Sponsor Love {Guest Post | Everything Espey}

Please give my sweet friend Meredith a big warm BtS welcome. You're about to fall in love with her for opening her heart with you.

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Hey y'all, I'm Meredith, and I'm so excited to be over here today! A big thank you to Liz for having me! You'll usually find me over at my home-blog, Everything Espey. It's all about my life as a saved by grace, bargain hunting, Tex-Mex and fro-yo obsessed, newly married Texan transplanted to Utah.  My husband Charlie and I are figuring this life out (with God's help) as we go, and we'd love for y'all to join us.  

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"Lord, please give me self-control, peace, and understanding."

 My prayers used to sound like this a lot. Lord, help me to trust you. Please help me to be more patient. 

God doesn't often just dish out the character quality "self-control", right?  I don't wake up one day with the thought, man I'm feeling super self controlled today! He gives opportunities to be self-controlled. This can be frustrating.  Recently, my prayers have been for full trust in God's plan. And how that plays out is that he's giving me situations that call for active trust his plan. Trusting God's timing and his way. 

  Even so, I often expect God to act on my time table and in the way I think he should.  Then when he chooses differently, it feels like a curve ball. Wham, I'm plunked in the middle of what then feels like a tough spot - one that calls for a little perseverance. 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

 The goal of these tests is to allow for the experience of perseverance, which will (hopefully) turn into maturity. So the choice to respond well to those unexpected trials are sanctifying my heart . Making me more like Jesus.  My reaction shouldn't be one of frustration, where I whine, and quit, rather be humble enough to recognize his handiwork.  He hears, and he answers, whether I see it or not.

 Perseverance means more than endurance— more than simply holding on until the end. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, but our Lord continues to stretch and strain, and every once in a while the saint says, "I can’t take any more." Yet God pays no attention; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, and then He lets the arrow fly. Entrust yourself to God’s hands." Oswald Chambers  

The tests are sometimes big, sometimes small.  How am I going to respond to unjust accusations? What will my reaction be when my husband leaves the toilet seat up (again)? How will I handle the long, slow line at the grocery store?

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

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The purpose of my life is to glorify Jesus and make him known. Keeping my heart centered on that goal allows me to be receptive to the trials which are making me more like him.  Sometimes those choices to act rightly go unnoticed in this world. Godliness is often not rewarded. But God always notices. And that's an encouragement to me to never ever quit persevering.

"Do it when it comes naturally and when it's hard to come by. Do it when you're up, do it when you're down. Do it when you feel like it, do it when you don't feel like it do it when it's hot, do it when it's cold. Don't give up." Chuck Swindoll