HSBC Coffeebreak

Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
Job 2:10

I believe that of all the Devil’s tools for making God’s people lose sight of His power and love is discouragement. The book of Job teaches us that the gift of encouragement is the strength gift, the love gift. Job’s friends meant well, but they missed what Job needed most - encouragement to believe in God’s love.

I was married straight out of high school to a wonderful, loving young man who was my hero, a football star and decorated war hero. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t recognized then, nor was the term clinical depression. I was so busy with my three small children I couldn’t see what was happening to the man I loved, nor he me.

Although both of us were Christians from our teens, raised in the Church, as young married adults we seldom attended church. Too busy doing our own thing! The drift apart was slow and we were drowning chasing the wrong dream. Life was hard. My husband was gone most of the time attending college and working two jobs after graduation; I was lonely, frazzled, tired, scared and wondering how to be a wife and mother of three alone. How we needed words of encouragement!

As our children grew, our problems became giants. Three babies in three years suddenly became three teens. The only advice we heard were statements like those Job’s friends gave him. We were both so discouraged! Our families tended to side with whatever their child said was wrong. We got confused about just who God really is.

After the divorce, I vowed I would never give advice like that. Guess what? Unless God changes us, we are what we learn. Until recently the words Job spoke in Job 2:10 never occurred to me as words of encouragement. But they were, for shouldn’t we accept the bad and the good in others? We needed to hear words of encouragement, not words filled with fear and judgment.

There is a vast difference between putting your nose in other people’s business and putting your heart in other people’s problems. Let’s be a Barnabas to our married children and friends and help them to tell each other what each needs to hear: “You’re wonderful, I’m glad I chose you as my life’s mate and I know God is in control even though things are difficult right now.”

We need to accept others as they are; however, we also need to work on changing our wayward behavior and habits. That’s love! That is Church.

Written by
JoAnn Shelton