Patience is a Virtue…

        A girl sat on a stone bench in the middle of the forest.  God showed the girl what was on the other side of the trees, and she was pleased with what God had planned for her.  She got up from her bench, but God told her to sit back down, that the way for her to go wasn’t ready yet.  She needed to be patient.

      So gladly, for the Lord, she sat back on her bench and stared in the direction of her future. Later she noticed that a path had been marked, it was narrow and it was dark, but she didn’t mind…God was with her.  So she got up from her bench, but yet again God said, “No sit back down, not yet.”

      ”When God, when may I go.” she asked.

      “Soon.” and God went back to preparing her way.  The way He knew she would be safe.

      So the girl sat back down again and stared down the path.  And suddenly someone had appeared.  So she got up. But God said to her, “They are not ready, you are not ready, sit back down and wait.”

      So she sat back down, and folded her arms and looked the other way, away from God.  Soon she missed Him and turned back, and saw that on this dark and narrow path there were more people, scattered and in groups.  She stood again, and this time she hears nothing.  She wonders to herself…

      “God has not told me to move, but He did say soon, and it’s soon…right?”  But she had turned in her impatience and learned to ignore the whisper that she had been accustomed to, and she heard a different voice….

      “Go…go girl.” She knew it was not of the Lord, she knew it would be wrong to move, but she did so anyway.  And she started down the path that God had began.

      She walked and walked and walked, and soon she realized that her narrow path was gone, and that for a while she had been crying. In her heart it hurt. Something was missing.  So she sat on the ground and asked…

     “My God, my God, I have disobeyed you. Do you still love me?” And she just sat there with her pain and shame and loneliness.  And when she had had enough of the pain she asked God….”My God, my God, I have sinned.  Do you forgive me?”  And this time she heard something but thought it was only the wind in her little forest.  So she sat there still, and she cried a little more, and she felt her loneliness and shame close around her. So she stood and she screamed….

      “My God, My God, I have disobeyed you, I have sinned, I repent. Do you still love me; do you forgive me?  Come get me and take me to where you are, where I can be what you want once more.”  And then she saw a man coming toward her through the trees. 

      “My child, My child.”  The man said. “I am the Word, and I am here.” And he took her hand and lead her through the woods.  Along the way she noticed many that stood crying and she realized that she was on the path that God had made.  She looked to the man…

      “What must I do?” she asked.  For she knew she was the reason they cried.

      “You were not patient, you turned your back on the Father, and did not listen.” and she turned her head in shame for she knew what the man said was true. ”But He sent me, and I lived, and I died.  It is because of His love for you that I was risen.” And when the girl looked up she saw that the man was gone.

      So she said to the Lord. “My God, my God, if it is true, if we are reconciled, please tell me what I must do.” And there was a woman next to her crying.

     “Love her as I have loved you.” And she did. And when the Lord said to move she did that as well.  Then she was at the end of the forest and she looked back and saw what the Lord had done and she was filled with love and adoration and she stopped and sang praises to Him for what He had done for her. And when she was finished the Savior she had met was with her again.

       “You have pleased the Lord with your service, now come and let me show you what He has promised.” So the Savior took her hand and led her out of the Forest and there was a bench before her, with a man upon it.  “You are not done,” said the Savior, “But now you will have someone to walk with you.” So he led her to the man and the man stood and smiled into her eyes, for he knew her, and loved her. So together they sat on the bench, and when God said to move, they did….hand in hand they faced the jungle before them.

~Amanda~

Cruelty

     This is a word that should have never needed to exist.  There should never have been, not even one time in the entirety of history, a need for the word cruel, or vindictive, or brutal, nasty, pitiless, hurtful, atrocious, wicked, evil, unkind, mean, spiteful, vile, malicious.  No person should have had to go through something that would merit the invention of these words to describe someone else. But it happened.  Look at how many, and there are more.   Do you realize what those words existing mean?  It means that one action can have you labeled, one, one action that you may not even think of.

      What gives us the right to be cruel?  What gives us the right to practise cruelty?  I ask this because dear friends of mine have been hurt, and I don’t know how it happened, or what happened, or what was said, but I do know that there was pain involved.  And at first I didn’t think of it, but now I realize…for those friends to feel the pain they felt, they had to have experienced some type of cruelty.

      What makes us, anyone, so wonderful that they have the right to degrade someone?  What?  Race?  Color?  Nationality?  Religion?  WHAT!?!  Daily people kill themselves because someone, or people are so cruel to them that they feel that everyone in this world must feel the same way.  Daily people turn to vises to deal with the cruelty they suffer.  Why should they have to? 

     Growing up I have heard that people, more specifically kids, are cruel.  I was one of the ones made fun of in elementary school–luckily I am one of the strong ones that can learn from it, and choose, now, to ignore it.  But what kind of excuse is that to a child facing Hell on Earth?  “Oh, you might as well get used to it, People ARE Cruel…”

    Even I can be cruel, we all can be, we all have been.  Isn’t that horrible, isn’t it horrible that I can look at myself and see that black mark?  How about you, really look pass your own fictitious purity and perfection and see where you have caused pain.  Maybe you haven’t, maybe you are really one of those people that despite everything, despite anger and jealousy, and annoyance and can honestly look at someone and not treat them unkindly.  Bless you if you are.  But if you have even said one unkind word, reflect on that.  Maybe you ruined someones day. Maybe you added to the pain of a lost soul.  Maybe you are the last straw before the drugs, the alcohol, the sex, or suicide invade someones life. 

    One cruel, one malicious, one unkind word is all it takes to break a person; to take the innocence from a child, to harm a pure soul.  Do you want to be the one to say that word?  Have you been the one to say that word?

     There are many words synonomus to cruelty, and thus many words to describe cruel people.  You and I have the choice to adopt one of these adjectives, or to take a word that means kind.  Choose.

~Amanda~