heart is full of an overwhelming sense of love that a parent gets when they are watching their child learn to ride a bike, or maybe how to read. The parent helps and shows the child how to do it, but the child fails (or falls) alot before they get it. But, the parent sees them succeed a little bit more every time and knows that they will get it eventually. The payoff is worth all of the scraped knees and hours of "how now brown cow..." Just like life. Each time a struggle is overcome, I carry the lessons with me and deal with it better the next time. My Father sees the end result, and he is preparing me to receive the prize. He's teaching me about grace. He's pouring out love and strength. He's reminding me of how much i mean to him. He's pointing me in the right direction the whole time.... and each time i mess up, i learn to listen to him better.... i learn to ask him how to walk through it in the first place.