Passing on Wisdom

I have many dear friends and family members. Lately, they have really come up with some good stuff! I wanted to share a few quotes. The passages are not complete, I have edited out personal information, to protect their privacy, and mine:

"Dear Beth,
I keep reading in the Word that problems come to test us, try us, refine us, prove us, to see what is in us, whether we will follow after God. They are not easy. They are not painfree. I am for sure not where I thought I would be. I have been through a lot of fire and trouble, but have also found God able and present through it all, and He has carried me many times. He has sent people to walk along side me (not always the one I wanted). Have you ever read Hind's Feet in High Places? I read it years ago, but then I read it again... as I look back, with much work and effort, much has been accomplished and gained, and I am grateful and thankful. I have not always been teachable. Discipline, correction and reproof is uncomfortable, but over time produces good fruit. I hope that things are going well with you. That you are finding the help you need to get better, become stronger and continue growing in your faith. I read a lot - bibliotherapy. "

"Hi there, Beth,
Progress and improvement, as you are finding out, seldom follow a straight upward line. The Lord enables us to gain but knows that those gains must be tested and consolidated prior to further progress. I encourage you to use this difficult times to look in both directions. Consider how far you have already come, the many ways the Lord has brought you through the deep waters of the past. As you compare today with yesterday you will surely have cause to see how much that "Hitherto the Lord has helped you." Look also to the future for which God has promised that he will cause all things to work for your good. While none of knows the specific details of the future in our personal lives, we have God's word for the nature of that future and it will be good.
I have recently begun to see what is for me a new feature of faith. We can only know that we have faith by expressing that faith in doing something beyond what I feel able to and that requires God's help. Encountering someone I do not want to meet. Saying something I am afraid to say. Going on when I don't see its value. Faith is believing God's promise and obeying God's command. In looking back you will see God's faithfulness and in looking forward you will rely on him to continue his faithfulness."

So I will let this post belong to these most special people!