I heard it said that “Bad things happen — how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life.\u201d Amen to that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some days feel like heaven is pouring out blessings. The weather is perfect, the phone rings with good news, and every traffic light seems to turn green just as we arrive. It makes me want to shout: “Dear Lord, please give us more days like this!’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then there are the other days when clouds roll in. Plans fall apart. Storms arrive without an invitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, some days we get both — sunshine AND showers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years ago, country singer Lynn Anderson made the song “Rose Garden” famous with these words: \u201cI beg your pardon — I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there\u2019s got to be a little rain sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And — isn’t that the truth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we read the writings of Paul the Apostle, we discover he understood a few rainstorms himself. Shipwrecks, prison cells, hardships — yet he spoke often about peace. Real peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The kind that doesn\u2019t disappear when the sky grows dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul even said something surprising in Romans 5:3-5:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul wasn\u2019t suggesting we throw a parade when trouble knocks on our door. What he meant was this — the rain in our lives isn\u2019t wasted. God uses it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A little rain strengthens our roots. It deepens our faith. It grows a hope that sunshine alone could never produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And here\u2019s the best part. When the clouds gather, we are never standing in the storm alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God promised He would never leave us or forsake us. His love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, giving us patience, endurance, and a hope that will never disappoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when life feels stormy, remember this — the rain doesn\u2019t last forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon — the clouds part, the sun peeks through, and before long we may find ourselves humming another old song……<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m walking on sunshine\u2026 and don\u2019t it feel good!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I heard it said that “Bad things happen — how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life.\u201d Amen to that! Some days feel like heaven is pouring out blessings. The weather is perfect, the phone rings with good news, and every traffic light seems to turn green just as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1210,1769,1392,40,7514,1237,4888],"class_list":["post-23970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-facebook","tag-inspiration","tag-lynn-anderson","tag-rain","tag-sunshine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23972,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23970\/revisions\/23972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}