Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will work and not be faint.
- Isaiah 40:31
I have been meditating on strength and weakness for the last week (maybe more). I recently spoke with a man who lost his wife and he said he tried to “be strong” for his kids. Other people told me to do the same things with my kids. But I find myself wondering exactly what does that mean?
It seems like every time I turn around, I run into bible verses about strength or weakness. The one from Isaiah was one of the first. It can be very inspiring, thinking that God will grant you strength so walk and run and soar.
Anita actually put a tab on the page for 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 labeled “weakness”.
But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
So Paul (author of Corinthians) says that we need to be weak to be strong, that he “delights” in his weakness, in difficulties. I understand that he is probably saying he likes difficult times because then he can lean heavily on God. But “delights”? Can we really take joy from difficulties and hardships? What about grief? Does that fall into an different category?
I have this book about grief I am working through and here are two quotes from that book.
“When you are grieving, that’s not the time to be brave or strong. You need to let it show.”
“We’ve got to be willing to be weak.”
Seems like this is kind of a puzzle (or maybe I’m just slow). I think I’ve got: don’t try to “be strong”, but show your weakness, and draw strength from God.
I wrote his last week in my notes: I am not strong enough to resist grief. But with God’s help, I am strong enough to walk though it.
I’ll puzzle some more.
Hello Greg,
Greg you are being strong for your kids already. You are there for them.You allows them to talk to you and you really pay attention to them.
You are being strong for your children with the help of the Good Lord because you cannot do that alone, you need God to help you to stand.You are doing that also. I do not want you to question whether or not you are being strong for your children because you are. Believe that and keep doing the things that you are doing.
Showing your weakness mean to cry if you feel like crying or just admitting to God that something is really hard and you just need a little more courage. Please know that you can trust trust God to get you through the this difficult time in your life.
Your joy at this time will be very small glimpses of God sightings. God sightings are when things happens that you know comes directly from God. When those rare sightings happens write them down so you can be reminded of God’s goodness even in a time like this.
Those God sightings might be a glimpse of a beautiful bird that made your heart glad for a minute or the joyful laughter of one or more of your children that makes your heart sing. God does send reminders to us to let us know that he is still walking with us.
I hope that those God sightings becomes more frequent and for longer periods of time for you but maybe not yet.
Your Other Mom