Consider including a story in your memoir about suffering through something horrific, only to find a good outcome.
Think back to a time you experienced the weight Richter wrote of, a burden that threatened to undo you—but in the end, it led you to “pearls.”
Job knew about such suffering. He wrote that God “knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold” (Job 23:10 NLT).
A long time ago, in Streams in the Desert, Mrs. Charles E. Cowman said of that verse, “When the fire is hottest, hold still, for there will be a blessed ‘afterward;’ and with Job we may be able to say, ‘. . . I shall come forth as gold.’”
She also says “It takes eleven tons of pressure on a piano to tune it. God will tune you to harmonize with Heaven’s key-note if you stand the strain.”
And God said, “I will give them a crown [of beauty] to replace their ashes, and the oil of gladness to replace their sorrow, and clothes of praise to replace their spirit of sadness” (Isaiah 61:3, NCV).
What experiences come to mind when you read these verses?
Someone needs to know your story.
Someone needs to learn how you endured
and found that blessed afterward.
Someone needs to know specifics
about how you came to possess
your gold and pearls, beauty, gladness, and praise.
Write your stories!
There you have it, your Tuesday Tidbit.
It's true we get so inspired and encouraged by the trials and victories of others. That to me is one big plus of reading someone else's story.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Joyful! That's why we read other people's stories. God can use them to teach and mentor us and give us hope and courage. Your memoir can do that for others, too! Believe it!
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