I really like the TV show Extreme Makeover Home Edition. (You know the show where they come and tear somebody’s house down and rebuild it bigger and better.) Well, the families that get chosen for the Home Makeover are really excited and happy. They readily give them permission to re-do their house. But once they come and start tearing down the house, you wonder if the families ever start getting worried. I mean, come on! They at least had a house even though maybe it was in bad shape. And a house is better than no house! Even though at first they realized the finished house would be great, when they start bulldozing their house you wonder if they ever start doubting whether this was such a great idea.
It’s the same when God starts working on us. He starts tearing things down, re-doing, rebuilding, and rearranging. And sometimes that gets painful. It gets uncomfortable. But one day, the work He has begun in us will be completed. And the finished us will be so much better than anything we could have ever hoped for or even imagined! Just hang in there and trust God. Because you know what? He’s trustworthy!
...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6
"May God long preserve to you the blessings of peace and innocence! By which phrase, I mean comparative innocence; for in His sight, I am well aware, none are pure. What, to our human perceptions, looks spotless as we fancy angels, is to Him but frailty, needing the blood of His Son to cleanse, and the strength of His Spirit to sustain. Let us each and all cherish humility—I, as you, my young friends; and we may well do it when we look into our own hearts, and see there temptations, inconsistencies, propensities, even we blush to recognize. And it is not youth, nor good looks, nor grace, nor any gentle outside charm which makes either beauty or goodness in God’s eyes. Young ladies, when your mirror or men’s tongues flatter you, remember that, in the sight of her Maker, Mary Anne Ainley—a woman whom neither glass nor lips have ever panegyrized [which means praised]—is fairer and better than either of you. She is indeed,” he added, after a pause—“she is indeed. You young things—wrapt up in your selves and in earthly hopes—scarcely live as Christ lived: perhaps you cannot do it yet, while existence is so sweet and earth so smiling to you; it would be too much to expect: she, with meek heart and due reverence, treads close to her Redeemer’s steps.”
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte chapter 4 Mr. Donne's Exodus
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
~Good Sayings by Albert Einstein
When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
~Franklin D. Roosevelt~Famous Perseverance Sayings
Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.
~William Feather~Great Perseverance Quotes
Don't be discouraged. It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.
~Author Unknown~Famous Perseverance Sayings
Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.
~Newt Gingrich~Great Perseverance Quotes
The time is always right to do what is right.
~Martin Luther King Jr.
Nothing is more harmful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another.
~George Washington
"In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first."
~Harry S. Truman
"First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you."
~Rob Gilbert"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments."
~Jim Rohn
Imagine that you are engaged to be married. You have met and fallen in love with the one who God has planned you for all along. You can hardly wait for the wedding day, but you have one problem. Your groom promised to bring the entire wedding party to your doorstep, but following old Jewish tradition, has refused to tell you the wedding date. It is a secret posessed only by him and his father. Every morning you wake up and question yourself, 'Is this the day of my marriage?' Each day you must prepare as though the wedding were just about to take place.
This may seem like a surreal situation, but it was reality for Jewish women during the time of Christ. After the initial betrothal, about twelve months would pass. Toward the end of the twelve months or soon after, the groom would arrive at the bride's home with the wedding party and the marriage ceremony could begin. The bride was never sure of the exact time that her husband-to-be was coming; she only knew that it was soon.
