Every day we fight. We strive to have a better life, to build a better career path, to gain more experience at work so we can be promoted, to maintain a great home, to build a more effective relationship with our friends, spouse/fiancée, family, colleagues and with God. None of these obviously comes easy.
There were those days when we in a very tough financial situation that we could not afford a standard meal for the day, but you still went on with your daily activity because you believed that condition won’t stay for long.
The time a loved one was in a critical health situation but you courageously prayed and believed that they’ll be fine and it happened.
I’m sure you’ve been told no or never regarding something you desired, but you kept a little light of hope that changed it to a yes.
Courage in the face of pain and adversity comes with faith (for a change in the current state), hope (for a better state in the future), patience (to see what you hope for), and prayer (that breaks the unseen bridges of impossibilities).
My mother always told me that God has a plan for me, she doesn’t know what it is, but she knows it will happen so she’ll keep praying.
I will always be a stubborn person, never take action to apply her counsels, sometimes I take her money without her notice, sometimes we quarrel and argue over things because she won’t let me do it my own way. She would spend her fortune to make sure I go to a very good school like others, but I would always bring bad terrible results at the end of the academic year.
She still believed that I would change, but the faith wasn’t enough.
She would always tell me about the wishes of my father for me, and how she has been holding up her own end of the bargain since he passed away when I was 4. She believed this was somehow going to create a quest in me to want to have a better life and therefore make the change she was expecting to see in me. And it started materializing with time even without her notice.
She was still confused about what was going on in my life when she started seeing some changes, but she kept hoping, and then she had to be patient with the process.
The time of patience is not the time of just watching and waiting as many of us do. This is the time of planting and watering. For over 15 years of my life, I was never close to my mother the way I was in the times of my progressive transformation. This was the period I started finding out a purpose. I was trying to figure it out and she knew, so she would always call me to guide me. She wanted to be there every part of the journey.
She was a widow for a decade but striving to raise her children in a godly and purposeful way.
Sometimes, she would punish me when it goes extreme with me, and then she would serve a nice meal that day and tell me why she had to punish me that day for that bad I did. I saw the love instead of hatred in the correction. I’ll still go back to do that again, but she will keep bearing with me.
I would always hear my mom pray for me while raising prayer requests in the devotion, and I really feel she loves me, but I would not still change. But she believes her patience and prayers would yield results and they graciously did.
Being courageous is not just about how made up your mind is to face the situation, but how much you understand the situation and approach it accordingly, as a human being and as a godly woman. These four cycles works effectively and with divine guidance from the Holy Spirit, you could see situations turn around in your home, whether now (faith) or in the near future (hope).
