My little girl Hope got a “code yellow” yesterday at school.  When I asked her why she got it, she said she was not doing anything wrong.  I asked her why the teacher gave it to her and she said the teacher said that she was running in the classroom.  Hope said that she was not running, but skipping.  I can see it!  I asked her id she told the teaching she was not running, but skipping and she said no.  When I asked her why, she said:  “I didn’t want to back talk!”  She’s figuring it out…

That’s exactly how life sometimes sneaks up on ya and kicks in the seat of your pants. One day you are just skipping along and by the afternoon, you are walking home with a “code yellow”.  None of us like problems, but they are a reality of life.  Sometimes they are of our own creating and other times they just seem to appear.

I want a problem-free life.  You know the kind of life where you don’t have any problems. But I already have a problem that I can’t seem to get rid of, and that is the fact that I don’t deserve a problem-free life.  I don’t like difficulties.  Difficulties and challenges are not fair.  I work hard to resolve my difficulties, but there always seems to be another difficulty waiting in the wings to take me on.

The truth is this:  As long as we live in this world, we are going to have problems.  That’s why our focus should never be this world, but the next.  The promise of God is not the absence of problems in this life.  The promise of God is not to leave us alone in the facing of and dealing with these problems.

Our hope is in the promise of an eternity of problem-free living in a wonderful and beautiful place called Heaven.  A place that has been especially prepared for you and me to live in the presence of our Creator forever and always.

We are not perfect and we will not be perfect in this world.  This does not mean that we should not work toward perfection, but it does mean that we should not become distracted by it.  The most important thing we can do with this life, is seek Him and His will with all we’ve got.

In the very midst of problems, we can find joy, if we know where to look.  If we will take time to enjoy our Creator and living in His presence, then our circumstances will not control us, we will control them.

This dark world allows our living for Him to shine even brighter for His glory.  As I learn to trust in Him with a real and supernatural trust, then I make the choice to trust Him regardless of the problems that life brings my way.

When everything around me is wrong, I will trust Him.  I am learning that it is not the right circumstances, but right responses that really matter in this life.  I cannot always control my circumstances, but I can control my responses!  Maybe when I get this, then I’ll feel like “skipping” through this life.  Help me Lord!  Please!