Today the journey takes me, along with Kathy, into some troubled territory.  A married couple we know is having some severe issues.  We have been asked by them to meet and counsel.  This happens in just a couple hours.  As I have been praying this morning for them and having my devotional time and reading, I have noted the Holy Spirit’s focus.  Doing something like this, meeting with someone, isn’t new to me or to Kathy and me.  However, there has always been an element of trying to find self-worth in how well it would go.  The Holy Spirit this morning has shown me that He wants to be the only one leading this meeting today and His outcome to be the only outcome.  I want that to and I feel as though this is my first attempt at meeting with someone fully awake and committed only to the Holy Spirit’s leadership.  Please join our meeting in prayer for The Holy Spirit’s will to be done.

It is amazing to me how much “struggle” is connected with my and our spiritual growth.  I have always likened spiritual learning to my educational learning and teaching.  Educational learning was somewhat easy for me so I’ve always wanted spiritual learning to be the same.  However, as I step back and look at these two arenas I now easily see they are far more alike than different.  My spiritual learning has always been clouded with my past and that self-worth piece.  Thus, struggle was always present.  My educational learning has always been used to hide my past.  The struggle there has been connected to the hiding, but it has nonetheless been a tremendous struggle.  Struggle always connects to our emotional side.  When the struggle becomes severe we starting feeling things like we aren’t smart enough or good enough.  God is really wanting me to learn that struggle is a direct connection to learning in any arena and that struggle isn’t always connected to past abuse.  However, if it is connected to a past problem, I need to deal with that rather than hide it.  A light never clicks on with learning something new if there weren’t some type of struggle (darkness) attached to it.  How else would we see light if there weren’t darkness?  I am beginning to see this more clearly now.  I hope my learning will help you with your own if you have had similar struggles.