HOPE

Craig and I tried out a new church last Sunday--which we both really enjoyed and are looking forward to going again this week. The pastor was away, but the lady who brought the message had been diagnosed with breast cancer this past year. She was pretty young, with preteen and teenage kids. Anyways, her whole message was about HOPE, and it hasn't left me. It was such a good word, and I just wanted to pass on to my blog buddies what I have been learning this week.

Hope and faith are different. They are not the same thing. Hope was mentioned in the book of Job 16 times, and faith 0. She talked about how when she was diagnosed, she was in a meeting room at the hospital with about 10 other women (and their hubbies) who had also just been diagnosed. There was a nurse and dr. there kind of telling them what to expect and such. She said that as the nurse kept giving more and more statistics, it's like she could feel the enemy going around the room snuffing out the hope. She said she wanted to stand up and scream, "Enough with the statistics here, we need some HOPE!!" She said the feeling of hopelessness was so heavy in the room.

As Christians, we do not have to live hopeless lives!! Praise God! That word so filled my heart with joy to know that Craig and I can put in future (how or not we have more kids) totally in God's hands and wait with HOPE! And no one or nobody can take that hope away. I feel like I grabbed on to HOPE again, and I am not letting it go!! This lady also talked about how we can be the avenue God uses to bring living hope to people, but that we can only give it to the degree we have experienced it. So in my situation right now, it made me realize that I want to experience all the hope I can, so that when someone else is going through a hard time, I can help give them some hope. Does that even make any sense? It makes perfect sense to me, but I feel I am having a hard time explaining it.

So here we are....waiting and hoping!! AHHHHHHH, what a great place to be!