What Stories Do You Tell?

At church, the question was posed, "What kind of stories do you want to tell to your kids and grandkids, and great grandkids?"

The old sports stories are fun once in a while and the stories of fun adventures are exciting, but the stories that stand the test of time and generations gather to hear, willingly not out of obligation, are stories of God's faithfulness.

  The stories of God's faithfulness always include FAITH and a moment or a season or a decade of struggle and hardship. 

 As much as we would all like to keep our comfort level at an all-time high and our pain level at an all-time low, it seems this isn't the WAY of LIFE and it doesn't get our attention like the story of OVERCOMING the struggle and VICTORY over pain.

 I'm not a big fan of discomfort or suffering but I can tell you, in my life and in lives since the beginning of time, I see that endurance and perseverance only come after some discomfort and pain have been involved to some degree.

The stories that encourage and gather some attention over the years are stories of lives lived in faith, where God is the only WAY,  TRUTH is told, and LIFE is lived out in perseverance, not in preservation.  

We long to hear true stories of God's greatness, not embellished stories of our greatness back in the day.

Our old stories will die the minute we quit telling them, but the stories of God's faithfulness, LIFE giving, TRUTH telling stories will last for eternity.

There are a lot of days I want to take all the struggle I can away from all my loves, and I want to give them (if it were possible) a life of ease and comfort, and then I look over my own life, and it is the years and the seasons of struggle that I remember the clearest who God is, and what He has done for me, and  it is the times of struggle that brought the biggest growth and the best stories of my life.

This year has aged me in ways that don't look so great on the outside,  but I pray it is producing some strength and beauty on the inside.

I am so thankful that God has allowed my arms and heart to be full of

GRAND

 treasures from HIM!  

These are the stories I want to tell.

God is faithful!

Deuteronomy 4:9 New Living Translation (NLT)

9 “But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren.