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I spend a lot more time alone in the car than I used to.<\/strong> It’s pretty weird after years and years of kids pouring into and out of our old Chevy van everywhere I went.<\/p>\n So quiet.<\/em><\/p>\n But I’m learning to make new uses of the time.<\/p>\n It’s a great time to pray for all those kids who aren’t in the car with me anymore.<\/p>\n It’s a great time to memorize verses, especially after discovering ScriptureTyper<\/a>, <\/em>thanks to Barb’s recommendation in our New Year’s Day post<\/a>. After I’ve recorded a passage, I can play it over and over and over<\/em>, stamping it onto my brain and into my heart.<\/p>\n And I’m finally learning how to download sermons onto my phone so I can listen to those while I drive!<\/p>\n I took this lesson away from one of the last sermons I listened to:<\/p>\n When we’re going through trials — little ones and giant-sized ones — we need to stay focused on who sent<\/em> the trials, not on who or what brought<\/em> the trials<\/strong>. God is the One who sends <\/em>the trials. Nothing gets past Him. If we’re going through a trial, it’s because God <\/em>sent it. It’s for our good. It’s for His glory.<\/p>\n When the UPS man leaves a package on the doorstep, and we open it to find a lovely gift from a faraway friend, does our thanks go to the delivery<\/em> man or to the one who lovingly sent <\/em>the gift? The delivery man is simply the means <\/em>our friend employed to get the gift to us.\u00a0The trying people and circumstances that come into our lives are the means God<\/em> employs to send us the bittersweet gift of trials — trials that will hurt, but trials that will help us grow and cling to Him.<\/p>\n He may send the trial via your husband’s boss who lays him off of work.<\/p>\n He may deliver trials through:<\/p>\n a cranky child,<\/p>\n a season of illness,<\/p>\n a broken-down car,<\/p>\n a leaky roof,<\/p>\n a gossiping “friend”,<\/p>\n a frustrating day of homeschooling,<\/p>\n a rebellious teenager,<\/p>\n an indifferent husband.<\/p>\n God is incredibly creative as He molds and shapes us into His Son’s image. These people, these circumstances are simply the delivery service <\/em>God employs for sending us trials, for testing our hearts and strengthening our trust in Him.<\/p>\n We need to keep our eyes on Him. <\/em>If we can just remember that God loves <\/em>us, that He is in the business of changing <\/em>us, that He can see the whole <\/em>picture while we can’t,\u00a0and that He is right there at our side<\/em>,\u00a0it just might make it easier to keep our eyes on Him <\/em>while we respond to the trials — and the trial deliverers<\/em> — that He sends.<\/p>\n “… So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”<\/em> (Joseph to his brothers, Genesis 45:8)<\/p>\n