I know! Five Minute Friday has rolled around again!! Time is flying.
What is it? A chance to
- Write for 5 minutes on a given topic…no looking back. Just write. I read mine through once to be sure it makes sense, add photos and links and send it on its way!
- THEN, we are supposed to stop off to write an encouraging comment to the person ahead of us in the link line on Gypsy Mama’s blog (Mother of Five Minute Friday).
- Come join us. Write one for yourself if you want. For sure, take a visit to read some of the other posts on this topic.
GO
photo: © Iwona joanna Rajszczak | Dreamstime.com
GRIT: coarse, rough, harsh or unrefined…like sandpaper.
If wood were human and had nerve endings,
it would scream when we rubbed sandpaper on it.
Fortunately, that isn’t the case.
Wood doesn’t feel anything when we rub and rub to make it smooth and…
If it is good quality wood,
Beauty comes from the abrasive treatment.
When I think about the grit of life.
I think about the sandpaper days…weeks…and sometimes months.
All too often, I complain and grouse in the middle of the sandpaper process.
But GOD uses the grit of those circumstances that don’t feel pleasant,
To refine my spirit.
It is wild and wooly.
It wants to go its own way.
He has a far better way for me to go.
I don’t learn that until I live through gritty times.
STOP
But there is something else that is gritty.
It is GOD’s grace.
It is GOD Himself!
Another definition of gritty.
Facing life with courage, resolve, fortitude; plucky.
As I come through these gritty times with life’s sandpaper;
Through circumstances that only GOD can design;
He makes me into His gritty person.
The gritty grace He provides gives me courage and fortitude.
I become plucky in the process.
I love that!
I don’t want to be a robot or passively float along with life’s circumstances!
By the grace of GOD, I want to be that kind of gritty.
A woman who can face old age and the certainty of death someday with
Courage and pluck! Knowing that my forever will be with Him!
Thank you GOD for the gritty sandpaper you administer with grace.
You know the person you are trying to develop in me.
Give me grace to be the woman you are making of me!
______
**btw, the photo is one of multiple pieces of sandpaper.
You know what this post reminded me of? I just finished reading Hinds’ Feet on High Places and she too had to be refined – in her case able to leap and bound on new hinds’ feet rather than be crippled by fear. Don’t we all want to go our own way, on our own terms? So difficult yet so freeing when we decide to hand the sandpaper over to HIM! Loved your writing 🙂
thanks for dropping by carrie:) yes, we do want our way on our terms. that’s “all” we want. not much is it?
for some of us, learning to trust GOD with control is more difficult than others. that is one reason I decided to work on the study I’m doing on Mondays.
I don’t know if it is helping anyone else, but it has been helping me to remember that GOD is so much bigger than any issue that comes along…way bigger than i tend to give Him credit for. it would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.
so true leslie:) courage is often needed in many small times that don’t seem like courage at the time. that’s how it is built up too.
Facing life with courage, resolve, fortitude; plucky. Most of the time, Courage isn’t facing a life or death situation. It is showing up every day, a willing vessel. good thoughts.