Growing Closer to God

Our earthly parents are supposed to prepare us to leave them. Unlike them our earthly Father pushes us so that we can get closer to him. I have made my life as transparent as possible and so you know that I have had my fair share of struggles. I still have trials that I am going through and when I was younger I asked God why and what the heck did I do to deserve such luck. In the past week I have gone on 2 hikes and finished reading 2 books that have really helped me grow spiritually. I need to share this with you so that hopefully I can inspire others to seek the same type of growth.

This blog was definitely inspired by the book I just read. Embrace the Struggle: Living Life on Life's Terms, by Zig Ziglar is a very inspirational book. Not only does he share his own story but he has a few others in there as well. I have said this before but I'll repeat it again. When I was going through my divorce and realizing that being the only parent that was going to look after the kids I felt the weight of the world. We always feel so alone in our darkest hour especially when our relationship with God is not as strong as it should be. The morning of September 11, 2001 I woke up a little later than usual and decided to take my time and watch the news. The events of that day will always be on our minds but those same events made me realize that what I was going through was nothing compared to how thousands of people had just been affected. Life can change in an instant and at that moment I began to pray for thousands of other people that I have never met and my life wasn't all about me.

Struggles in our life we definitely try to avoid but when they do happen we must take the lesson from it and grow spiritually the way God has intended for us. I don't question God anymore cause I know with his guidance he will lead us to where we're supposed to be. As a matter of fact I don't even ask God for patience cause he always seems to bless me with the opportunity to show patience. I guess that's where "be careful what you ask for" comes from. I now thank God for everything he has given me. I praise him for the good and I praise him for the opportunity to learn and overcome struggles. I pray that all of you can also experience the clearing of your vision the way I have. Below is a dedication or poem that I just wrote for my daughter's yearbook as she gets ready to graduate. Be kind cause I'm not a poet and as I started to rhyme I couldn't help but try to be funny. I hope you enjoy.

God's Gift

When I was young I was lost.

My selfish mind was the cause.

I thought of nothing else but to coast through life,

Lots of money, a house, and a lovely wife.

Needless to say I'm quite not there,

money in my wallet is quite rare.

Instead God has blessed me with you,

and soon to follow another two.

You have grown faster than I'd like,

but you'll always be my baby who I taught how to ride a bike.

You were God's gift to me.

You cleared up my vision and now I can see.

Unfortunately you have only seen the struggle,

Having you and your brothers I have learned how to juggle.

It is through the struggles that we grow spiritually,

and you have grown extraordinarily.

The lesson I hope that you have learned from this,

is to keep God close so that your life is bliss.

The struggles that you have endured so far,

are God's gift to you instead of a car.

One day you'll look back and see

that God was really looking over you and me.