Touching lives..

I was handed a paper the other day that was a school assignment done by one of our Grace Academy Rhetoric students.

The assignment was to write a one page narrative recording your own experience of salvation or detailing a time when you saw God's hand at work in your life.  This blew me away. 

There used to be a girl on this earth named Amanda.  She was a beautiful, spunky girl who loved to have fun.  When everyone found out she had a cancerous brain tumor, it came as a shock.  I didn't even know how to react to the the little girl I had played barbies with and played the Wii with could have such a serious illness.  I couldn't, at that time, even imagine what her family could potentially go through and has now gone through.

However, even after the family found out Amanda's situation, their family stayed strong in the Lord.  They made themselves a wonderful example of what it means to suffer in Christ.  They kept their faith and trusted God through all her ups and downs.  Amanda's mother even wrote a blog to help people keep up with how Amanda was doing and she put a scripture relating to each blog. These things demonstrated to me how rock solid their family's faith was.  Even now, although Amanda is gone, this family's faith is still rock solid.

You might ask how this applies to me.  Well, from watching this family suffer and wondering how it is even possible for this to happen, I have learned many things.  I have seen and learned that when life is tough is the most important time to keep your faith strong.  The reason for this is that God is the only one who can get you through a hard  time.  I also learned what an impact one person's life can have on many others. Amanda was a leader whether she knew it or not.  How Amanda lived her life was an example to many, including me.  I needed to know that what you do and how you live can have an impact on others, even when it may not seem like it.
 
God worked in my life through Amanda's life.  She taught me many lessons that I needed to learn.  One of which being that you can be a leader, even in small ways, to others, without even knowing it.  God knew exactly what I needed to learn from Amanda's life and I really see His hand in this.  It may seem like a very small thing, but it made a big difference in how I can try to live my life.


Humbled.  Encouraged.  Blessed. 

Romans 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.