Road Work...consider it pure joy

Do you ever get this feeling in life??

When you realize you are going no where fast, that moment of "I'm gunna be here awhile"!! Construction is occurring...things are being torn down, reworked and rebuilt!! Oh how that "road work ahead" screams "PATIENCE IS REQUIRED" to me!!

And since PATIENCE is my middle name and all...I'm thrilled to death *ahem*!!

So, on my run this morning...by the way...were you wondering how my training is going?? Let me side track myself for a moment...its going fine! Some knee issues (my sister will look at, assess and give me a verdict on the severity this weekend) and a few hip pains...but nothing that has side lined me yet!! 1 1/2 weeks ago, I ran 12.7 miles...did great!! I have another long one (like 14 miles, I think) on Halloween weekend!! Short miles til then...all seems to moving along fairly smoothly, but slowly!! Thanks for asking!! :)

OK, now back to the regular scheduled program (which is much more important!!)...as I was saying...wait, what was I saying...oh, ok there it is...on my run this morning, I was having a mental flash of the "caution, road work ahead" sign...as it pertains to my life at the present!

After fussing with that patience thing for a few minutes...I remembered that the Bible says in James 1:2 "consider it pure joy..." (NIV) and then I looked up the King James Version... it says "count it all joy"!

Joy for me is fun times with the kids...when Dakota wants to snuggle (I know this is going to be NOT COOL very soon), when Ramiro sings "I will make you fishers of men, if you follow me" song, when Andre tells me how much he missed me when I was only gone to CVS for 10 minutes, and when Maddie pulls my chin over towards hers in the middle of the night for a kiss!! This is my idea of joy!! But construction...road work...?? Mostly I don't want to be "reworked"...I don't want my road to be torn down. Consider it JOY??

Our pastor had made this comment that I thought was perfect: God is more interested in the building of your faith than He is in being in a hurry to get you from point A to point B. Read it again. Point A. Point B. He's not in a hurry!! Unfortunate...but perfectly true!

These "trials of many kinds"...yes they will serve a purpose...they are part of the road that's under construction.

His plan, not mine. His timing, not mine. His praise, not mine.

Joy...yes, pure joy.

Count it ALL...pure joy!!

I know God is the master of "building roads"...therefore, I will wait patiently and consider it ALL joy!!