I'm sure like me you have sometimes wondered why bad things happen to good people. Someone you know and love gets terminal cancer, has debilitating pain, loses a loved one, the list goes on and on. I can honestly say that nothing major has ever happened to me personally. But sometimes I feel like I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Here I am pursuing a career that I am very excited about, have two healthy sweet boys and have a wonderful husband that works hard to provide for our family. In an instant, one bad car accident, one bad medical test result, it could all be taken away. I have to work really hard to keep those thoughts out of my head.

I was talking with my mother-in-law on the phone the other day. She was feeling pretty blue. If you don't know my once very active, very energetic mother-in-law, has been brought down by her bones. They have failed her. She has had 7 vetebrae fused and two knee replacement as well as Crohn's disease. For the most part you will find her in high spirits. She works very hard in her various therapies and takes very seriously the advice given by her doctors. She wants to get better and she wants to get back into life. But sometimes the pain is just too much and it begins to break her spirit. So we talked on the phone for awhile about it yesterday.

I was telling her about some friends that I know where the husband is facing cancer and they are expecting their first child any day now. But what has amazed me is this couple's amazing faith through their ordeal. I'm sure they have had many moments where they are scared and sad about what they are facing. But they remember that their life is there for God's glory and not their own. WOW.

My life is not here for my purpose, but for God's divine plan. Gayle and I reflected together about lives and that if we no longer look at our lives as ours, but God's alone, that sometimes those tough times might become a little easier. I know for a fact that as I hear the updates of our friend with cancer and hear of their faith, my faith becomes a little stronger.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God - even as I try to please everybody in everyway. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

I don't know if any of this makes sense, but it makes sense in my head. Watching others in their tough times, using their faith to guide them, sends such a message to my heart.