Every God demands sacrifice. What sacrifice does your God require?′ ‘Obedience.

Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.

Be still and know that I am God, said the Spirit within Hadassah. And so she obeyed, waiting upon him while laying her hopes bare.

Our work is to devote our own lives to pleasing God. It’s that simple. We’re to devote our efforts to learning to think as God thinks, to see ourselves and others through his eyes, to walk as he walked. That’s our life’s work.

We’re each single threads woven together in a tapestry God has created. Only he sees the full picture, but not even a sparrow falls without his knowing.

How many others suffered in silence, too ashamed and too afraid to speak about their pain? The world wouldn’t let them grieve for children they had aborted. How could they when the rhetoric said there was no child? How does one grieve what doesn’t exist? No one wanted to admit the truth.

Do my will, beloved. I drew you up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set your feet upon a rock.

And the answers had always come down to trusting God, obeying Him, accepting His will, knowing there was a purpose in what was happening even if they couldn’t see it. But sometimes the pain seemed unbearable.

He was never angry when she made mistakes. He complimented and encouraged her. He shared his own mishaps with a sense of humor that made her less annoyed with her own incompetence. He gave her hope that she could learn, and pride when she did.

But strength alone, though of the Muses born, Is like a fallen angel: trees uptorn, Darkness, and worms, and shrouds, and sepulchers Delight it; for it feeds upon the burrs And thorns of life; forgetting the great end Of poesy, that it should be a friend To soothe the cares, and lift the thoughts of man. KEATS CALIFORNIA, 1850.