When Life is Hard

This has been another hard year... there's no other way to describe it... seems like one challenge after another.  There's been joy in the journey - but the journey's been hard...

The last hard year like this was 2007... A year of ups and downs (maybe that's what makes it hard... the ups AND downs?)

To highlight 2007:

• Two adorable nephews, born 3 months apart
• Dad had a heart attack in May
• ... and a big stroke in July
• Which was followed, a day later, by a fire in the shop building / apartment on the farm.
• The four of us daughters spent the summer rotating trips to Iowa
• A farm auction over Labor Day - the Lord blessed us...
• Moving Dad from the farm to town...
• A marriage wrought apart...
• Changes in plans... dreams...

2011 is shaping up to be that kind of year as well...  but you know what?  God is faithful through it all.  And I don't know about you, but sometimes, these are the year's I grow the most... because I have to cling desperately to the Cross.  The hope I have in an eternal future keeps me taking one step after another... trusting that He is indeed, working all things together for His glory - for His plan... 

And so, this year, filled with the bumpy turbulance of life - it holds promise too...  that's why I press on... fighting the good fight... not considering the trials of this life as anything more than the mist they are...  I hope you know this hope too.