in the hands of the archer...

"Patience is more than endurance. A saint's life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and he stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says - "I cannot stand anymore." God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God's hands."

~ Oswald Chambers

I found that quote about two summers ago when life was harder than I ever could have imagined it would be. It blessed me so much knowing that I was an arrow in the Lord's hands and the reason I was hurting so much was only because I have an amazing Father who loves me more than I could ever imagine, and He was just making me like Him. Since the worse day ever last week, life has been so much better! SO much better! It's still hard, but I am trying to make the best of life! My life changing decision (more to come on this later) has really changed my life and I have been super scatter brained, but that's okay since it makes life interesting! The biggest thing I'm having a struggle with right now is my health... I have stomach ulcers, and we believe they might be bleeding and they hurt SO bad! I didn't know that a stomach could hurt so bad!

What has been so fascinating to me the past couple of months is to look back and see how absolutely amazing God's plan for my life is! Even through the times that hurt more than I thought I could stand... I grew so much and as I look back, I KNOW that I needed to go through that! One of the things that has blessed me more than anything else is to look for the silver lining to every cloud! Even in having ulcers I managed to find something! You can always find the silver lining... no matter how dark the storm!!