MAKING PEARLS OUT OF PROBLEMS!


I have spoken alot over the last year about trials and tribulations in my life. Now let me say this first of all... I have led a tremendous life , one full of great experiences. I had a fantastic family ( and still do ) growing up , I have had amazing jobs, I have had amazing friends. But I have addressed some of the harder things I endured as well to show my life has not just been peaches and creme. Not once was it to get pity or to make it seem I have had a hard life. But rather to give someone who perhaps is dealing with the same things I have endured , the hope of knowing God is always in Control and to just trust him to get you through it. And also to give my life some reality, as I am not sure there is anyone out there who has led a stress free, drama free , problem free life.

However , my point in sharing so much of who I am and what I have overcome is this and its simple: The other day I was looking at a beautiful strand of pearls my father bought me in China. They are the most precious piece of jewelry I own. The are gorgeous, and they were given to be by MY FATHER, a man I admire so much. And they have so much meaning to me. When I look at my life, I see a strand of pearls. So many beautiful things in my life, career, family, friends , triumphs...HOWEVER one must think how is a pearl made? "Pearls are formed inside the shell of certain mollusks: as a defense mechanism to a potentially threatening irritant such as a parasite inside its shell, the mollusk creates a pearl to seal off the irritation." When I think about life and problems, trials and tribulations I think of them as the irritants that enter into our lives...and from those irritants come pearls. From something bad comes something so beautiful and precious. And that is how I view anything bad in my life that no matter how irritating, bad or tumultuous it may have been, it was the stepping stone to something greater, beautiful and part of Gods Plan for my life.

The reason I have shared so much of me is that if one person who has ever felt or been where I have been and realized that God has been there and has had his hand outstretched just waiting for you to say , "OK Lord, I can't do this on my own, and I need you" Then it was worth it.

God has shown me time and time again, that no matter how many times I fall, and choose perhaps the wrong choice, its just another opportunity to make another pearl. The fact that we have a God that loves us so much that he not only FORGIVES and FORGETS, but also blesses and allows us to move forward EXACTLY where he intended us to be in the first place. Granted my string of pearls is getting rather long:)

So every morning when I dress for work, and I put on my pearls, I just think about the blessings I have in my life. And thank God for allowing me to make pearls out of problems!