PURE GOLD

So, I'm painting my nails for the first time since high school. I grab a book to use as my table. I figure as I let them dry, I could maybe open it up.

Mr. Tiegreen in his The One Year Wonder of the Cross Devotional explains using James 1:2-8 that "perseverence brings us into maturity and causes us to lack nothing (v.4). We don't just endure the trials of faith for the sake of enduring; we keep going because we are in a process of refinement. The trials we face are producing IN us a precious quality."

We and our children were born as raw pieces of gold. One way He refines us is by using people and events experienced with them, a parent or stranger alike.

We, at any age, are tumbled, ruffled, knocked down; we are given difficult choices to make and forced to face things we'd rather not. Gold, to be taken from a raw state to one of refined beauty, must be burned with fire.


Tiegreen, although speaking of our faith in particular, and I of our characters, offers this thought: "Once circumstances, trials, the enemy's lies, and our own doubts are through assaulting it, whatever remains is precious and pure."

We and our kids are raw gold, the trials our hot plate, and our perseverence the priceless commodity of a new, more mature and treasured person. 



I took this photo while walking
through the gold souk in Dubai, UAE.

Today's prayer: "Lord, I ask we remain malleable and warm, so when it is time for each's molding to continue, we are ready. To grow in character is often through harsh treatment. We feel sore. Hold us in Your hands. We desire to be steadfast in knowing that after we have been stripped of impurities, we will be cooled and redeveloped into a lovely new being...the one You uniquely intend us to be."